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Monday, April 14, 2008

the flock thickens


The chicks are getting big. They are in the awkward tween stage right now. The turkens are more ugly than awkward, but the bantams continue to be perfectly beautiful. Thankfully they are outside enjoying sunshine and bugs. The funny thing about being in the city limits and on a very busy corner is the comments we get about our funny looking chicken coop and the legality of owning chickens in the city. Where we live we can have 20 birds! For the most part the chicks are doing well, however the weak link has been discovered. When I was out yesterday feeding I noticed one getting a lot of agressive 'attention' from the others. When he turned around I saw that his tail was covered in blood- and missing. We quickly separated him from the flock and set up a little chicken efficiency for him on the porch. It was so sad to me to see the brutality of these tiny creatures. They were relentless. What has been most interesting though is that he wants back in the coop with the other feather eating felons! The hard lesson for me is not viewing these creatures as pets. They are for food. Being a city-raised girl, I have never owned an animal for the sole purpose of it providing food. These lessons are going to be harder to learn than I originally thought.
sidenote: check out john's blog (link down below) to see the incredible tree house he built the kids.

3 comments:

Mandy said...

I think I want chickens just so I can get one of those cool red chicken houses. I'm with you though - I would have a hard time eating them. Please say you haven't named them???

Unknown said...

Mandi,

You're always an inspiration! I need to send you photos of the new and improved Nance family garden. My father and I built a new fence this year and expanded a little. I'm so jealous you have chickens! A friend of mine in the Heights has an Omlet like yours in her back yard and two beautiful chickens (one named Mother Clucker...haha). She is a chicken wizard and can talk for hours about all she's learned from raising these birds. It's fascinating. She only keeps two and definitely treats them more like pets, only eating their eggs. I haven't convinced the parents that eggs every morning would be worth it, but am still working on them. Keep posting...I can't wait to see more. Time-lapse garden pictures from me soon!

Dennis

Coby said...

get it, "the 'flock' thickens..."
ha ha