I have three days of dog sitting for the family I worked for for a year. But now they have… chickens! I am intrigued and terrified and excited by these chickens.
They have three full grown ones they got last spring and four new ones that are a couple months old. They are free range and come when called. They also come running when you are trying to back up the car. When I went over this morning, I couldn’t find one of the big ones. I decided to brave the chicken pen and look in the brooding box. There she was! I collected the nine eggs, with the help of a stick to nudge her a little, and let the dogs back in and called it success.
This evening I went again and had to bring Wallace. He was overwhelmed by the dogs, who are getting a little antsy without their people home, and insistent on petting the chickens. I managed to pick one up but then I was scared it was going to poop on me and I could feel its heart beating away in its chest. I think it was as scared as I was.
I will add chicken pictures tomorrow!
Good Families Do... 
My sister had chickens when she lived at a farm house (she just moved this week!), and they had SO many eggs they fed the whole neighbourhood with them. I think chickens are a little terrifying (I think it’s something about their feet that bothers me so much) but also cool!
I think for me it is because they are creepy dinosaur birds. The way they look at you and make throat noises… I have heard they also have unique personalities and some will want to sit and be held and petted. The one I picked up was then following me around. I could see having 4-6 but not a ton of them.
This makes me miss my poultry nieces. My sister has a lot of chickens. Though I haven’t been brave enough to do anything more than hold them when they were chicks.
We had chickens last year, and I miss them! They were supposed to be particularly sweet and gentle as a type of chicken… Bovan Browns, i believe. They came running like a herd of puppies any time they heard the kids outside, and I was completely unprepared for how emotionally attached we’d get to them! We had to move off of that property, and our landlords (major animal lovers) graciously took over their care, and I know they’re well cared for, but I’m still sad we don’t have them. I can imagine how outside of your / one’s comfort zone gathering eggs and holding chickens can be, though!
Awe they sound cute! These ones just seem to come when they think they are getting food. Well, the babies all run away.
I’m sad I couldn’t get any pictures this morning! My phone was almost dead. These babies need a lot more handling to be sweet. They just run, and they run fast!
I had the advantage of a 12 and 13 year old who loved to hold and handle all of them (we ended up with thirty – going forward, I’ll never get more than six babies at a time!), including the two roosters – I’m sure all the attention they got made a big difference. At the time the kids were in 4H (which is why we had so many, and a rooster for each kid), but I found that I don’t love the way 4H dictates that show animals are raised, so next time – if there is one – we’ll do it on our own program.
I haven’t had any 4H involvement to know what it’s like but I pretty much hate being told what to do. Also, most cities it is illegal to have roosters.