The Dang Chickens

In late February a chicken showed up at our house out of no where.  I had seen it run across Main Street and hang out next door at McClaran's Auto a few times but for some reason it decided to make our backyard it's permanent home.  Ironically, we had planned on getting baby chicks anyway and figured what's one more?  We didn't really feed it well or anything but it managed and stayed put, roosting in the garage section of our shed, which is exposed so it could come and go.

Our chicks finally arrived in mid-March and the girls had a great time watching them grow so quickly.  We built a small coop for them so they could live outside and to our surprise they took very well to Quickie Chickie, our "inherited" chicken.  They would all roost together at night and run around the lawn together during the day.

In mid-May when we planned on going to Disneyland we had no choice but to leave the coop door closed in order to keep our chicks safe.  Since it was light when we left Quickie Chickie wouldn't go inside so she got left out and when we returned home after almost a week, she was no where to be seen. She did leave us a going away gift, an egg in the lawn.

Our chickens continued to grow and would behave by staying in the lawn and going back to their coop at night.  They were no problem until they started getting brave enough to leave the lawn and go under the carport and walk around the sidewalks, leaving a trail of chicken poop behind them every step of the way.  It made us crazy!!!!

The straw that broke the camels back was when they got brave enough to jump the wall and hang out next door at McClaran's.  It's not that they would go over there it's that they would go into the garages and hang out with the mechanics.  They swore it wasn't a problem and that they were eating the bugs but I knew the yucky mess the dang birds were leaving on my sidewalks and there was no way they weren't leaving the same ones over there!

I told Jared he had no choice but to build a coop where they could stay all day and not bother anyone.  The stupid birds were becoming a nuisance to everyone and weren't even laying eggs to make up for the trouble.

Jared got busy the very next day and built a decent (but rather tall in my opinion) coop and the chickens, as Lucy puts it, are "in jail."  If I'm feeling nice I will let them out just before the sun goes down, but only for an hour at the most.

Last week I came home from the Valley and to my surprise found three eggs!  We threw them out because we weren't sure how long they had been there but have been collecting them each day since.  We went from one chicken laying to two now and I'm finally starting to feel like I don't despise the blasted birds!