The Chicken Chronicles: Part 1

Farm. Fresh. Eggs.

Let's all go back to June, 2012.......

After discovering the deliciousness that is the farm fresh egg, I realized that having access to them all the time would be pretty rad.

It wasn't until later, however, when a friend of mine was moving out of state, that I actually considered owning chickens. Her family had 4 or 5 of them, and a coop, and a duck. These critters needed a home in a couple months, and I was just moving out to the farmface estate. It seemed like perfect timing - plus she promised me a free coop and free chickens. Awesome.

Well a few things happened. Some lady wanted them too, and I guess technically they used to be her chickens anyway or some crap like that, so she got first dibs. She didn't want all 5, however, so there were still 2 up for grabs.

But suddenly the promise of a free coop got mixed up in some fevered-dream-storm-of-forgetfulness that my friend called "moving." She wanted to keep the coop with her house for resale.
Understandable, but...
No more coop.
So now the magician wand of getting a free set up and 5 happy chickens became the dead branch of just 2 loose hens. Far less desirable. Bonus? I would still be working out of town for 10 more days before I could even begin setting up our place for chickens. I hadn't even set up my own stuff!
So I declined, and all the chickens stayed together with their new and I guess technically they used to be her chickens anyway old home.

Fast forward 3 months

Farmface MacFear knows I want chickens now. He's all for it, even though he doesn't even like eggs.

Another farmface just down the road apparently wanted to give some of his chickens away. He and farmface MacFear discuss things, and MacFear comes home telling me he has the chicken-hook-up.
Free chicken opportunity #2! Awesome.
I start plotting ideas for my amazing coop I'm going to build, and where I'm going to put it. Of course I want it to be super neat with secret doors and magic. Plus, I am so proficient with construction AND knowledgeable about the needs of chickens, I will be able to make some sort of Castle of the Chickens. It's going to be great.

I get a phone call at work 3 days later, in the middle of the noonish hour.

A few hours later as the sun is setting, I get home and there is a black hen across the street. MacFear is in our back field hunting around for the red one. I managed to successfully chase off the black one, and together (but mostly FearFace) we get miss-little-red and put her up in a water trough that we lid with some random material.
So we "have" two chickens, one stuck in an empty-water-trough-turned-cage, the other out....somewhere. I'm still not sure where she was the first two nights. At the time, I was pretty convinced it was in another animal's tum.
The two hens rejoined forces in the coming days roosting on our tree. I built a temporary coop out of a dog cage/kennel, PVC and chicken wire and got things under control.

...and the next morning I had my very own, (probably-stress-induced) farm fresh egg!