Farm Fresh

This spring, my kids convinced me to get baby chicks. After saying "No" for the last 3 or 4 years, I decided that this would be an OK time (the 'chicken eating dog' died of old age, we had a new barn, and the activities stars aligned so we had extra time on our hands this spring and summer).

Even though I was a 'city kid' from Idaho, every Summer my family had banty chickens, ducks, turkeys, and / or pheasants, quail or chuckars. We never kept the noisy ones and we tried very hard to keep them in our yard. But there were always a couple that would regularly escape, so the neighbors would call and tell us "Your (insert bird name) are up by my house. You better come get them." Nobody ever complained and I honestly think they all got a kick out of it. Every fall, the went to the "farmers" and mysteriously a shipment of 12-20 "cornish game hens" would show up in our freezer. (We never made the connection growing up, because my Dad was an attorney who had arrangements with several farmers. In exchange for legal services they would give payments of various types of produce, a side of beef, a couple pigs or some lambs etc. So we had no reason not to believe that some farmer wasn't dropping off his legal retainer.) I do know that some of the 'special ones' really did end up living on a farm because we would visit periodically.

So this year, I decided my kids could have the experience since we live in a rural area and the neighbors are pretty spread out. (I like to think we have a genteel farm....pygmy goats, cats, dogs and chickens.) They have had a lot of fun with it and have shown a lot or responsibility. They competed in the local fair and each received a champion ribbon - 2 reserves and 1 grand. It was pretty tough and we learned a lot!

Well, once you've ridden a bike you always remember. If you've raised chicks, you remember. I thought we would have a much higher early mortality rate, so I bought about double the number I wanted.... but my expereince kicked in and we did a GREAT job raising the little 3 day old chicks - only 4 have died. So we have 16 chickens. We have "foghorn" leghorns, black and red sexlinks. All three types are good layers. So good in fact, that now we're getting about a dozen a day. (YIKES!! That's a lot of eggs! and egg dishes to eat!!!) It really interesting to see the differences in sizes and colors. The giant ones are pretty impressive!