A Check-In with the Chickens

We've had quite a few visitors over the last few months, and the first thing that just about everyone wants to do is meet the chickens. Unfortunately, the chickens vacillate between completely ignoring our guests and climbing all over them like jungle gyms. Samantha has a thing about getting to the highest spot possible, so she's very partial to jumping and clawing her way up to people's shoulders.

Sammy all up in my business.

Whether they play it cool or lightly maul people, everyone seems to love them. Well, except maybe my 7-year old niece who grabbed my hand during a visit and said very seriously, "Every time you walk away, the chickens SURROUND ME." I didn't want to tell her that she'd be eating them long before they'd ever eat her...

Don't worry, we're never going to eat them. But we haven't stopped eating their extended relatives. I think that's probably the #1 question everyone has been asking us since we got them—"Is it weird to eat chicken now?"

It would be weird to eat one of ours. Wait, beyond weird—horrifying and unfathomable. Like eating one of your kids. It is not, however, weird to eat others. Hopefully that doesn't make us bad people...

The girls are 16 months old now and we learned the hard way that their first molt (and maybe the warm temperatures) can send them into egg-laying hiatus. I think Carrie has maybe laid one wimpy egg since June.

On top of sporadic laying, they have been sneaking out of their yard every chance they get, foraging on the dead back lawn until we herd them back to where they're supposed to be. I swear they poop on purpose while we're walking behind them just to try to make us step in it...

In spite of their questionable behavior, we love them madly. Both Mr. W and I get a huge kick out of hanging out in their yard and watching their chicky hijinks. The chicken hop is one of our favorite moves. Here's a little video clip:



Now if only we could figure out how to keep them out of our planter boxes so they stop eating our strawberries...