I orderd our chicks today! The second week of April we will be owners of 4 day old baby girl chicks. Nori wants to name one Bok Bok and Pete wants to name one KFC. hmmmmmmmmmmm, not sure about that. It has been fun learning and researching the different breeds. This breed, I am most excited about: Brabanter.
I mean, she is so ugly it's adorable.
I attended a "How to Own Backyard Chickens" class, and realized that yes, I am going to be a farmer. There were several chicken owner responsibilities that made me feel this way. If a chicken gets her eggs stuck on the way out, guess who is the midwife? And some chicken's maternal instincts are so strong that they are convinced a chick will come out of its eggs, even though there are no roosters to be seen, so she sits and sits. Then I will have to counsel her "off the nest." But most daunting is what happens when our girls reach chicken menopause, and don't lay eggs anymore? I know I won't be taking her to our table, farmer or not. But I am farmer enough to not want to keep them around once they aren't filling the basket on my kitchen counter.
That's right, I also learned that fresh eggs don't have to be kept in the fridge! They are fine at room temperature for a MONTH! And last in the fridge for 7 months.
I don't think we'll have any lasting longer than a week. We average 18-24 eggs a week around here. We are expecting to get about 21 eggs a week from these ladies.
But they don't start laying until 4 months old, about September.
We also hope that they make it thru their infancy with us, as the first several weeks seem the most difficult. We are building a cardboard box brooder and have to keep them nice and warm until they are about 6-8 weeks old.
Then, there's the neighborhood fox. I saw him TAKING A NAP on our porch the other day. Although, our chickens won't be free ranging it, according to local experts I still need to be worried. Now I need to learn how to trap.
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