New Baby Chicks

One of the first things we did when we bought this house nearly 5 years ago was to rip out a huge chicken coop in the back yard. I must have been overwhelmed with so many things outside of my comfort zone (like, say, a crapshack that needed to be gutted, a new neighborhood, a new way of life). I never in a million years thought I’d ever find myself a chicken raiser.

Yet, last spring, we started our life with chickens at the pleading of my little girl and it’s been really fun. The pictures in that post are still some of my favorite pictures ever. Who’d have thought chickens would be in my life? This past fall, we started getting eggs everyday and I was officially convinced it had been a good, fun idea to be raising chickens.

This journey hasn’t been without it’s bumps in the road. One of our supposed hens started crowing a few months ago. We quickly changed her name to Bo Diggity. He drove us crazy, our neighbors crazy, and he was mean – really mean. We never wanted a rooster and our comfort level with him waned daily. Soon, we found him a new home on a nice big farm near where my hubby works. He still sees him almost everyday, where it has been reported he is truly king of the hill.

A couple weeks ago, my daughter looked at me with those big blue eyes of hers and asked if we could get a couple more baby chicks. I rolled my eyes, feigning resistance, then said okay with a sigh.

I now call my daughter “chickie mama” and she does a good job of fulfilling the role. I am pretty sure the chicks don’t know that she really isn’t their mother. They follow her all over the place and love to sit on her lap, snuggling. Our other chicks weren’t like this when we got them. Maybe it’s just like real motherhood. When it’s all so new, everybody is stressed out. This time, we knew what we were doing so everyone has been relaxed and happy about the whole thing.

Their names are Ashley and Lucy. They love each other and they love us.

And surprisingly, I think they’re kind of okay too.