Chicken Fever

My parents are citrus farmers in Florida, and last July (soon after I told my mom that I got two chicks) she called me up to say that she got two chicks from a worker. Queenie and Brownie are wild and flighty with long legs, skinny body and brown feathers. Every time she'd let them out to roam in the orange grove, they would fly up into the trees and never come back. My mom wasn't satisfied with just two chickens, and once they started laying eggs, she borrowed a rooster to fertilize the eggs. Eventually 11 chicks hatched out of 14 eggs.

Still, she was envious of my fat and domestic chickens so last week, she got 3 Rhode Island Reds and 3 Ameraucanas. That's a lot of chickens.

Brooding

I used to have Rhode Island Reds as a kid: Chip, Mohawk and Dirty. I'd bathe them every week and blowdry them until they'd fall asleep. They'd come running, pooping left and right until they plopped into my lap. This sweet life lasted until they matured into grown adults. The chicken coop then became a war zone. I'd constantly dodge their ferocious pecks at my feet and hands, and I was always wearing sandals for some reason. Chip was the skinniest and the meanest of them all. But all three hens provided us fresh brown eggs everyday and compliantly hopped into their coop every night. My grandpa had built the most amazing wooden coop with windows, a sliding door and a sloped roof that opened up. Unfortunately, we lived in a surburb that wasn't zoned for chickens, and our neighbors weren't too happy about the egg-laying cacophony. So my chickens took refuge at a family friend's house and lived happily with a male rooster.

Now living in San Diego, I've become an avid gardener. I have tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, watermelons, passion fruit, all kinds of herbs, strawberries, onions, potatoes, green beans, cantaloupes...you get the idea. Then I read an article about the trend in backyard chickens and all their benefits. They eat bugs, peck at weeds, eat food scraps, lay eggs and fertilize the ground. Amazing! They would also be sweet pets, except for Rhode Island Reds, which I found out tend to be aggressive. I've researched all the various types of chickens, looking for friendly, quiet egg-layers and I've decided on Ameraucanas (for their pretty easter egg colors) and Orpingtons (for their chubby good looks).