A Chicken Blog

I do miss my chickens, so I couldn't resist sharing this chicken story. My love for chickens has apparently been handed down to my nephew Wyatt. He and his wife Rachel have decided to raise chickens on their acreage in Columbia, Missouri. My sister Jan and her husband David are there this week babysitting their four grandsons, all under eight, while Wyatt and Rachel are on a trip to New Zealand. Jan writes:

The red chickens were about 3 weeks old when we arrived, and Wyatt had mostly finished a chicken house (12 x 12) down a significant hill from the house.

Wyatt left with the chicken house needing more work. David has done a wonderful job of finishing the work, buying and spreading litter and so on. Last night we had a Chicken Release Celebration and moved half of the 23-member flock to the building. They survived the night and the rest get moved today. The chickens had been in a temporary coop in the garage and had certainly outgrown it.

We've bought big waterer, feeder, etc. to finish the project. Now we just want the birds to stay alive until the real parents get home. It seems the neighbor's dogs love the smell of fresh chick!

Next week Rahcel's mother will arrive to take over with the boys. Since she hasn't had experience with chickens, our goal this week is to have Coulton (age eight) know all that's needed to care for them next week when she's here by herself. Yesterday I told him that if a chicken is sick, the easiest thing to tell by is their poop. I pointed out healthy poop and then just about cracked up as he and Aaron (age six) walked around the chicken house investigating each little pile of poop. Aaron kept saying "Yep, this looks fine" as he peered closely at the little piles.