Chicks!

A couple of months ago, I thought I heard a rooster crowing somewhere in our neighborhood but decided I was probably hearing things and wishing I was on a farm. To my delight, a few days later I saw a few chickens pecking around outside the house. It turns out our next door neighbor keeps chickens, Speckled Sussex chickens, to be exact. That got me thinking, “How awesome would it be to collect fresh eggs from chickens in my own backyard?” I have been interested in the idea of ‘city chickens’ for a while now. When I was a kid growing up in Texas, we would drive to Caddo Lake every Easter and stop along the way at a random house selling yard eggs. Those eggs had orange yolks and tasted so much better than the kind you buy at the grocery store.

I finally met our neighbor and he was forthcoming with chicken advice and very excited that we were considering the possibility of having our own chickens. Well folks, today we went to the feed store and got 5 Rhode Island Red chicks, and they are happily napping under a warming light in a box in the utility room. We are going to build a coop out back and they will likely begin laying eggs by September. They are pretty darn cute, let me tell you. Here are a few pics. More to come!