Chicken Cam

So we have not had a chicken post in a while so I thought I would give you a glimpse into the life of a chicken raised on the Strovas Farm by Farmer Rylee, Farmer Caleb, and Farmer Kyler (Audie is not up to farmin’ just yet).

First a few introductions need to be made:

Farmer Rylee

Farmer Caleb

Farmer Kyler

Red Headed

Bubba

Fluff (the white one)

Those are the main players in this world we live in.  The three chickens listed above are by far the favorite.  However, it was quite a strange thing to hear, “Daddy, let’s kill Red Headed tonight!” from my sweet farmer Rylee.  The story goes like this. we have been talking about if we have any Roosters that we are going to either eat them or sell them, but we certainly are not keeping them.  It has been easy to tell that Red Headed is a rooster for quite some time now, but it was not until the last few days that Mr. Red Headed has been testing out his pubescent vocal chords a bit.  So tonight, we listened in a bit while said chicken gave it a go for about five or six crows.  Everyone had a good laugh about it because it just doesn’t quite have the full rooster strength in it just yet.  Karissa then says that we need to do something about that rooster and I say that we need to kill it or sell it.  Rylee gets super excited because she thinks she needs to see how we are going to kill this chicken.  Don’t worry, Red Headed is still with us (I personally would rather sell Mr. Red Headed on craigslist).  It was quite an amusing time, you can imagine.

Fluff has been Rylee’s favorite chicken since they were chicks.  Even before Karissa or I could tell Fluff from the rest of the yellow chicks Rylee could always find Fluff.  Now that Fluff has grown into her (we hope it’s a her) fully white self, Fluff quite remarkable in comparision to the rest of the flock.

Red Headed got his name from being the first rooster through puberty.

Bubba, quite the  name Caleb gave this lovely hen, is not only his favorite, but also Karissa’s.  Bubba is the one chicken that we have that will lay eggs with a bluish or greenish tinge to the shell.

So those are the main players in this daily chicken saga.  Here are a couple pictures that share a bit about their life as chickens in the coop or out of the coop in their 250sf world:

Life in the Coop

Life outside the Coop

Here is a quick breakdown of their day:

8:00am – Farmer Rylee, who has been begging to let the chickens out does so and gives them fresh water

The rest of the day is filled with going in and out of the coop to rest, scratch the ground and look for worms, eat, drink, poop, poop some more, get picked up by one of the little farmers, have a major escape run into the main yard because thanks to one of the little farmers forgetting to shut the gate of the pen when they were done holding chickens, scratch, eat, drink, poop, poop some more, get picked up by a curious neighbor kid, scratch, eat, drink, poop…

Every once in a while a chicken is selected by Farmer Rylee to be held, sung to, rocked to sleep, and placed in the little playhouse for a nap.  The amazing thing is the chicken actually falls asleep and rests on the ground for a real nap.  Tonight, I heard Rylee carrying a chicken singing her own song sung to the tune of “God of this City.”  The little chicken fell right asleep.  HILARIOUS!

8:30pm – stand outside the coop because it is getting dark and the farmer’s have not yet turned ont the heat lamp for them, if the farmers don’t get the idea, they start to make some concerned noises until someone clues in on what is going on.

9:00pm – one by one all of the chickens head into the coop for the night.  They all snuggle right up against each other on the floor or on their roosting poles.

9:15ish – one of the farmers tucks them in at night by taking an official head count and closing up the coop.

They are a lot of fun and have changed quite a bit since they were baby chicks only about 7 weeks ago!