Sunday, October 14, 2012

We have CHICKENS!

I know nothing about chickens. Usually I ask my husband a lot of questions before I write up blog posts. Not today. You'll see it all from the very beginning, folks.

Anyway, chickens. I always thought it would be cool if we had them. All of a sudden, not too long ago, my farmer and his family went and bought some!

They started out as little chicks....then they grew to ugly teenagers. Seriously, have you seen that chicken stage of life? When their feathers start to change? Not so cute anymore.  I even forgot to take a picture.

Now they are full grown, and I guess they have been for a couple of months. The very exciting thing is that they just started laying eggs not too long ago.  Fresh eggs from the backyard? Yes, please!

My farmer brought them home in his hat. I said, "Just a sec!  Let me go get my camera!"  He doesn't listen. He didn't see the fascination I had of fresh eggs being gathered in his John Deere cap. I guess I'm strange. At least I got this picture!


At this point, I still hadn't walked up the hill to see the chickens. The only chickens I have seen recently, are these ones...
Poor chickens. Yes, we took a few of them and had them butchered. There are ten of these ladies in my freezer.

SO...today, we had some pineapple, that we didn't really like, so we decided to take it up to the chickens. The last time we had some old watermelon, my farmer said they loved it.

I took my boys and we headed up to the chicken coop.
Now...here comes the big shocker. THESE are our chickens...


I was expecting white chickens! Like this one...

I am going to embarrass my city girl self and say, I thought roosters were brown, and chickens were white. Yup. That's how much I don't know. You can laugh, it's okay. That's why I'm writing this post! To be laughed at!

SO.... I just googled "Chicken" (fyi, KFC is at the top of the list). I saw that there are many breeds of chickens and they come in some cool colors. Like the black and gray striped one? Now that is pretty cool.

OH wait! It all makes sense! We have brown chickens, and they lay brown eggs.  The white chickens, lay the white eggs you buy at the store!

Haha. Just kidding. Or... wait a minute.... ?

Okay, we'll leave that idea and move on.
So we opened up the door and walked into the pen. I thought "They are chickens. They will be scared of us." We went in and they started circling around my legs. I started to panic cause I could see them eyeing my ankles. It felt like I was being surrounded to get my feet pecked off. "Hurry! Drop the food!" I ordered my 4 yr old. He did, and whew! The chickens went for the pineapple, and forgot my ankles. So it all worked out. I should insert a picture of my safe, unharmed ankles right here, but I won't.

Anyway. Yes, I will continue to move on.  A little while ago, I had to ask my farmer a few questions about the chickens. I asked him if he had to have a rooster so that the chickens would lay eggs. He gave me that certain look and I hurried and backtracked and said, "Oh wait a minute. Chickens will lay unfertilized eggs!"  Yeah, that's right. We'll have eggs no matter what.  Independent female chickens. Good.

BUT....why then...does it look like we have a rooster in the pen? I'm a VERY confused city girl right now. Okay, bear with me, but I thought that chickens clucked and roosters crowed. Or do chickens crow too?  Nah....so do we have a rooster? Oh look! It looks like there are TWO roosters....
Disclaimer:  REMEMBER I AM FROM THE CITY!