|
Jeremy's News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
There is a reason for the chickens on Jeremy's background. When Jeremy was in the first grade, in the Christian school our children attended at the time, his class hatched chickens from eggs at the end of the school year. The children were allowed to keep their peep if their parents allowed it. Jeremy begged us to let him keep his peep so we hesitantly agreed. He then asked us if he could keep all of the peeps that the other children were not allowed to keep. We agreed and ended up with a dozen peeps. I got busy and read on the Internet all about raising peeps, Mike and my dad got busy building a chicken shed. We bought and assembled a metal barn style shed, lined it with pressed wood and Mike divided it up inside and built nesting boxes and compartments. We ended up with three roosters! Cock-a-doodle-do in trio every morning. It was a cacophony of crowing every morning and every evening. It was LOUD! Then the cock-fights started. Children wailed as the roosters fought until they bloodied one another. Our little city slickers could not even consider culling the flock so Mike made three separate compartments for the three nasty roosters. Jeremy named the roosters Bossy (because he was very bossy), King Chickie, (because he was the first one to assert himself), and King Solomon because he was the one the hens flocked to --funny kid! We had a lot of fun learning about chickens that year. (1999) During the winter an extension cord caught the hay on fire in the shed. We lost all but the three roosters and two little hens to smoke inhalation. Everyone was disappointed and sad. The next spring, Jeremy's first grade teacher was stranded with another dozen peeps. She called me and asked if we would take them. The children were thrilled to get another chance. We started over with a new brood of chicks. They grew up and the hens laid eggs. Unfortunately we ended up with two more roosters! I started to hate roosters! Last fall the children forgot to close up the shed and some predatory animals got into it and totally destroyed all of the chickens. We found nothing but feathers. There are coyotes around and raccoons. We even found a baby weasel but we think it was likely larger animals because they carted the chickens away. We found feathers way out into the woods. It was a horrible disaster. I comforted the children and promised to get more little peeps the following summer. This spring I had my sister in law order two dozen peeps from her local feed mill. We asked her if it was at all possible to order only hens. She never did say one way or the other. I set up a brooder in a large Rubbermaid tub with heat lamps and thermometers. We didn't lose any of our peeps. My brother in law brought over three that were dying and we did lose one of those. Today we have 27 hens. Jeremy insists we have a rooster or two, but until I hear them crow I won't believe it. ;-) The young pullets have just started laying and we are now getting a dozen eggs per day. We hope to get even more soon.
Every morning before work Mike lets the chickens out to scratch and run
around all day. They are happy and we love to watch them. Every evening
Jeremy, Josiah, Joy and anyone else who will help, round up the chickens
and put them in the shed. Most of the time they are already in there so
they just close up the shed and make sure it is secure. I grew up in the
city. My kids grew up in between the city and the country. We love having
chickens! I don't want any large livestock. Chickens are cool though! |
|
|
|
|
|
Jeremy age 6 with his original chickens
|
Jeremy with Bossy |
|
|
|
|
Summer 2003 |
|
|
Christmas 2003 |
|
