Category Chickens
The Chicks’ Outdoor Adventure
Our chicks may only be a couple of weeks old, but they’re already expressing adolescent discontent with their box. So yesterday, the hot, sunny, calm afternoon granted their wish: It was nice enough to move them out from under their heat lamp into the Great World Beyond. In a cage, of course. The chicks quickly […]
My Husband Is Picking Up Chicks
It may be unorthodox to ask your husband to pick up some chicks on the way home from work, let alone react with delight when he succeeds. But when the chicks he picks up are this cute, who could object?
The Chicken Whisperer
As exciting as Caesar’s arrival has been, Sage felt it was time to give his favorite chicken, Flappybird, some one-on-one attention. Caesar, however, begged to differ: He MUST be the center of attention. Fortunately, Flappybird had no strong opinions on Caesar’s intervention. As long as she got her sunflower seeds, she was happy. As were […]
Running with the Big Birds
It ain’t easy being a chick, especially if you’re running with the Big Birds for the first time. That’s what my little birds learned the hard way today. They’d been spending their days staring plaintively through the mesh of their chicken tractor–a cage within the large chicken pen where they can get some fresh air […]
The Tribulations of Being a Chick
My little chicks are growing up; the day-old fuzzballs who first came home with me are now gangly adolescents. They’re too big to stay in their cardboard box all day but too small to be released among the old-timers, so they’ve been spending their days in a mesh-sided cage within the larger chicken pen. All […]
Chick Day!
Last Friday, the long awaited and blessed event finally occurred: The arrival of the chicks. We only raise three or four chicks every two years in order to keep our egg supply steady, so Chick Day is always an exciting event, especially if you happen to be a ten year old. Sage bonded with his […]
Chicken Surprise
On my way out to the compost piles this morning, I was startled to see beady yellow eyes peering at me from a metal bucket lying on top of a pile of cinder blocks. Closer inspection revealed the huddled figure of Flappybird, a chicken recently acquired from our Amish neighbor and named by Sage in […]
Greetings from Sage and Minerva
A few days ago, I was in the garden doing some long-neglected and much-needed weeding. When I finally looked up, I was greeted by a waving Sage holding our chicken Minerva. There’s nothing like the love between a boy and his bird. Don’t worry, though–unlike victims of a recent salmonella outbreak, who allegedly got sick […]
The Garden’s Hidden Treasures
I finally got around to weeding the garden (a long overdue project) and was rewarded by more than just a few tomatoes and the occasional unharvested onion: I also found Minerva’s hidden nest. I’d been wondering why we get so few eggs lately, and part of the mystery was solved when I pulled away a […]
Mini Minerva
Although our beloved chicken Minerva went to the Great Coop in the Sky a couple of weeks ago, a doppelganger is rising to take her place: One of the chicks Sage and I raised this spring is looking more like Minerva every day. In fact, Sage remarked that she looked like she’d swallowed Minerva. We’d […]
Moments of Unexpected Beauty 