Return of the Chickens

It seems like it was just a few months ago when we sadly found new homes for our chickens.  That's probably because it was a few months ago.

I don't entirely understand why Ann suddenly decided in the past week that we should start a new flock right now (after deciding to send the previous ones to greener pastures), but it apparently has to do with:

• her recent reading of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (highly recommended),
• dissatisfaction with store-bought eggs after being spoiled with 1,900 fresh ones over the last three years,
  
• concern that we should take advantage of our coop "before it rots,"
• sadness that Maddy still asks about the where-abouts of the chickens, and
  
• speculation that our daughter would really, really appreciate seeing chicks grow up.

So this morning we piled into the car and drove to the Alamo Hay & Grain Company to peruse some ducks, rabbits, and homing pigeons, and to pick out our new chicks.

On my encouragement, we got five this time around (really no more work than four).  We also went with a little more variety, choosing four different breeds:

• Rhode Island Reds: We got two of these solid layers of brown eggs (we had three last time).
• Ameraucana: We again got one of these beautiful hens that lays blue-green eggs, although not as regularly as other varieties.
• Plymouth Barred Rock: We're trying one of these brown egg layers that supposedly continues laying through the winter.
• Golden Sexlink: We don't know much about this variety, but it's the one other they had.  We're not even entirely sure what it will look like when it matures.  However, you may want to refrain from plugging this breed name into a Google image search.

So we now have these two-day-old chicks keeping warm under a heat lamp in our house until they mature a bit and can be moved outside.  Madeleine has been excited to watch, pet, and hold them.  The chicks have already begun their webcam career, so you can see them live right here.

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