Some days when I need a moment to myself, I'll pull a chair into the back of the yard and watch the chickens. And just as I feel my tension ease, I'll hear a voice. Someone calling me over to the fence to ask about the chickens. The girls have become quite a spectacle. We …
Summer prep
Breaking lockdown
I threw a fistful of scratch as far as I could, and watched as my five girls toddered into a storm of seed. A small patch of red caught my eye. It was on Dottie's bum. After cautiously walking over, I picked her up, turning her upside-down all in one chicken mama move. My stomach …
A new beginning
In many cultures around the world, eggs and — in particular — chicks are symbolic of new life and rebirth. So picking up two new chicks today couldn't have happened at a better time. In recent days, I have faced serious struggles. I walked into the heart of the storm, and somehow emerged on the …
Little Siouxsie Sioux
On the sixth day, I found little Siouxsie Sioux crumpled near the front of the brooder. Not knowing how long she had been out of the heater, I worried about her body temperature. I held her close to me, and saw that she was weak. The emergency box, which I had obsessively curated two years …
An egg???
Every day when I trek up to the chicken coop to collect eggs, I chuckle and remind myself that it's singular. Egg. My Olive Egger, Gigi, provides a green egg almost every day. But Loretta, our Black Copper Marans, hasn't laid an egg since last summer. And truthfully, it's been almost two years that I've …
More chicks? Yes, please
Chicken math is a funny thing. The punch line is that we always want more, right? Where I live, I am constrained by an ordinance that limits my chicken numbers to four. Oh how I wish I could have six. Or seven. But I must be strong. I already have two, but four is the …
Difficult decision
Nellie was my favorite chick from day one. I loved cradling her in my palm, and as she grew, she seemed to enjoy snuggling in my lap. Right around the time she started to lay eggs, all of that changed. She started attacking my, my legs, then she would fly up and go at my …
Week 16: Crazy chickens!
Editor's note: This is a blog from last year that I never published. It was just the beginning of what became very aggressive and destructive behavior. Tonight for the first time I felt something other than absolute adoring love for my chickens. I experienced fear. I often joke that my house was built upon a junk …
Snow birds
We had our first snowstorm of the year, bringing with it about 4 inches of snow, and temperatures that dipped into single digits overnight. One morning I walked out to find my prized heated water fountain had frozen over. In the 13-degree weather, I quickly scooped out the ice from the water trough, and worried …
Chicken Scratch Fever 