Backyard Chickens

When we moved out here to the middle of nowhere, we had no idea what to expect housing wise.  Jeff's company took care of the move and our housing, so about a week before we got here they said, "Here's the address to your 3/2 fully furnished house.  Enjoy!"   We google earthed it, but it didn't help a whole lot.  It was a pleasant surprise when we got here to find the house and yard were more than we expected.  I'm not sure what we expected, but it surpassed that :) Anyway, the backyard has been fenced into 2 sections.  After being here a few months I know now the one section was for a garden, but when we got here it was just dirt.  Kinda sad looking.  Actually, looked like it needed some chickens.  I said that.  Jeff said no.  He's been saying no since we lived in Lubbock.

Anyway, my visiting teacher, one of the few other Mormons that live in town, came by.  She just got a flock of chickens.  We talked chickens.  Then she called up a few days later and said that 2 of the chickens were being picked on pretty bad by the rest.  Soooo my backyard ended up turning into a chicken rescue, and Jeff's weekends and evenings turned into engineering a chicken coop.  I know, he's not that kind of engineer, but he's pullin it off pretty good. I wish I had recorded the phone call to Jeff that we had chickens.  I love how he humors me-he pretty much just laughed.   Tristan was only a little excited at first, more like assuming the role of big brother to some feathery siblings... but as time has gone on, he has pretty much fallen in love with his chickens.

One of Tristan's favorite friends is a boy named Wyatt.  We named our turtle Wyatt.  One of the chickens is named Wyatt, and his stuffed tiger is Wyatt.  We like that name a lot.  THe other chicken is named Orange.  Tristan's favorite colors are blue and orange, so I dubbed the chicken with orange feathers on her chest Orange, and the other one is Wyatt.  Tristan runs out in the mornings by himself to feed and water the chickens.  They have really come to like him.  It takes him about 2 seconds to catch a chicken, whereas tonight Jeff and I found out that it takes the both of us about 2 minutes to catch one.  It's really funny to watch Tristan with his chickens.  Melts my heart.  He is pretty good to them.

Anyway.  Those are our chickens.  We didn't get them just because they lay eggs-although that's a bonus.  It's really not cost effective to get chickens to lay eggs.  By the time you raise them, build a coop, do all that jazz, you're in a chunk of change.  I think cost wise those eggs are about $10 a piece.  We mostly got the chickens because they crack me up.