Backyard Adventures

Hey, this adventure-averse lady just realized something: I have adventure happening right in my own back yard.

Meet the girls:

These are our Buff Orpingtons.

Well, no. These were our Buff Orpingtons.

Goodness. There's history here.

Way back in 2012 we decided to begin our chicken adventure. It's chronicled here in a blog I started in all my chicken-raising excitement. Loved that blog. Life got in the way, though.  Still, I look back at our first girls, barred rocks and sex links (I kid you not), fondly.

Unfortunately, a fox looked at them fondly, too. And foxes are sneaky as F&@%.

Our first girls lived mostly in a chicken tractor (described and photographed in loving detail on the ol' blog) but when we moved to our current house, they upgraded to a coop that was already in existence on the property.  It's well built, and we thought it was pretty well critter-proof, but a fox finally figured out how to work the latch.

They're super cute, til they run off with your chickens.

After a few months of general sadness and purchasing eggs from the grocery store (nowhere near as good as the eggs from our girls) we decided to raise chicks again. We dusted off the ol' brooder and got to work.

There are few things as cute as baby chickens (peep-peeps!), but woo are they messy. We were pleased when we could remove them from our dust-covered basement and deposit them in the coop (with a newly reinforced and hopefully fox-proof latch. It has proven so.).

And so the girls grew, began laying, and generally seemed happy in their new home. And we were happy with the return of fresh eggs.

Until this @$$#()!& showed up.

Caught two of these and relocated them. Cute but MEAN little critters.

It took us four nights—and four chickens—to figure out that the little creep was getting in through a teeny-tiny gap in the chicken wire, way up at the top of the coop.

So new fencing went up and all fencing was secured and re-secured.

Aaaaand....five more chickens were procured.

These girls, also Buff Orpingtons, were big enough to move right into the coop, albeit in their own pen.

So now we have eight chickens, a refortified coop, and a fridge full of fresh eggs. 

And I have a new favorite social media hangout: The Maine Poultry Connection on Facebook. Jon learned about this group from a guy at work, and that's where we got our newest Buffs. He logged in, saw a post about Buffs for sale, and bing-bang-boom, that was that. I don't think he's been back since.  But I? I have found my people. Good advice, good humor, good times!

Raising chickens is not super difficult, but it certainly has its challenges.  And I think that qualifies as an adventure.

The original girls

Eggs!

With a young Buff O.