After the hiatus....

Our hiatus from the business aspect of the farm was due to increased responsibilities at work, school, and the decimation of our flock last fall.  Losing the flock was the proverbial straw that broke the camels, or in this case, the farmers back.  It's incredibly depressing to lose a flock of chickens.  Earlier in the fall, a mother fox found its way under the fencing of our coop.  For awhile, we had 5 chickens that roamed around the yard.  We tried getting into the new coop, but of course, they had other ideas.  They went rebel and began roosting in the trees out of reach.  Then, they were gone. 

Until this past Friday....

I pulled into the driveway and there stood one of our white Easter Egg chickens.  How she had survived I've no idea, especially after the very low temperatures we had last month.  But, she was there and that was all that mattered.  She happily ran into her old coop and fell on the food we found for her.  We didn't have any chicken feed so we found veggies for her eat.  

Then we made the trip to TSC to the feed store.  I had already decided I wanted chickens again.  I wanted about 6 that would give me a dozen eggs a week, and that I could organically raise.  Caris was excited, and I was excited.  We had decided how to make our new smaller coop the "Fort Knox" of coops, and had planned out the area.  What I didn't bargain for was seeing the bins for chicks that TSC had ready.  Chick days are coming soon.  

They had already arrived at Rural King.

Now I've had my issues in the past with Rural King and their chick days.  Last year it led to a complaint to management about the inhumane way they were housing the chickens and letting every child reach down in to grab-and harm- any chicken they wanted.  I was pleasantly surprised this year with the fencing over the bins.  And the selection!  Oh goodness....the selection.  They had every chicken breed I wanted.  "Let's just get 6 chickens" turned into "might as well get 10 and share" (with a fellow non-gmo friend).  It then turned into 13, because they had black Jersey Giants!  All (minus the chick we lost this morning) are brooding happily in the garage, kept safe from harm from Fergus the outdoor cat by clever fencing.

So we have chicks again....seed catalogs are coming in daily...garden diagrams have been drawn....seed varieties have been chosen.  I'm not sure what will happen, but it would seem Aurora Bryn Farm is back in business!