Making a Homestead: The Chickens Are Here!

            Hey folks! The daffodils have already bloomed here in south central Indiana, the “rainy season” seems to be here already, and pretty soon it will be time to start planting already! We've been thinking about all of the outdoor projects we'd like to undertake all winter. It's hard to believe it's time to get them started!

            We had some decent weather a couple of weekends ago, so we did a little yard work and got started on one of the many things on our to-do list. The back of our house faces the north, for the most part, and thus collects a LOT of leaves during the fall and winter. I don't know why, but I hate looking at them and think it looks like crap with them pressed up against the house, so I took care of that. Plus, I don't like them there because I don't want mice and other critters getting the wrong idea and I like using them to prepare the garden.

            I also want to re-do the area next to our walkway. I'm sure it looked nice at one time too, but I think it looks like crap now also. John was a good boy and got started on it while I raked. We plan on moving the rocks, digging up the yucca plants and hostas, removing the black, landscaping tarp stuff, and planting flowers and maybe some herbs. I'm sure it's going to be more of a pain than I realize. Lol

            Most exciting of all, though, we finally got chickens! We learned a lesson too: Don't special order them! We evidently started looking at the chicks at the farm supply stores too early because they didn't have hardly any of the ones we wanted. So, since one store had it set up to where you could special order certain ones, we did that. Here it is almost 4 weeks later and we still haven't actually received our order. We talked to the guy who takes care of the chicks at the store last weekend. Evidently they hadn't called us yet because they were still missing two of the breeds we ordered and he wanted us to get all of them at the same time, which is understandable...but we're impatient. And it has been almost a month! Don't you think some of that breed would have hatched by now?!

 2 of each: Buff Orpingtons, Silver-laced Wyandottes, Black Australorps, Barred Rocks, and Ameraucanas

            We happened to be in town for other reasons, so we decided to stop in and see what they had at the store because it changes some each time we visit. They had every kind but one that we had ordered/wanted, so we went ahead and bought some. So, lesson learned: Be more patient. What is even more silly is that we could have had ALL the ones we wanted by now if we had gotten the bantams we're missing from another farm supply store when they had them. Oh well. I mostly wanted them because they were small and cute, truth be told. Ha ha Novelty. ;)

             Are any of you getting chickens this spring or have chicks hatching? What breeds do you have or what is your favorite one?