I just turned on my computer for the first time in almost 2 weeks. Its been a wild few weeks. My grandfather, who had been ill for quite some time, became critical about 2 weeks ago, so we went home to Louisiana to see him. It was bad and we knew he didn't have much time left. We came home on a Monday and he passed away that night, so we headed back for his funeral. He was a veteran of WW2 and his funeral was the most beautiful one I have ever seen. The military presence was so respectful and the ceremony so beautiful. The soldier who played Taps was obviously very talented - it was so beautiful, and when they presented the flag to my grandmother, the soldier presented it "from a very grateful country" which brought tears to all eyes. Just beautiful.
When we returned, there was so much catching up to do. Our girls (what I call our hens) were still living in a cardboard box in our sunroom. When they were babies, it took days for the box to get soiled and smelly. Last week, they could soil up and smell up their box in hours! Our girls are getting big!
So, we needed to get their home built. We decided to convert the kennel/ dog house into a chicken coop/ run and it is working beautifully. 
The girls love it and run around and fly around to their hearts' content.Yesterday, my SIL (who has those "stray" chickens and a rooster in her yard) called me to say that her chickens hatched babies and would we like them, too? Woot! There are 2 hens, one rooster and 11 chicks, plus the one hen is still sitting on eggs. I'm sure most won't survive, but I'm pleased that we will have a few more and that the hens know how to hatch and raise chicks. I'm hoping these can be a source of meat birds for us (until I had chickens, I always thought I would be squeamish about eating what we'd raised, but now that I've had some, I know we could do it!!). We are hoping to have the new birds late next week, so I will post pics when/ if we get them.
There are so many other updates, that I am going to make separate posts. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more tomorrow.
4 comments:
Sorry to hear about your grandfather.
Your chickens are getting big. They grow so darn fast! LOL. Redd and I have decided rather than to raise Cornish Cross for meat only, we'll go with a dual purpose bird. So, now we're activley planning the coop/run/laying boxes and going with it. I'm so excited that Redd has agreed to it. He said yesterday he was thinking that if it had been one of the boys wanting to do this or himself, we would have done it year ago, but because it was me, he pushed it aside. Brought tears to my eyes, I tell ya!
Oh, Paula, I am so, so happy for you! Raising chickens is such fun and I know you will love it. I can't wait to hear what breed(s) you decided on and see pics of your coop/ run/ laying boxes. Such fun!!
I am sorry to hear of your loss. And we are truly grateful for your grandfather's service to his country.
Your girls are getting so big! I like how you modified the dog run to create a coop and am looking forward to hearing what else is going on at your place.
Alea, thank you for your kind words about my grandfather. I will pass them along to my family, who will be very touched.
I was so pleased when my hubby suggested using the dog house and run that was already on the property. It needed a lot of modification to make it predator proof, but it was definitely better than starting from scratch, since he and I know almost nothing about building stuff, lol.
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