As a child, I grew up going to my grandparent’s farm every weekend and summer. While my grandfather was no longer farming, we still enjoyed every inch of dirt and water at that place. We caught turtles, crawfish, lizards, frogs, fish, you name it. Anything that could be caught, was - including armadillos caught by hand (we lived in Texas) and a litter of skunks (not caught by hand). This could be the reason my parents decided to let us keep some domestic farm animals, as I’m sure an infection of rabies was in our near future. This was when I was introduced to chickens.

After following many homesteading blogs, I have heard that chickens are the gateway drug to the farming lifestyle. Having had chickens as a child, and now having them as an adult, I have to say, we are hooked. If you can get past the neediness of chicks, you reap an awesome reward from your grown hens. With all of this, let me introduce you to the ladies.

Because my family and I have a love of music, we decided to name our girls after popular songs about women. Seeing them keeps a song on my lips frequently, which helps pass the time doing farm chores.

• Black Betty & Billie Jean - Barred Rocks
• Peggy Sue & Susie Q - Buff Orpingtons
• Proud Mary & Ruby Tuesday - Rhode Island Reds
• Sweet Caroline - Silver Laced Wyandotte

We got eight chicks, two each from four different breeds. One unfortunately turned out to be a rooster, so now we have seven. We chose many different breeds to determine which we like best as far as laying frequency, egg size, and personality (which is more about aggression than winning a popularity contest). We have followed the same process with ten new chicks that we are raising right now. More on raising baby chicks in another post.

So these are the girls! We get between 4-6 eggs a day from them. Some lay every day and some lay every other. We will be conducting laying tests to make sure everyone is laying. Unfortunately, on a farm, if you’re not putting food on the table in one way, you will be in another - no free loaders around here!