My Farm Chick Serena (& pals)

We did it.  We got 'em.  We are now the owners of a fabulous flock 'o chickens!

We went out to the chicken farm in Hamilton and spent an hour and half chasing around chickens like a bunch of city slickers.  Eliza toted the "Pocketful of Poultry" book around like a true chicken tourist:

We meant to get 5 - We came home with 10 chickens.  And went back yesterday for 6 more.  ahem.

From left to right here: 

Bonnie, our Red Sex Link (as in Bonnie & Clyde - because she's an escape artist)

Elena, one of our Buff Orpingtons

Yasmina, our Ameraucana cross

Ginger, our Rhode Island Red (Ginger because.. she's organiiized... please tell me you get that!)

We are totally wacko in love with them.  There are quite a few more, but no pictures of the whole flock yet.  I'll share as we go along.
Anyway, the other day, I decided to go out there with a bundle of chicken colored art supplies and start sketching those chickens.  (Watch for it in my next fabric collection - I can't believe I'm doing chickens, but they're so cool! ) 

Anyhoo - chicken colored art supplies:  (these are Faber-Castell Pitt Pens and a Fabriano Artist Journal)

I was sketching away and then, thunk:

OH!  Hello little nameless Ameraucana chicken.  You are so serene and calm..

OH sweet bird.  Dustin said the same thing - she's so serene..  you should name her Serena.  And then of course I thought of Serena and knew that I had my own little farm chick right here. 

Isn't she gorgeous?  She loves everyone around here, and we love her so much that I went back and nabbed her full grown (possilby?) sister, who just this morning gave us our very first gorgeous blue egg.

We are also gathering a few pinkish brown eggs, which are fantastic:

And I was shocked, but our eggs are way bigger than the large grade I bought from the store!

Oh sigh..  It is so rewarding to be close to your food source.  A few people have given us a few raised eyebrows about our chickens.  It's given me the chance to really think about why we got them.

Firstly, our desire to be more self sustaining, and give our chickens the happiest life possible, while patting them on the head and thanking them for their gorgeous eggs makes us happy.  I feel that if you make the choice to consume animal products (and we do) it should be done with respect.  When we eat chicken now, our children already look at it completely differently.  They understand that an animal had to give its life for them to eat that meal.  And while we aren't raising hens or pigs or other animals for meat, eventually we want to, and this is a perfect first step for us.

Amanda has written a few beautiful posts on this, that have inspired me greatly.

And also - we want our kids to work.  Plain and simple.  But also for them to know that the work that sustains us can be fun.  And beautiful.  And tasty.  Yep.

xo

Sandi

Comments

[Cassandra HArt]

Oh! How cute! We have a chicken named Bonnie (after Bonnie and Clyde) too! We also had a rooster named Clyde, but he isn't around any more. They were escape artists as well. We also have 3 Silkie Bantams, 3 Black Australorps, and 2 Sebrights, and a Blue Swedish duck. They are so cute and keep our lives quite busy and entertaining!

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[Shirley]

i love cickens i gt 7 ckchis 5 rhode island reds and 2 silkies the silkies because they are cute lol but sadly 3 of the turned out to be roosters and kept on fighting well they still doo as i still have them lol i havent had my 1st egg yet and cant wait for it lol

[Ojetayo]

Now I'm no chicken femrar but I reckon they need some sort of roost or nest or hen house or something.You should give them one, seeing as you are their legal guardian.You suck at farming.Just saying.