I'm gonna get all Rambly on ya! You have been warned!
Annnnnd, I am blogging on my severely anemic Netbook, so I'll probably have to post pictures later (when I'm on my laptop). Not sure if I'll post and update - or just keep it sitting in drafts - or just post crappy, unedited phone pics. Who knows?!
Plus - I've got TWO things to post about! So that might result in two (or more!) new posts!
(Nnnnnoooooo!!!)
(Yes! Srsly!!)
First up: CHICKENS!
I know I've blathered-on about liking my fresh, organic produce. I belong to a CSA, and we've got a pretty-stinkin'-awesome Farmer's Market, on Sundays year-round, just down the street from my house.
Lately, I have been REALLY enjoying Farm-Fresh Eggs. Good-Friend-P had 4 chickens (two of which were ostensibly "mine"), so I used to get my eggs from her. Now she's down to two hens - and they're not as productive anymore. So I've been getting my eggs from the weekly farmer's market.
Then I got the Wild-@$$ed idea that I oughtta get chickens of my own. Yes, we can own chickens in suburban San Jose. I think we are limited to 6 "small animals" (so 3 dogs + 3 chickens). Hens only. And the coop has to be situated at least 20 feet from the nearest residence...
The thing is, I didn't want your plain ol' "garden variety" chicken. No sirree! I wanted "Exotic" chickens! And (here we go with rambling and reminiscing!) we used to have chickens when I was younger.
(Odd, how I have so many memories associated with chickens! lol)
Back when I was 13 or 14, Dad and I got "exiled" to mom's recently-inherited Utah home. Long, boring story, but we spent two years living in my grandparents' teeny little 2BR/1BA house on one acre of land (surrounded by 18 acres of pasture - which was bequeathed to my uncles). We had barns and sheds and even an outhouse! (although, thankfully, the house *did* have indoor plumbing!). Anyway, Dad and I had loads of fun "Playing Farmer" on mom's inheritance. We had dogs, goats, ducks, geese, a horse (much to my mother's dismay), an FFA steer (briefly), and a whooooole lot of chickens.
Now I am 100% San Francisco Bay Area Native - born-n-raised - so my Farm-Sense was somewhat lacking. We had found a local chicken-farm - with all kinds of exotic breeds - and dad would take me there to pick out chickens. I, being the complete-and-utter-noob, was drawn to the "pretty ones." And the "pretty ones," generally-speaking, were roosters! So our "farmyard" consisted of the aforementioned menagerie, as well as a WHOLE LOTTA frustrated roosters!
(in retrospect, I'm sure the guys at the chicken farm must've LOVED us - since we took all of the roosters off their hands!).
Anyway, we had White Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, Easter-Eggers, and a whole slew of Banties (Bantam Game-Cocks, Mille Fleurs, Cochins, and probably a bunch more that I can't recall offhand). There was one breed that I always wanted, but we could never find: Polish.
So, since I got this wild idea - NOW (Jeez, almost 40 years later?! I feel like such a Geezer!) - By Gawd, I am gonna GET my Polish Chicken!
Polish Chickens come in Bantam and Standard sizes. I figure, since we want eggs worth eating, Standard was the way to go.
Okay, gonna condense a lot of Rambly-Blah-Blah-Blahs here and say that I found a "somewhat local" hatchery, online, that carried my much-coveted Polish chickens (specifically, White-Crested Black Polish).
C'mon... Tell me that isn't a cool-lookin' chicken!!
I ordered my Polish hen (lays white eggs), an Ameracauna (lays green eggs), and something else (can't recall - but it laid brown eggs). I figured I was being all "Scientifical" about it - buying hens that laid different colored eggs so I could tell Who's-Who, right? And Good-Friend-P also wanted two baby-chicks, so I added hers to my order as well...
I placed my order back in March, and got an Auto-Responder email that said that they'd ship my day-old chicks in --- MID-JUNE
(WTF?!).
I briefly considered cancelling my order but then realized that I totally wasn't ready (what-with not owning a chicken-coop and all that), so I let it ride...
So then I surfed online and found a reasonably-priced chicken coop on Frugah.com. Not gonna bother linking b/c they don't carry the same coop anymore. So I got my coop (it was surprisingly easy to assemble, actually). I also "beefed it up" a bit by adding hasps (and padlocks) to deter raccoons and opossums (which we do have in our 'hood), and stapled hardware mesh to the bottom (again, critter-deterrents).
My coop, before I added hasps and locks and turned it into Fort Knox!
Then I waited for my chicks' arrival. I even cleared a space in the TiKi-ShAcK for a temporary box-brooder...
Ya know what?! I'm gonna be a total bee-atch and say that this seems like a good "stopping point!" HA! How Rude?!
To Be Continued........
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