The Great Chicken Experiment

Did you know that we have chickens? I think I blogged about it once. But I can't remember if it was here or on my family blog. Yes, I let my kids get chickens. I grew up in a farming community. Anybody ever heard of Marysvale, Utah? Well, it's full of cows and not many people. I was used to animals and I lived several years on a farm. I wanted my kids to have some responsibility when it came to animals. Not necessarily a pet, like a dog, but I loved the idea of chickens and of the possibility of getting some eggs out of the deal.

Well, I seem to have eggless chickens. I mean, we get about 6 to 10 eggs a week, but I should be getting several dozen a week. I have 5 chickens, so if they each are suppossed to lay an egg everyday or atleast every other day, you do the math. But my kids sure do love them, as you can see from the picture above.

Here they are when we started out. Sadly, 3 of our orginal 5 did not survive. One just disappeared, probably by a cat and 2 of them met tragedy at the hands of my 4-year-old and my 6-year-old neighbor boy. They were trying to teach them how to fly. It was a good lesson about life and death that was learned to 2 little boys.

All in all, it's been a positive experience. My kids love them. Atleast my younger two do. My 7-year-old grumbles about them, because it is mosty his responsibility to feed them and water them. My 5-year-old adores them. He runs out several times a day to check and see if there is any eggs. My 2-year-old likes to go out and sit in the pen with them and totes them around with her whenever possible. The poor chickens!

As Easter approaches and people start to sell baby chicks for Easter, it might not be a bad idea to think about. They are a lot of fun. Just make sure you get chickens that will lay eggs!