This year we were inspired by friends to raise our own chicken. This sounds funny to those of us who are used to buying chicken at the local grocer, without a care to where it was raised. But after reading books like Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, and Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, my interests in this "grow your own" movement were piqued.
So, this summer the kids and I piled into the car and headed to our local farm and feed store where we selected the cutest yellow chicks. All 18 chicks fit inside a large cardboard box and I tried to act brave as we added them to the backseat along with my human chicky-doos. I wasn't sure I could actually do this thing called raising chickens, and had thoughts of just letting them grow old with us and becoming a vegetarian family. My husband solidified my fears when he said, "I sure hope they get ugly," Oh, dear. What have we gotten ourselves in to?
The first two weeks were spent caring for the little chicks. They lived in a special metal container with wood chips to sleep on; a heat lamp so they wouldn't get cold; a self-drip water container; organic chicken feed and lotsa love from the little veterinarians who live with me. The toughest part was protecting them from the hunting dog and the retriever who shared living space with them in the garage these first two weeks. I've never seen our Vizsla on point so much in her whole life, and the Lab would try to snap at them whenever they flapped their wings...she's used to sleeping all day so this was exciting for her.
After two weeks it was time to put them out to pasture in their chicken tractor...
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