So anyone who knows me knows that I am a total animal person I LOVE animals!!! Never met a animal Ididn't think was cute or want to take home with me...except chickens. Out of all the animals in the world I find birds the hardest to love (meaning have a bond with I love all Gods creatures). I did have a bird when I was in like in the fith grade I believe named Cindy and she was great I would let her out at bed time and she would sleep on my pillow but then she died rather quickly of unknown problems. We have had just about every animal that would be on a farm growing up we had a steer, pig, goats, pony, horse, lots of dogs and cats and of course geese, ducks and chickens. I had a rather unfortunate incounter with our gander while water our flowers outside one day which started with a hunk of my thigh being removed and me grabbing the think by the neck and shaking it (don't worry he was fine but he didn't ever do that to me again either). The female geese never bothered me I liked them I also loved the ducks except for the fact that our backyard was like one big minefield and my sister and I had to clean out their little swimming pool twice a day YUCK!!!!! Then we have the chickens...now frankly chickens aren't all that bad but roosters are another story for me. For some reason these creatures know I dislike them and they follow me around! I am serious even when we went to England we stayed at this bed and breakfast that was on a farm and the stinking roosters (and chickens) followed me around from the minute I would open my door in the morning! My mom found it funny and taped it I didn't think it was that funny. Incase you don't know roosters have these claws that they use to attack things. THEY HURT! I am not commonly attacked by them but since was when we had them in our backyard I now kinda fear them so them following me is not my idea of a relaxing time.
Oh and how about the crowing! I mean how annoying is that! I am not a city girl. I love the smell of horses (yes even the less flattering smells they can produce I don't know I am weird I love it), pigs don't really bug me (now Joe won't go anywhere near a pig pen), and cows. I love the sounds they all make they are comforting and just make me smile. Crowing makes my nerves go on end. My mom LOVES the sound of crowing. I think she is a little on the nutty side. Joe thinks he enjoyes this too. My dad is with me and finds it annoying.
Anyway all of this was fine because we don't currently have any chickens OR roosters on our property...that is all about to change though. The order has been placed and we are expecting 25 chickens the week we return from our cruise. Dad and I were out numbered because Joe, mom and the kids all want them. I wanted goats but since we know some one pretty close by that is having thier goats picked off one by one by a panter we decided we didn't want to invite that into our backyard. Joe has spent all day today working on building the coop for them. It is gonna be sweet! He designed it to have brooding boxes and a large door for us to enter the coop from the back also will have a hinged door on both sides where the brooding hens will lay their eggs so we can collect the eggs with out disturbing the chickens too much, of course a little door with ramp for them to get into the coop AND (now this is my favorite part) a large chicken run! Yup that is right we will have free range chickens that are confined! The coop will be on wheels so that we can move it pretty easily every couple of days around our yard. This way they can have plenty of room to do their little chicken thing durning the day and we can make sure the coop doors are closed at night so no fox, bobcat, raccon, or panther can get to them (that was why we don't have chickens anymore because slowly something picked off all of them) and I don't have to worry about being afraid of my backyard : )
I can't wait for the eggs we go through a lot of eggs in our house and I really do love fresh eggs. Caden and Casey are very excited for the babies to get here and I actually am too becasue lets face it they are fuzzy and cute! Maybe I will become a chicken lover now?? We shall see : )
3 comments:
Haley, I’m so jealous! I would love, and we plan to at our next locale, have some chickens of our own. What kind of birds are they? Different verities or all one breed? We just went up to Missouri to a, well I don’t know what to call it. A heritage farm show, maybe? Anyway, they had all of these heirloom verity of chickens, ducks, and turkeys and a whole lot of merchants selling various types of coops. I wanted to get some but I need to be somewhere where the crowing will only bother us, not the neighbors. Not to mention on the way to and from we listened to a book on CD called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle in which a family moves to a farm and raises all of their own food for a year. The little girl started an egg business and the whole thing sounded awesome. Which brings the thought, you should sell your eggs if you have extra, which if you keep all 25 will make a lot of eggs. I bet organic, free-range eggs would sell well there in Naples!
LOL I am thinking that our neighbor will be one of our people to get eggs from us probably free to apologize for the early morning wake up calls...he didn't seem too excited when he saw Joe working on the coop it was one of these "Oh! chickens huh" then he went back to doing his yard work : )
we are getting a varity of breeds that are good egg layers. I told Joe when they start laying he should let all the teachers know at his school because they are all into organic stuff and would probably love to buy some fresh eggs. I am excited about that part just not the rooster part really
Too cool!
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