Kung Pao, Orange, Lemon Garlic, and Kentucky Fried

Since our family’s recent move out to the country I have been so excited to get chickens. How fun?! Our home has a chicken coop. I originally thought the coop was a dog cage to protect small dogs from the hawks and other predators. This city girl is wrong. It is in fact a chicken coop. We have to build nesting boxes inside but the pen is there.

I did a bit of research for raising chickens from chicks. Although my research took another turn when I was texting with a friend and she informed me she has Ameraucanas. She tells me they lay blue to green eggs. Blue eggs naturally, sign me up. The Ameracauna chicken breed, also known as Easter Egg Chickens, are docile and sweet, yet another reason this breed is a good choice for our family. So I did some calling around locally and found the feed store that is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from us have 1-week-old Polish Ameracaunas.

These chickens will only be used for eggs and as family pets. We are not raising them for their meat.  I just can’t imagine myself eating a pet. Might be the city girl in me again, but yep, not going to happen.

Before we went and picked out our new chicks I pulled up pictures online to show the kids. Their reactions were as expected. My son said “oh” with excitement, my oldest daughter seemed to care less, and my youngest pointed at the pictures.

We went and picked out 4 chicks as a family from our local feed store. I was about to buy the brooder starter kit while we were at the feed store but because of the summer climate where we live it just so happens that this is not necessary. The night temperatures do not drop below 90 degrees Fahrenheit and the summer days are up between 100-115 degrees. Although we do not enjoy the high temperatures that summer brings us, we do enjoy not keeping the chicks in the house. They get quite stinky.

We named our pet chickens. Their names are Kung Pao, Orange, Lemon Garlic, and Kentucky Fried. We made our new chicks at home in a medium-sized dog kennel with chicken wire wrapped around it for extra protection. With names like theirs they need the extra protection. And they could escape from between the bars of the kennel so this was necessary for now. They could easily escape the chicken coop that came with our home also so they are at home in the kennel for just a few weeks until they are bigger. By then we will have the nesting boxes in place and they will also be able to run free around our yard during the daylight hours.

We feed them organic only. At four months of age the chickens will start laying farm fresh organic eggs for my family to enjoy. I love that we can go out our back door and get fresh organic eggs every morning.