We are attempting to raise chickens to supply us with our own eggs and fertilizer for the garden. So far, so good. The chickens are about nine weeks old now and growing well. I ordered eighteen of them because I figured we would probably lose a few along the way, but we still have all eighteen.
Rick catches them and they squawk like crazy. As he pets them they settle down and seem pretty content – then when he sets them down they come back and peck his legs for more attention. Goofy birds!
They get very excited about garden thinnings and kitchen scraps. Corn is their favorite, but they also like strawberries and watermelon. They love popcorn!
Digging and rolling in the dirt is something we really didn’t expect, but they enjoy it.
They fly up to their roosts every evening. There is always someone in the crowd who has to be different.
Our friends Joel and Cindy are raising ducks for eggs. I thought our chickens had grown pretty quickly until I saw their ducklings - they are only five weeks old and they are huge. Of course they enjoy the water.
The boys, Rio and Justice, are sneaking up on them by acting like ducks and quacking. It was hilarious to watch.
And it worked too! The ducklings came back and gobbled up the weeds the boys had for them.
The ducklings enjoy the bamboo.
Joel and Cindy had planned to get lots of duck eggs for their family – except most of the ducks turned out to be males. They only got three females out of the dozen ducklings. So now they are trying to decide what to do with the males. Duck a l’ Orange perhaps? It makes me glad we only ordered female chickens. Though what exactly we are going to do with all those eggs if all the hens start laying I am not really sure. I guess we can supply our neighbors with fresh eggs.
Rick, you have been in the woods too long —Petting chickens????