The Unexpected Fun of Chickens

Since I had never spent any significant amount of time around free-range chickens and certainly not at our own home, I had a view of chickens that was far from glamorous.  Now we have our own chickens that roam around our 3-acres, even frolicking in our backyard.  The worst thing they do is scratch a bit of the mulch out of the garden, but that can be put back in again.  Eventually (in about a month probably) they will provide us with eggs, which we go through about a dozen a day of the ones we buy.  The chickens are doing a great job of keeping the bug population down.

The thing that has been most surprising to me is how entertaining and relaxing they are to watch.  Even while eating breakfast, we have the "feline and fowl show" to entertain us with kittens playing with each other and their mom as well as chickens slowing going through the backyard looking for bugs or our black Bantum rooster trying to get as high as he can to crow, or our other Bantum rooster, "Long Shanks",  getting annoyed with a swallow that dive-bombs him in the backyard.  The third rooster that we get a kick out of is "Fighting Chicken", an exotic white and multi-colored bird.  (Note: since I didn't grow up anywhere around chickens and we just got our 4 months ago, I still don't know any technical chicken terms, so forgive me if I insert my naive, city-girl-turned-country-girl words), who lets us pet him and follows especially Max around when Max is outside.  When Max is not around he follows me, clucking along.

Building and painting the chicken coop and chicken run has been another adventure.  Also, lets not forget the four ducks - swimming in the pool with the kids, bursting out in loud quacking, which to me sounds like hilarious laughing, and just being fun to watch sometimes like the chickens. I suppose someday they may provide us with huge duck eggs to eat or ducklings, not to eat.  The one black duck has been slow in figuring out how to get out of the chicken coop when Max lets them out in the morning and used to pathetically quack after the other ones from the coop as they went off to explore.  I wonder if the ducks resent us calling the coop the "chicken" coop.  I suppose we could compromise and call is a "chuck coop", "dicken coop" probably wouldn't work...