Chickens

I have had many flocks of chickens. One of the benefits is, of course, fresh eggs. I have also found that when they can "free range," there are very few flies and mosquitoes in the yard. Sitting in a lawn chair watching the antics of a chicken flock can provide hours of entertainment.

At one time, when I would fill water jugs at the outdoor faucet to water the livestock, a chicken would sit on my head. Coming home one day, my daughter caught sight of this spectacle and posted a picture on line. Though traffic was fairly heavy during my jug filling time, I was under the impression nobody else was taking notice. Recently, however, my daughter informed me her cousin used this phenomenon to check on me after my daughter moved to Nebraska the second time. "Yup!" she would report. "I saw her with that stupid chicken on her head on the way to work this morning!"

Unfortunately my flock of chickens would eventually succumb to predators. I would then be chickenless for a while. During this period, I would find myself not using many eggs. I would buy a dozen at the store and that was fine for a time. Then I would decide to have a fried egg for breakfast. When breaking the "store bought" egg into the pan, the yolk would inevitably break. "Ok, guess I'll have scrambled eggs today," I would think. Luckily, this would happen in the spring. When I went to the farm store for livestock feed, I would be met with the "peep, peep" of the baby chicks. Coupled with the remembered taste of fresh eggs, the chicks became a "must have."

Right now I have a flock of chickens to provide my family and me with plenty of eggs. For the first time, my chickens are now housed in an enclosed pen and locked in a coop at night. This solves the predator problem but I have no idea what the life expectancy of a chicken is.