the chickens

One year I asked Doug to build me a chicken coup for my Christmas present. We researched how much space a healthy chicken needed in a coup and Doug designed a great coup. We have had three groups of chickens live there.

Our first group was Rhode Island Reds. We read that they were good layers. And they were/are. Melody is the sole survivor of the first tenants. Those chickens were very tame because they were raised in the downstairs bathroom before it got remodeled. We often let them out to play. Unfortunately, they sometimes got forgotten when we went on to other activities and the fox had a banquet on those nights.

The second group of chickens were three black ladies. We liked the black ladies because the tractor supply where we purchased them guaranteed that they were girls. It is difficult to have a rooster if you want any peace at all. Contrary to popular belief, they crow all day, not just in the mornings. The black chickens were named for black supermodels, but I was never very good at telling them apart and cannot tell you the name of the survivor from that group. The black chickens were meaner than the reds and I doubt we will buy more black ones, although they laid well for us, even producing through the winter when we had less hours of sunlight (that normally signals a chicen to stop laying.)

The third group of chickens were purchased this spring. Courtney, Carter and Jonah went to pick them out with me. Did I mention that the black chickens were mean? We have one survivor from that group. I had more or less given up hope that she was ever going to lay. She had quite a bit of trauma in her youth and we thought that might have affected her ability to produce. And then,

Ho and BelowDo you see that white egg at the back there? Did I mentioned that the black chicken is mean. She won't let her lay her eggs in the box that is purpose built for nesting. The rude! There are three boxes and Melody and the black chicken always have to lay in the same box. Sometimes they switch which box, but I normally find both eggs in the same box. The one to the far left seems to be the favorite, so I am wondering why they can't give their coupmate the one to the far right and make life a whole lot easier for the egg collector?






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