Round Two

We got more chickens.  Lots more.  Last time we got 4, and now...we're down to 1.  At some point, Gertrude didn't come home one day and not too long after, Blackie and Aleena met a similar fate.  So that left us with Francis.  Francis is a good girl.  She sticks close by and gives us an egg a day, but we decided that she needs some company.  This time, we decided to up the odds.  Our original plan was to get 6, but then Ben said, "If me and Abby get two, that's 4 and if Daddy gets two that would be 6 so we need to get 8 so that it is fair for everyone."  And how can you argue with that kind of math?  So 8 it is!  We waited for weeks for them to arrive at the farm store.  We called ahead to see if we needed to reserve them.  They said no.  We showed up after work last Friday and the family in front of us got the last four.  The lady that worked there told us that we should have reserved them.  Gee, thanks lady.  That's information that would have been helpful YESTERDAY WHEN WE CALLED TO ASK!!!  I am embarrassed to tell you that my 5-year-olds may have handled the disappointment slightly better than I did.  When I finished my pity party, we reserved some for this week.  The kids were on pins and needles waiting for chick day.  On Wednesday, they called to tell us we could come pick up two.  So Robbie took the kids and I came home to Taco (you know, like chicken Taco) and Aleena (you know, like the last chicken she had).

At first, we thought that Aleena was narcoleptic.  She would fall asleep standing up and slept all day.  By this morning though, it became clear that something was wrong.  By mid morning, Aleena was dancing with the angels and Abby was a wreck.  Luckily, the rest of our chicks were in so after a grave side service, they went to replace Aleena and bring home the rest of the flock.   Meet Taco, Black Bean, Aleena (the third one), Tinkerbell, Stinkerbell, Jackpot, Shirley and Charlotte.

There are a lot of them.  And many of them look alike.  So how do we tell them apart?  We painted their nails, of course!  Luckily, Abby loves nail polish so we had enough to paint everyones toes a different color.  Perfect!

(Please excuse the blurry photo, my photographer is 5).

Abby has been sad today about the loss of her second Aleena.  Today she told Robbie, "I just keep remembering all the fun times I had with her."  Meanwhile, the third Aleena was exhibiting some of the same symptoms as her predecessor, so after dinner Robbie snuck her out of the house and exchanged her for a more lively looking one.  Yes, that's right.  We are on our fourth Aleena.  And Abby is none the wiser. 

Our goal for the next few days will be to avoid anymore chicken funerals.  And after that, we will move onto remodeling the chicken coop because the current one is just too small.  Oh, and I can't believe I forgot to tell you about the hexagonal chicken run that Robbie's planning to build.  More on that when it actually happens.  So lots of chicken projects over here.  But I think it will be totally worth it.  Because who doesn't need 10 eggs a day?