Don't Be Chicken .... To Raise Chickens!
Okay, so all my talk about the joys of moving back to the rural life are going to be put to the test as we take on the new job of raising chickens this spring. Not from scratch (get it?!), but we are ordering in 20 week old Red Sex Link egg layers - 6 to be exact. How did all this happen - well, I am asking myself the same question, but if anyone is to blame it would be me. It started with my husband bringing home organic, free range eggs from a local lady and I thought "How hard could it be to do that? We have over an acre - they can't take up much room and the eggs are soooo good." Then the story of inner city chicken farmers hit the news the very next night where the talked about removing bylaws in some cities to allow chickens to be kept for egg laying purposes. THEN... the National Geographic came to the door with the picture of the inner city chickens again and the whole fresh to table movement and I thought "It's got to be a sign!". So we got in the truck the following Saturday and met with the great guys at Baker's Feed Store to have our lesson on what exactly is involved with raising egg layers. Hmmmmmm......lice, rats, raccoons, weasels, coyotes, pecking due to boredom, noisy,......Okay where do I sign up!! Build a coop, fence it in and Voila! We should be ready to roll by May. The whole reason we are doing this is of course for the eggs and the kids. My youngest son is an unusual animal afficionado and I am hoping htis will curb his appetite for lizards and snakes that he keeps saying he wants to bring into the house. And so at dinner we took to naming our birds, every body gets their own chicken to name. Mark has chosen Foghorn, Dane has Leghorn, I have Chickenhawk, Reid has Eggbert, Veronica has Aye-Aye (she's two!) and Gage has to rethink his name because originally his method of naming was "What do chickens do? WEll, they Scratch...hmmm Scratcher, no - let's see they peck.....hmmmm.......!!!" After much laughter without him understanding why we were laughing we had to tell him that maybe the name Pecker would not sound appropriate! Welcome to life in rural Ontario - I'll keep you posted....!
Posted by Tanya Lemcke
on March 27, 2009