Making Room for a Few More or When "A Few Chickens" Becomes 32!

If you've been following this blog, or self-indulging rant about my chickens, you know I got the idea to get a "few chickens" from a book about being self-sustaining. Well, a few chickens quickly became 20 chickens when it came time to order my baby chicks. My theory was that if I ordered 20 and "lost a few" (read as accidentally killed them), I should still have about a dozen for this really cool coop I got. Also, when  started comparing breeds, I couldn't pick one, so I narrowed it down to four and ended up going with three when it came time to place my order. You know, better odds that I'd get at least a few of each breed that survived the brooder!



There's my girl! The Buff who always wants the most attention.

As fate would have it, I only lost one. And, no I did not kill it. It barely made it a few hours after we brought it home. Even I couldn't mess it up that quickly. Thankfully though, all of my other ladies have made it thus far. I say thankfully because I have become rather attached. I have my favorites of course, specifically the ones who run toward me and not from me. And, the big Buff who not only comes to me, but likes to be held and petted. She, by far, is my most favorite. I haven't named them yet, but I'm sure they will all have a variety of names. Of course, to Little D, they are all Thomas. I've had lots of other name suggestions from my corny friends: Fried, Baked, BBQ'd, and Extra Crispy, are some of the most frequently mentioned.

 I'm not really worried about getting too attached to my hens because they are layers. Their only purpose on this homestead is to lay eggs and bring me lots of joy aka be my friends! (Some of you know what I'm talking about!) As I mentioned in my last post, I'm now at 17 lovely hens, having adopted two out.

Now comes the tricky part - in more ways than one.  The call came today that we have to pick up our 15 4H chicks in two weeks. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about them. What's so tricky about that? Well, let's do the math first: 17 + 15= 32! Where am I gonna put 32 chickens? The other tricky thing is, the 4H chicks are meat chickens. Yep, these chicks will be fried, baked, bbq'd and although probably not extra crispy, will be in a stew pot.

Little D said to me yesterday while scarfing down chicken nuggets, "You know what's funny mom? Chicken nuggets rhymes with chicken!" Oh if he only knew.