Chicken Scratchings
By Richie Johnson
HTF Contributor
The four chickens have seen it through all four seasons in their backyard coop at the Johnson Five home in Hibbing. Thankfully, it is wpring and no Winter-freeze or skunk mishap has befallen them. On average, they’re producing three eggs a day between the four of them, and every other day or so, one of them surprises us by laying an unusually large “double-size” brown egg next to the others. It’s still fun to make a daily discovery and finding this gift of eggs. From some chicken feed, a few table scraps and water we get fresh eggs and that still amazes me. My five and a half year old son marveled at the fact that they turned peanut butter and jelly sandwich ends into eggs; he still reminds me often that “now we don’t ever have to go to the store to buy eggs!”
We find chickens are very entertaining and productive pets. They’re fun, and funny, to have around and we enjoy watching the birds peck and scratch about the yard exploring life outside the coop. Our neighbors enjoy the chickens too - they just picked up a new little chick at L&M and we’re raising it in our porch until it grows its outside feathers. Of course this means we need to give it a friend, because chickens need chickenfriends, especially when they’re so cute and little. It’s just lonely to have only one.
They are almost one year old. The two from L&M are named Chicken Jane and Mike Wyzowski and the two smaller and younger chickens from New London Warehouse are named Louis and Cluck. Chicken Jane is the only white hen and the others are golden brown.
Chickens will usually lay eggs consistently for around two years before they taper off production. They’ve been known to live for quite a few years kept as pets if they don’t get eaten. Yes, we eat chickens too; I’m pretty sure the chickens know they’re food - they always have that “kinda chicken” look in their eyes like they’re not sure if you’ll attack them at any given moment and then they seem to let down their guard when you don’t pounce at the kill. Like I said, they’re funny.
The fun part about all of this chicken scratching is just having them around as chicken pets. You don’t need much space or shelter or other “things” to care for chickens - you just need enough to cover the basic needs. And you don’t need to live on a farm either; there is a growing “urban chicken-keeping” movement helping people raise chickens in cities. Look for more to the story with pictures, videos and links online at www.hometownfocus.us
http://www.chickenkeeping.com/
http://www.ansci.umn.edu/poultry/
http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Chickens-in-a-City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75xrlDvoB2Y&feature=related
Richie Johnson lives in Hibbing with his wife and three young boys and five backyard chickens.
