Although I hold a strong fear deep inside, I've always had a love for all things farm or ranch related.
My grandparents have a wide assortment of animals on thier West Texas land, from llamas and miniature donkeys, to two dromedary camels. I could watch these guys (and feed them!) for hours. But I prefer to be on the other side of a fence from them. Even my grandparent's sweet, bottle-fed longhorn/cow Oliver scares me a bit with his giant horns.
Enter chickens.
Mr. and Mr. Roosters, roosting on my bike
Randy had chickens when I met him but they were soon killed off by raccoons because of his unfinished chicken coop. Randy and I finished his chicken coop. Randy's roommate Tara got chickens from her friend.
Pro: baby chickens to look at, and feed, and watch gro.
Con: baby chickens that were not sexed. Nobody knew how many would become hens or how many would become roosters.
Now they have grown in to 3 large cacklin' roosters and 2 hens that lay eggs.
Lately one hen and one rooster have gone missing so we are left with one hen and two roosters. I'm sure one rooster will kill the other soon enough. Lovely.
Despite what some people might think, these roosters begin their crowing well before sun-up. I'm sure the neighbors are just thrilled.
Even though they poop everywhere and their pointy beaks and claws somehow scare me, I can't help but have a strong attraction to the little guys. Every time I go to Randy's I am outside feeding them and more recently looking for eggs. I love that we even have the opportunity to own such animals in our backyard in East Austin. Like a lil' slice of country living. Did I mention Randy also has one "Hunny Bunny" left by an ex who I have also adopted as my own?
I even set up a nesting spot for the hen that she now goes to and lays eggs in. I found 3 yesterday!!
So what is the point of this post?
Simply to gloat that I will soon be eating backyard chicken eggs.
And
I foresee chickens of my very own in my future.
And a goat.
Possibly a bunny.
Hopefully a pot belly pig.
And they will all be friends with my future Basset Hound named Pickle
1 comment:
You may need to shift your online persona from Passive Pastry to Friendly Farmer! Love that you have such an intimate relationship with your food though shudder to think what you might have to be cleaning off your bicycle seat...). The times I've lived close to rooster owners I learned to ignore the crowing. It is no better or worse than dogs barking, just part of living with neighbors says me.
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