Crazy is all gone

Phew! Good news, I have gotten over being a "Crazy Chicken Lady." This might seem kind of hard to believe given my love for them this spring, the huge amount of work that has gone into keeping them healthy and happy AND how gosh darn friendly they are BUT yes, it's true.

I have found that once reality starts to set in about creatures you fall in love with as babies, the joy can sometimes where off. I do still love my chickens... most of them... and we will still continue to raise chickens BUT we will not be 100% free ranging ever again?

WHY might you ask? Umm, have you ever been around a larger flock of chickens that are allowed to wander?? Let's just say HOLY SHIT! ;) Give you a hint?? On hot days, the girls could be found in the shade of our back steps. Sweet except when you remember that they don't care where they defecate. Many a trip into the house was prefaced with "do NOT step in the chicken poop"  UGH!

The second reason has to do with the large garden I planted this year. I put a green 'utility' fence around it in the hopes of slowing my chickens down from entering the garden. I knew it wouldn't keep them out but I had hopes it would at least save my plants a little. My beautiful 8 tomato plants grew to great sizes this year and were LOADED with tomatoes. That was, until, my stupid chickens found them. I have not gotten a single tomato out of the garden this year! Luckily they did not find the sugar snap peas before Dax and Dustin ate their fill BUT they did find the corn. Between the deer (one buck in particular) and my chickens, only 1 ear of corn out of 10 rows survived! At this moment, it looks like the only thing we're going to get out of the garden is pumpkins. Good night!

We do have 7 chickens in the freezer ready for eating and this winter, when it's cold and I'm wanting to warm the house up with a slow roasted chicken, we will definitely enjoy them again. Of the 20 we started with this year, we butchered 7, lost 2 two other critters and are keeping 11 at the moment-- although 3 of them are hopefully going to another home as 11 is still a lot to winter.

I'm thinking one day we may try to add ducks to our flock BUT trying to talk myself out of it for a bit and make my reasons something more than "they are so cute!" ;-)