Chicken Antics

Oh Blanche, Blanche, Blanche. That little lady has escaped twice already. The first time we chased her around our next door neighbors Aaron and Lara's yard. We knew they wouldn't mind - Blanche had made a run for it while we were trying to get her in the coop on the first night. But tonight? Well, tonight the whole trio saw an opportunity and decided they would make a run for it.

On Saturday we let them out to roam in our little side yard all afternoon while Justin worked on their coop. Today just the same (it's turning out quite nicely, I might add). I don't know what we were thinking but Justin and Steele came in for dinner and when we went to check on them afterward they weren't there. Fortunately they hadn't gone far. Ercy is still by far my favorite and she let me catch her quite easily. No nombre proved to be a bit harder. And Blanche... well, as we were chasing her she escaped under our front fence and across the street. I've been trying to keep the whole chicken thing on a bit of the down-low in the neighborhood. One comical book I read said that any neighbors who might at first be bothered, won't be once they start getting some fresh eggs here and there. That was my plan, at least. But tonight that all went out the window (or under the proverbial fence). We chased Blanche across the street and behind the neighbors' house where she found cover in a raspberry patch. Great. Once we got her shooed out of there she ran to another neighbor's yard (we know them a bit better) and was threatening to cross another side street. I was still in pajamas from the morning as I spent all day doing laundry and cooking - I had a snow shovel in one hand and chicken feed in the other. Justin had a broom. Those chickens are fast! Next thing I know, our across-the-street neighbor Adam was out the door and helping us corral Blanch into a corner. We finally caught her.


I wish I could say that I'm good help in the chicken catching department - but I'm just not. You see, once the chickens start running and I see my husband or my neighbor sprinting to try and cut them off I almost pee my pants laughing so hard. I'm sure my laughter could be heard clear across the neighborhood tonight. And once they start calling, "Come here, Blanche. Come here. No Blanche! No!" I really lose it. It's hilarious. I was laughing especially hard tonight once Justin had Blanche securely in his hands and Adam said his wife had looked out the window and mentioned that she thought we were chasing chickens. He yelled at her, "Where are my shoes? I'm goin' out there!" He said it's something he never would have imagined he'd be doing - chasing chickens around the neighborhood. I was laughing so hard I could barely breathe.

So far, even though we haven't gotten any eggs yet - I'm so glad we got them. We needed a little change of pace around here. And some laughter. And it's so sweet to hear Adia say, "Hi Chicken!" "Come here Chicken" and my personal favorite "Chicken Poop." She's having a hard time saying her "c"s.

Now to answer a couple questions:

1. Do they stink? The chickens themselves don't stink. Their poop does a little bit. So if you try and keep that to a minimum, you're good to go. The great thing is that our town pretty much continually smells like dairy farm... it masks the chicken poop smell.

2. Are they going to make our yard all torn up? We're hoping they do a little bit. It's actually good for aeration and fertilizing. If you leave them in one place all the time eventually that spot will turn to dirt. We plan on moving them around a bit though. The only thing I've read is that if you have special plants you don't want trampled you shouldn't leave them in that part of the yard. Today they burrowed their way down into one of my beds in the dirt to stay cool and clean themselves. And they stayed there all day - it was pretty cute. We also plan on letting them loose in our garden once we're done with it. They'll love it and so will our soil.

3. Are their eggs safe to eat? In my honest opinion, they should be safer to eat than most you'd find in a store. The chickens are going to be able to roam around our yard and eat all sorts of good stuff. We're also feeding them organic feed without soy so we don't have to worry about what sorts of hormones and chemicals end up in the eggs. That's the most exciting part.

I'm also really excited because I read today that chicken manure is great in compost. So we'll start dumping some of the wood shavings into our manure pile to use on our garden next year. Cool, huh?


On a side note, can you see my dahlias blooming behind the fence there? The dahlia lady from down the street (the one who gave me the tubers) rode her bike by today and said mine are looking beautiful. I was so proud. She showed me how to care for them a bit more and said she'd be back in a few weeks to teach me how to keep the tubers over the winter. I really should take some more pictures to show you - I just love them.