A Chicken Story

(Egg Basket)

(Mini Watering Can)

Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past, we had six backyard chickens! We got four of them as pullets (close to laying age) and two as chicks a few months later. We had:

A Black Australorp named Poppy (seed) 

A Black Star named Chili (powder)

A Red Star named Ginger (spice)

A Delaware named Pepper (corn)

A Buff Orpington named Star (anise)

A Blue Plymouth Tint named Truffle (salt)

I guess you could call them our spice girls!

We spent way too much money on them (we ordered the pullets from Heritage Pullets) and for them (a thousand-dollar coop from Urban Northern Coops and organic feed from Scratch and Peck when it got difficult to find organic options at Tractor Supply Co.), but they were totally worth it. The experience of raising them and caring for them was something the whole family will never forget. We treated them like pets and would rush home before sunset to make sure they were closed up safely in their coop every evening. We have nightly visits from a family of racoons where we live, and we always worried about the chickens as night drew near! 

Feeder and Waterer

It was such an exciting day when the first egg showed up in the nesting box! (I almost put egg-citing but decided to spare you all) 

Ginger was by far our best layer, not missing a day for months on end! Isn't she lovely?

We had dark brown eggs, pale brown eggs, speckled eggs, spotted eggs, and when our last hen, Truffle, started laying, we had white eggs as well. They were beautiful and tasted amazing!

We even helped raise a neighbor's pullets for a while, too. We called this one Doublefat. 😄

This is Star.

This is Chili.

Here's Poppy when she was still a pullet.

Pepper.

Truffle.

We loved having backyard chickens, but we eventually had to give them away to a local rancher after my oldest son started to have allergic reactions when he was around them.

We enjoyed the gals (and the eggs!) while we had them, though, and that is the end of our chicken story.

-Val

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