So my husband wants chickens. After over twenty years of toiling over my organic garden, buying products from local farmers or from other quality sources, and while my husband has supported me in all this, I am not sure he had truly bought into my “Let’s be healthier, let’s know where our food comes from lifestyle.” That is until he said, “Let’s get our own chickens. It will be great, they will give us fresh eggs, and they will keep all the bugs out of the garden and yard. You’ll see.”

With some hesitation and several questions like, “What will I have to do? I’m not cleaning up after them! And “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I agreed and the process of choosing our little flock began.  The process started at the local library. I think I checked out every chicken book they had. Google even gave us some advice. We specifically looked for chickens that would be good for beginners. We decided on Black Australorps.

Decision made I contacted the local co-op to see about ordering chickens. “Of course we can order chickens for you, however if you order a specialty breed you need to order a batch of twenty-five.” The nice lady on the phone says.

“Twenty-five,” I blurt thinking what on earth we will do with twenty-five chickens. That’s about twenty-five eggs a day! “I’ll have to call you back.” quickly hanging up the phone.

I punch in my husbands speed dial, “Do you know we can only get this kind of chick in batches of twenty-five?” in my best ‘what are you thinking man?’ tone.

“Twenty-five!” he responds and I can hear him thinking, what the heck are we going to do with twenty-five chickens. “Well, we will have to come up with a new plan.”

“I agree,” relieved that I just dodged twenty-five chicken sized bullets.

He promptly followed it up with, “We’ll just have to find another place to order them from.”

Oh, yippee was all I could think to myself….

Of course you know this story will be continued J