Chickens

Above: Gertie (the black one) and Henryetta (the ugly one)

It's been about a month, but we finally got some chickens. And, now I'm not too sure about our decision. As it turns out, chickens are so dumb they can't even be herded, which means that at some point I may have to actually touch them to get them back into their coup.

I know it sounds silly, but I realized while I was in the shower this morning that the reason that I don't like animals is because I'm afraid of them. I've been having daymares (flashes of dreams while awake that are rather terrifying) of the chickens attacking me. Sometimes I sitting in the backyard watching them cluck around and then they give me the distinct chicken stink eye and there go my eyes, Birds style. And sometimes they attack Rex, which is even worse.

Of course nothing close to this has even come close to happening. Greg is in love with chickens and has, so far, corraled and chased and captured the chickens to get them back in their coup at night and the chickens are afraid of Rex so far. Besides, Rex hasn't shown much interest in them. He did spend a while trying to get into the coup, but failed so satisfied himself with pulling the pine shavings out and throwing them on the grass. Then Greg got his wagon out and he got over the chickens really fast.

But we had a nice day with the chickens. We let them out of the coup when we got home from church and they bobbed around the yard for a while, went back to the coup for a while, and then bobbed around the yard some more. We just sat on a blanket enjoying the finally nice weather. Greg got burnt, and I got some new Utah-style tan lines. Every time the chickens came close enough to threaten my blanket I gave them the stink eye first and they backed off. It worked quite well.

But still no eggs.

Greg and I did install a nicer nest for them today so hopefully by tomorrow we'll have some to share with the neighbors who are bringing us chicken food in exchange for eggs.

Above: Rex helping pick out the chickens.