Chickens

Yes, I know this blog is for my goats but really, I have to give some light to the other productive animal here at CBF Nigerians. Chickens. While they don't produce precious bouncy baby goats, an abundance of milk that can be made into: ice cream, soap, cheese, yogurt etc. they still are a part of the productive team here on the mini farm. When we moved into our first house, the ex-owners left us two gifts, their beautiful Black lab (who they told us they were leaving for us) and 2 chickens which they did NOT tell us about. Now, being that I was a Country girl wannabe raised in the city I had NO previous experience. I still giggle about my first experience of discovering our two Older than the hills but still laying occassionally Barred Rocks. I heard strange noises and called hubby about the noises. He told me to investigate. I did and found these two girls wandering the property. OKAY - I had no idea what to do with them but quickly found out and we fed them and found little treasures in the hut built around the well pump - EGGS! A neighbor told us that the chickens had been there for a loooong time and were quite old. Well, I didn't care and we quickly added to the flock - Araucanas, Wyandotts, Hamburgs, and Buff Orpingtons. Just before moving here we lost our whole flock save 2 to dogs who dug into the pen off the ditch. I just didn't have the heart to replace them - yet. But about 4 years ago I got the itch to raise farm fresh chickens and eggs again and the new flock was born. We've added different breeds and are trying to raise an egg/meat flock now. NOT all of them are but still we've had fun trying out different girls.

This morning I found a great article and this weekend I was informed that Albuquerque NM is the Urban Chicken capitol of the US. Apparently raising chickens in Albuquerque is BIG!!! There have even been articles written in the local paper. Personally I'd like to see Albuquerque step up to the plate and allow urban goat keeping too (Nigerians are NO BIGGER than an Australian Shepherd and are usually less noisy!) 2 does per family could keep a family in milk, meat and dairy products and really be an asset especially for folks with food allergies! Since us goat breeders cannot sell the milk to these folks, it would be great for them to have them!

Nothing more fun than having your morning coffee complete with fresh goat milk creamer while watching the bouncing babies play!

But I digress, back to chickens! Anyway, I found this great article this morning thanks to a fellow facebooker who posted it and I think it is awesome!!! Whether you are an urban chicken farmer or farm that raises chickens for eggs and meat or just someone THINKING about it. Here it is:

http://blog.mcmurrayhatchery.com/2011/02/22/7-reasons-to-raise-chickens/

So get out there, build a coop and enjoy your chickens and your farm fresh eggs!

Starting tomorrow I am going to try to post about some of the different breeds we raise and why, complete with pictures. Wanna learn more about chickens? Stay tuned! OH, that is if we don't get pre-empted by the birth of bouncy goat babies that are due - TODAY!!!!!