Backyard Chickens

We have chickens. I still marvel at this statement. It’s not the same as telling people you have a dog or a cat. We purposely have these creatures, in our very small backyard, in the city.  Here’s how it happened…

Our family was exchanging homes with a family in Gouda, The Netherlands, near Amsterdam.  We arrived at their lovely home, exhausted and ready to settle in for a spell. The kids were exploring the yard when they burst into the house yelling, “they have chickens, they have chickens!” OK, chickens?!  This was not disclosed.  And not just 1 chicken – they had 7 chickens!

As it turns out, we really liked their chickens.  The chickens who laid eggs for us daily. We had eggs every day for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Baked, scrambled, fried and boiled. We ate a lot of eggs and loved it. Whatever “scraps” that were leftover from our meals, we gave to the chickens.

Our daughter came up with the idea that perhaps we should get chickens.  What she really wanted was a dog and saw this as her chance!  We could get chickens as pets and they lived outside, and provided food?!  I could handle that.

The coop was built finally and we picked out 3 baby chicks.  From chick to laying hen, takes about 6 months.  The eggs (farm-fresh, bright-orange yokes, hard shells, and completely organic) are amazing!

Chickens are funny creatures and they give you fresh eggs. They’re pets with benefits!

Do you have pets? Did you get talked into them by your kids?

Go Gingham related links:

Backyard Chickens: Chicks Gone Wild!
Fresh Eggs From Backyard Chickens
Are backyard chickens right for you? What are the good and bad points of backyard chickens?
You may fall in love with backyard chickens like we did!
Chicken coop basics can be found here and setting up a brooder for chicks is here