Penny & Max

Our house is on a corner lot so we have a side yard away from both neighbors that is used mainly for a storage shed and a patch of grass. When we bought the house a year ago, I told Thomas the side yard would be perfect for chickens. [Why chickens, you ask? Chickens make good pets (or so I hear), lay nutritious eggs, provide chemical-free pest control by eating bugs and naturally produce fantastic fertilizer.] But since we found out 4 days after closing escrow that I was pregnant with Nora, Thomas thought that we should get settled into the house and settled in as a family of four before bringing in chickens (so practical!). One year later my birthday rolled around and when Thomas asked me what I wanted I told him I was ready for my chickens. As Thomas says, "some wives want jewelry, my wife wants chickens."

Sylvie really wanted to name one of the chicks Max (either from a horse she once rode or from Where the Wild Things Are or, most likely, both). So the white chick is Maxine, a hybrid Leghorn known as an Ideal 236. The black chick with white spots is Penelope, a Barred Rock.

Sylvie has already become a master chicken handler. I think she is the best of the 3 of us at rounding up the chicks and getting them back into their box. Max and Penny will live in a box indoors with a heat lamp for the next 3 to 4 weeks before moving to their (yet to be built) coop in the side yard.

A few friends have asked me questions about care of chickens. Since we are definitely not experts and are just learning as we go, here are a few resources that have been helpful to us:


http://urbanchickens.org/
http://www.mypetchicken.com/
http://www.backyardchickens.com/