Our Story Part 1

It all started when we drove down a residential street and saw chickens strutting around in the yard. For some reason I always associated chickens with, well, farms. I never imagined a person in a neighborhood could keep chickens. The wheels started spinning, and all of a sudden I was leafing through old Murray McMurray chicken catalogues and reading books about raising chickens. That was 5 years ago. Since then we have gone through a few different flocks in a variety of ways. Our most recent flock is about a year old.

I love answering the phone with the postal service on the other end relaying the message, “your chicks are here, and they are hungry.” We rush to the post office with the urgency of a woman in labor. The chicks are packed up snug in a small box peeping away. We cannot resist taking a peek on our way home: 7 little heads bobbing around. The chicks are shipped as soon as they hatch--before they have food or water. As soon as we put them in the brooder we dip their little beaks in water to teach them to drink. We fill up the feeder and sit back and watch…