Earlier this year, we wrote about the Bean family’s first
attempt at raising backyard chickens. We
are happy to say that all 13 chickens that we brought home are alive and
well. We are not happy to say that we
are still eggless at this point.
Our plan to have pets who lay eggs has fizzled into a plan
where we keep 13 freeloaders who eat (a lot!) and require their area to be
cleaned frequently. Please don’t get us
wrong… we enjoy the chickens. They can be comical and sweet. Brownie, the
smallest hen, sits on our shoulders and peeps at us. If offered the chance, she will fly up and
rest on an extended arm like a falcon. Rhody,
the rooster, fusses for a good 5 minutes when we put him up for the night. He seems to think he is an outdoorsman and
wants to sleep under the stars (bet that will change with the weather!). Hershey, our barred bird, seems to be at the
top of the pecking order even though the white hens are a good pound
heavier. (We are afraid that Hershey may
be a rooster… it’s a little early to tell). The white hens who make up the rest of the flock all look the same. Since we can't tell them apart, we have named them all Sheila. While they seem nice enough, the only real personality trait that they display is hunger.
Anyhow, the chickens are alive and well… just highly
unproductive…
