Chickens!

On May 5th there will be 20 newly hatched chicks that will be placed in a box with a shipping label to Minnesota. They are coming here, to our house!

Before you call us impulsive, as some who have known us for a long time think we are, may I say that we have been considering having chickens here on our 6 acres since we moved out here in 1997 and have been considering it more seriously for a couple of years now. After some research, talking with a cousin(Thanks Minke!)and discussion as a couple then as a family, we have decided this is something we want to do. Here are some reasons why.

Chickens are easy to care for and make a good family project. They are inexpensive to purchase and to keep. They lay eggs. The cost of groceries continues to climb and the nutritional value of eggs cannot be denied. Our family likes eggs and eats a lot of them. Home grown eggs usually have better, more flavorful yolks and are just plain better for you than store bought. Imagine, collecting the eggs just a few minutes before cooking them. Finally, this reason being one of the biggest to us, is that we are eventually going to be moving to Tanzania where we are hoping to have a mini-working farm within the ministry to help feed and support the children in the orphanage. We know chickens will be one of the first animals there and that we will be raising and eating a lot of them. Anything we can learn to do here in the relative comfort of our own culture seems like it would be a benefit in the long run. Although, we aren't quite ready to branch out into goats, cows and pigs yet, we know that will come once we are over there.

Call us crazy if you will but this is one of the least crazy decisions we have made in a long time.

Edited to add:For those with chicken knowledge who may want to know, here are the breeds we ordered. We have 5 of each coming to us-Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Silver Laced Wyandotte and a Rhode Island Red/Delaware Hybrid. We chose based on our research of personalities and egg laying capabilities as well as looks. The rest of the decision lay in how long we wanted to wait for our chicks. One breed we were considering would have held up delivery until June so we decided on a different breed. For those without the knowledge, there will be pictures later.