We live on about five acres on the southern edge of the Sequoia National Forest. We make up for in land what we lack in convenience. We are an hour from any major supermarket and so we need to have our meals planned. We rely on foods available in our freezer and on our property.
Fresh eggs are a big part of our plan.
We have a chicken coop with an enclosed chicken yard but on most days we open the coop and allow the chickens free reign of the property. At night, they head back to the coop to roost and we lock them up to protect them from predators.
But in the country chickens are easy pickings for wild animals. We have lost a number of hens to wildlife during the day time. We lost a hen to illness and we have lost one to a night time predator when we forgot to close the door to their coop. Just this week our flock went from eight hens to six. A flock of thirteen hens over two years ago has turned into six. It's time to restock.
We had planned to order various exotic breeds for our next batch of hens, but the loss of one-quarter of our flock this week sent us down to Porterville Feed for a batch of chicks. We hit the store tonight and bought most of their final batch of chicks for the season. We have ten Rhode Island Reds and ten Barred Rocks.
The chicks rode in a box in the back seat next to Frederick's car seat. As we drove home listening to Ella Fitzgerald and peeping chicks, Frederick said "Mama, do you think the chicks are singing to the music?"
