28 September 12
Chickens
I’ve wanted chickens for the longest time, ever since before I started caring for the ones across the road. When a friend of Robin’s mentioned she was looking for a home for some, I volunteered.
The coop, an English chicken tractor of very ingenious design, was a big incentive. We have turkeys, coyotes, raccoons, possums, at least five hawks, owls, dogs, cats, etc. willing to get at them and I needed to have a way they could be safe, at least until they figure out what’s up.
I’ve named them Fortunata y Jacinta, from the Galdós novel of the same name. Fortunata is the Ameraucana, right up top, lays light green eggs, flashy, tetona, brash. Jacinta is the more delicate Faverolle, who made a beeline for the bare patch and promptly turned it into a dust bath.
Happy to have them here. Chickens keep it real.
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My neighbor just got six chickens. I can see her coop from my kitchen window. We worry about the racoons and hawks. So far, her chickens are still too young to lay eggs (in fact, she still doesn’t know if they are all chickens and not a rooster among them). She takes them into the house at night, waiting for them to mature a bit more before letting them live the full coop life.