A Very Nearly Tea

We had read that chickens can be rather noisy, especially when they lay their eggs at four in the morning. We read this and I fretted over where to put the coop so that they wouldn't disturb the neighbors. We read this and my son's eyes lit up. The Egg Song. Now that sounded like a song he could get in to.

Imagine his delight when we noticed Diego go into the nest box. I think you can probably see it here as he sits vigil over his hen, waiting not for the egg but for her song.

And little Diego sat. And turned. Hollowed a little nest for herself and threw grass on her back. Then, as the big moment was almost there, she stood up to let her little brown egg drop.

Without a peep.

Then she returned to her sisters to forage as if nothing had happened. Now Bear is lamenting the silence of his little hen. This is what he was expecting to experience:



He's holding out hope for one of the others. Certainly one of the four will sing?

So I'm out in the backyard, caring for the chickens. A handful of feed, a pint of fresh water. Then I stretch the tarp over their tractor to give them shade throughout the day. I toss it over and there--right there--not two inches where my hand just was is the largest spider I have seen outside of Texas.

She was huge. As big around as the back of my hand. Up her front legs went in a defensive position, and though I was already nowhere near close enough to get bitten by the time I even saw her, I jumped and screamed, just for good measure.

That, of course, brought the children running. Somehow, my son always has a stick, or several, so I commandeered it and poked the spider. Up she went again. I poked her again and she jumped off the tarp and started to scurry. I poked her again and she decided to head the other way at a full run.

I lifted the corner of the tractor and in went the spider. She barely had time to raise up those legs before she was in four pieces and being paraded about by clucking chickens.

Some people say eggs from pastured chickens taste better. They certainly are more appetizing to look at, with their deep yellow yolks. Surely you can tell which is which?


Some say they are even healthier. They are certainly fresher. Seriously, when was the last time you ate an egg that was still warm from laying? The chalazae (that stringy ropey thing that anchors the yolk) are also clearly visible. And, as you can see above, keep the egg white compact in cooking.

The best part, however, is simply that they are a lot more fun.


I have never run to WalMart, just to have a quick peek at the egg aisle, though you'll frequently find me standing over our little chicken tractor just watching the chickens do their thing.

I have never looked in an egg cooler with the same hopeful curiosity with which I peer into our chickens' nest box.

Upon discovering eggs in the egg cooler, I have never felt anything like the thrill I feel at finding a small, brown egg amongst the grasses in the nest box.

And never, have I ever, called my parents to let them know that WalMart had eggs. They did, however, know our hens had begun laying within hours of the event.

And my children? They are ecstatic, running out to check on the nest box every chance they get. My son even staked out the chicken tractor for two hours one day to try to establish which chicken had begun laying. (Three of ours lay brown eggs, one lays white ones). He had no luck, but the discovery of two eggs later in the day confirmed that someone else had begun laying as well!

Oh, and unless you have chickens, too, I bet you've never opened the refrigerator just to peek at your eggs. They are beautiful things. Edible art.

backyard chickens pastured chickens fresh eggs

Or at least before and most-of-the-way-through.

I've been wanting to do something with this garden for some time. It used to be a wildflower garden, but that was back when I couldn't tell the difference between a seedling and a weedling. OK, so not much has changed since then in my gardening abilities. I seeded most of the neighborhood with the collection of weeds that came out of that attempt and all I got out of it was a single purple cone flower that took hold and refused to be bullied by the weeds.

I have loved purple cone flower ever since.


After that, it became my bird feeding station. And it was a lovely spot for it right outside the bedroom window and right outside the sunroom window. We'd watch birds for hours. Unfortunately, that got to be a bit of an expensive hobby and we gave it up. The black oil sunflower, however, did not. Hence the sunflower mess. The pen is for the chickens. I gave them a section to tear up in preparation for my plans.

Here's a better picture of them for those of you who read often enough to remember what they looked like when we brought them home:


Anyway, I've wanted to do something with this garden for a long time. Then I fell in love with the free garden plans at Better Homes & Gardens, and spent a little too much time browsing all the plans.

One hundred dollars and several hours later, I have this:


The trees at the front still have to be moved to their permanent homes so I can plant the ornamental grass, the salvia and whatever that stuff is called I chose because they were out of alyssum. I left a small patch of sunflower, because I really do like the sunflower. Just not quite that many in one place. I think I even found my purple cone flower in the mess. Then the kids placed stones in the bird bath bowl for the butterflies to stand on, and I thought the stand by itself made a pretty addition to the garden.

I can't wait to see what it looks like when it has had a chance to grow in a little.

I doubt it looks much like the picture, but flowers and butterflies are pretty either way.

Our little chicks are growing fast! Here's little Bug with them when we brought them home three weeks ago.

And here she is looking at her yesterday afternoon. (Note Mouse in the background chasing her chicken!)

For anyone interested in chickens, I will note that three week old chicks smell at least six times as bad as one week old chicks. And they kick the pine chips we put in with them EVERYWHERE. I think I even found chicken droppings on the curtain behind their cage. Which is why I was not at all displeased to discover my hallway turned into a construction zone.

Hopefully they will finish up this week and the chickens can move to their outdoor home next week, right on schedule.

I can already see this chicken chasing thing is likely to be a regular activity around here.



Before the great escape, while they were still unsure whether they wanted to run past the crazy looking monster with the camera, I took a little video just because I love the way they move. And their little peeps, which will soon turn into clucks, I believe. And I got an added bonus of just a little bit of my adorable little Bug's adorable little voice.

"Chickens?" My husband asked somewhat incredulously when I mentioned them on our way in to town. "Where on earth would we put them?"

It wasn't an entirely unexpected response, though my our plans for a small backyard flock should not have come as such a surprise. We have, after all, been talking about it all winter.

In the chicken coop you're going to build.

Like seriously. Where else do you keep chickens?

In the coop I'm going to build? I've never built a chicken coop.

It's not as if we didn't look at various designs together. We even decided on a basic chicken tractor model. How we got from deciding on a design for a chicken tractor two months ago to not knowing where my "sudden" interest in chickens came from is beyond me. But I think for at least one of us, there is a distinct difference between planning (daydreaming?) and actually carrying out that plan.

Well, you'll have a month, at least. At first, they'll be inside in the old guinea pig cage.

Inside? We don't have any room for chickens in the house. We don't even have room for us in the house. And who says I'll get a coop built in a month?

A problem, I admit. But one entirely within our control. And there's always the dog kennel which probably would have worked better if I had stuck to my original plan of three. But we are now a family of seven. And who can resist such intense fascination?

If you don't, I'll build it with the kids.

I have since had a way better inspiration for a chicken coop, but I'll share that when we start building it.

What do you want with chickens, anyway?

What kind of question is that? What does any homeschooler want with chickens? So I couldn't help but ask,

Besides eggs?

There is, of course, always the educational aspect.


And the great photo ops (if only I were better with a camera...and/or had a better camera!).


And, yes, I'll admit, I'm hoping these little ladies and our adventures (and misadventures) will provide a little blog fodder.


So, in the end, as you can see, we didn't get any chickens. The feed store my husband checked didn't have any. But that was all the incentive I needed to find a feed store that did have chicks.

Sweet little Bear, prone to hyper-enthusiastic declarations, announced to all and sundry that this was the best day of his whole life when he realized we were not just looking at the little chicks.

And my husband? Well, he just shook his head but did not seem particularly surprised when he got home.