Anyway--back to Grandma and Grandpa. They have some friends in their ward, James and Maribeth, who live in a small area that is zoned for chickens. So Grandpa bartered with James--Grandpa would provide materials and build the coop and help him maintain the area, and James and Maribeth feed the chickens most of the time and let them use a nice corner of the property. Above is Grandpa and one of his prized chickens.
They bought 18 to begin with and after 10 weeks they have 14 who have made it and are thriving. From what they tell me that is normal.
They have 6 different kinds:
- 3--California Whites(lays white eggs)
- 3--Rhode Island Reds (lays brown eggs)
- 3--Araconnas (sp?) (lays green eggs)
- 3--Black Sexlinks (lays brown eggs)
- 1--Bard Rock (lays brown eggs)
- 1--Buff Orrington (lays brown eggs)
We saved all the parsley and left over greens from Chompies and took it to them. They will eat a handful of 'scratch' right out of your palm. They are so soft to hold and calm if you are calm.
Grandma holding a brown egg from one of James's chickens.
Lisa holding one of them. Their 'hatch-day', aka: birthday, is November 10th, 2008, so they are right around 10 weeks old. Grandpa calls them his 'teenagers'! I named one Chatterbox, because she just peeped and peeped, one Goldilocks, and one Duchess. It's okay, isn't it? They are only for laying eggs. We aren't going to eat these, right? I read Marley and Me. It meets the criteria, right? Ten more weeks to go and they will be mature and start laying eggs. How great is that! At least a dozen fresh eggs a day. Hey, I want 'in'! I have friends in the canyon, hmmm..... I wonder....
Back to mom and dad's to watch a movie with the 'girls' and then around the corner to Lisa's for leftovers and off to the airport for home. USAir got me here safe and sound. Phew!
Duff and Christine picked me up with our 'baby' Darla. They tell me she moped all around the house for 5 days while I was gone, keeping watch at the top of the stairs for any and every car that went past hoping I was in one of them. She saw me come up to the car at the airport curb
and went crazy wiggling and crying until I could pick her up. Crazy pooch! Gotta love her sweetness and loyalty.
2 comments:
Your mother must be holding the egg. It looks just like my mother's. Makes me want to cry!
Now this is up my alley! I had chickens (with my dad) in our backyard in Fullerton. They came in the mail as chicks and we had to put heat lamps on them to keep them thriving. We eventually moved them outside where my dad built a pen around the old swingset and then built a hutch for them to lay eggs. In time, I collected white, brown and green eggs and one of those green egg layers sounded alot like a rooster. Go figure! They were my friends since I wasn't very social.
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