My pet chickens 2
...So I am hoping to induce others in Califon to keep chickens. Chicken feed is proverbially cheap but bought in 50 lb bags, which is about 50x the weight of my girls. I can't use it before it goes bad. Right now I use some of C's feed. They eat layer crumbles, scratch grains, and gravel they pick up from the driveway. They can eat most table scraps, preferring sweets (fruit, carrots, corn). I also need to find someone with whom to exchange vacation care, as Judy is moving at the end of this month. The Methodist minister's daughter, who is 5, is enchanted by the chickens, so maybe her family could be talked into it. The problem is, of course, everything eats chickens and/or eggs. Cats, dogs, hawks, rats, raccoons, foxes, opossums, snakes, minks, owls. People, but poaching around here is minimal. We have worked out this Tweety and Sylvester thing where the cat and chix are mutually exclusive. Only one party can be outside at any given time. The cat is not amused. She wants to grab them. She won't even hunt any more and has turned into a fur shmoo with little legs.
The other day I came home early in the afternoon and Juni was reporting up to me at the kitchen window all by herself. "Gigi is probably laying her egg," I thought. Juni kept insisting I come out, even flying up against the window. I called for Gigi. After a second Gigi trotted out of the shrubbery. She had gotten a bloody nose somehow, which looked like it had crusted over about 2 hours ago. She was fine, but it was touching how Juni came and got me when her friend was hurt.