Chickens on the Move

I have spent a lot of winter days reading chicken blogs, devising the earliest incubation dates for the eggs, reminding the Little Boys to remember to do their chicken chores. A common joke of mine is that “Chickens are a Gateway drug” to harder farm life – goats, cows, rabbits etc… The Internet tells me how nice it is to have chickens supply manure for your garden, to eat bugs in your orchard, and provide healthy, natural eggs for your table. All of these tenets I can honestly, heartily support.

We’ve had all our Big Kids begin their entrepreneurial lives by buying eggs from mom and dad, incubating, hatching and selling chicks – right Wildfire Ranch? It’s a wonderful teaching tool for little people to see life develop right before your very eyes. 21 days from egg to chick – miraculous! God is so good! Plus, talk about responsibility learned by slogging buckets of water through ice and snow to ensure your poor little chickens don’t die. My Little Boys haul 25lb chicken blocks from the barn (downhill) to the coop (uphill) and they might only weigh about twice that. They have to collect eggs before some cannibalistic hen finds and eats them (we’re still investigating who the culprit is). One brother always carries a stick to keep our rooster, Chanticleer, in his place. Then they have to safely transport those golden gems to the house, dodging dogs, bikes, and overcoming little boy curiosity and clumsiness! So many life lessons learned from chickens!

However….

It’s easier to be gung-ho about homesteading, and farming, and gardening, when you don’t have 5 children under 8 – one of whom is teething and enjoys early a.m. visits… Also, chickens can jump pretty high for only being 18″ tall, and they love peaches. I’ve pruned my peach trees to be easy to pick when I’m old; a piece of planning my chickens have thoroughly appreciated. Few people enjoy having to wash eggs prior to use, although the 5 year old does a pretty darn good job of it. Now in our 40’s, we’re finding we may have bitten off more than we can chew – in every direction. As we pick our 100′ rows of beans, corn, garlic, onions, and potatoes, and our older children are busier and busier outside the home, it’s beginning to dawn through the fog that we don’t always have to do all the things all the time! So, we’ve realized it’s time to prayerfully take a break, evaluate, and re-tool for this season of life.

That being said, we have some lovely, well fed, well socialized chickens available for the next gung-ho, homesteading family! Be careful – they lead to bigger and better things!


Craigslist Chickens available now!

Much Love,

Mother

How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

Psalm 36:7