Chicken Spaghetti

Poultry Saturday: Photos

Today's featured chickens are Petunia, on the left, and Loretta, on the right. Petunia, 6 weeks old, is a Barred Rock, while Loretta, 4 weeks, is a Black Orpington. Both of these pullets (hens under a year old) will grow into large birds. They are too young to free-range at this point, as our neighborhood does have a hawk, not to mention raccoons, stray cats, skunks, and, sometimes, foxes. We also have some very comical turkeys who stroll through the yard on occasion, though they are not predators.

If you are interested in chickens, take a look at the extensive web site of the Murray McMurray Hatchery. Another good commercial site is My Pet Chicken. So far, my favorite book on the subject is Barbara Kilarski's  Keep Chickens!: Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs, and Other Small Places, which combines useful advice and stories of the author's own pets.

Let There Be Chickens

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle pushed me over the edge. For years I had thought of getting chickens, but after reading Barbara Kingsolver's inspiring book on her family's year of sustainable living, I knew it was chickens or bust. So, as of today, we have some chickens. Plus we have a visiting dog, so we're practically farming here in suburbia.

So far, so good with the chickens, who have been here for all of an afternoon and part of an evening. They are little. Two are three weeks old, the other two five weeks. The older chickens are assertive, leading Junior to name one Bossy. (The others are Petunia, Loretta, and Fuzzy.)

They have a compact coop and run, which I bought online and on which I didn't expend too many cuss words putting together. Called an Eglu, this kind of coop was first sold in England in urban areas for folks who only want a few chickens. The chickens themselves came from a rural town not too far from here. They were very quiet during the ride home. I didn't hear a peep.

I got the chicks for the egg supply, but it will be awhile before they are up to that sort of endeavor. Meanwhile, we are very amused just looking at them. Today they all took a dust bath, and Junior and I laughed and laughed. (I'm glad I'd done a little reading, and thus knew that they were not desperately ill.) Then Junior got into the run with them and spent the majority of the afternoon squished up in there. While I cannot say that the chickens are in love with Junior, they put up with this better than I'd imagined. Bossy even tried to eat one of his freckles.

I'll take pictures soon, and promise to return to book talk tomorrow.