Homeschooling Chickens
Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe it was Thanksgiving since I’ve written. I’ve been really busy raising chickens. I’m the mamma and I watch over them with an eagle eye, knowing we have owls, foxes and any number of wildlife that would love to make an easy meal of my chickens.
My son was a big help building the pen and especially in cleaning it and keeping the birds fed and watered. He hasn’t really warmed up to them yet, but I suspect it’s because he knows I’m expecting him to kill them when the time comes. That time will be here sooner than I thought too.
My chickens look like this…
It seems I bought four meat birds. They will be ready to butcher in 8-weeks. Not 8-weeks from now, but in 8-weeks total. Please don’t buy these birds. They grow so fast they can hardly walk, you can see their little hearts beating for all it’s worth. My heart goes out to these little creatures and I don’t think I’m going to let them get full size. I feel so badly for them, when I see they are suffering it will be time.
They are 4-weeks old now, I can’t believe how fast they grow in one day. I let them out in the yard when the cats in the house, they follow me around. I love to spend time outside with them. Not only am I providing fresh organic food for my family, I’m also fertilizing the lawn, so it can grow to support another batch of chickens. Nature renews itself over and over again.
In the process my spirit is renewed daily. I think the chickens are actually homeschooling me and I’m loving it.
I think Zack will enjoy the chickens once we determine who the layers will be. Right now we don’t even know how many roosters and hens we have. I can’t wait to find out. We are keeping one of the roosters, so I’ve been keeping a sharp eye out. I like what I see, except I’m so worried about those meat chickens. I wish I would not have gotten them.
This is a great school project, especially when you start incubating your own eggs. The pen and hutch are quite an investment. If you have access to the wood, the fencing is pretty cheap. The nice thing is you can build as they grow, when they are little all they need is water, food, and heat. You do have to be ready with the other things though, they do grow quickly.
More soon..
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