Chickens and More

Back in August, we purchased 3 full-size chickens (Buff Orpingtons) and put them into a hutch that a friend gave us. One chicken didn't live long enough to get a name. Apparently it was too hot in the hutch. The first day, we found her laying on her side panting along with the other two inside the hutch. I carried her over to the shady grass that was still damp from the sprinklers. I laid her there but she only lasted an hour. From then on, we decided to let the chickens roam free range in the backyard and only put them away at night.

The remaining two were giving us one egg each per day. They were named Glassiator and Cut by Britton and Josh. All was well for a little over a month and summer was cooling off somewhat. I decided to put them back in the hutch. They knocked over their water dish and were without water for about 3 hours so we lost another one. We're down to only one chicken named "Cut" that will hopefully not live up to her name and cut out on us.

She is a very docile hen. She comes up to whoever is in the backyard and warbles quietly hoping you have another scoop of food for her; otherwise she eats all the bugs in the yard. She has already eaten all the sprouts in our garden but is so sweet that we forgave her. She keeps allowing Darren (our 1-yr old) to pick her up and carry her around. The other day, Darren carried her in through the dog-door and was holding her in a precarious position. Christi had to gently release her from his grasp and carried her back outside. Hopefully this one will last. We thought chickens were supposed to be easy!

We get brown eggs. Christi recently bought a carton of white eggs for supplement and couldn't help noticing how brittle the shells were in comparison. She hopes to acquire some Americana chickens soon to give us some pastel blue eggs. We're enjoying our chicken(s) and are looking at picking up a bunny or two next for 4-H.

Nikki will show a bunny for 4-H. Jay will show a chicken for 4-H and is also involved in 4-H Shooting Sports. He, at age 10, is already becoming impressive in his accuracy. They started with air-soft guns last month. Yesterday they learned archery.

Jonny, Christi, and Jay tried out their new shotguns a couple weekends ago. Christi is encouraging Jonny in the direction of rifles and shotguns for hunting since he is becoming more interested in guns. She hasn't forgotten the taste of the delicious elk roast that her brother-in-law Clayton gave to our family.

Jonny works quite a bit with retired or discharged military in his job. (The ones that switched from soldiering to weapons testing at YPG.) Jonny directs the testing. Little by little, Jonny's wardrobe is changing to match the military style (e.g. military issue boots, pants) but his high morals and good clean language are staying the same. There are quite a few LDS that work there and when they team up for basketball after-hours, you can easily pick them out because of their language and their behavior.