Today is a special anniversary for me (besides being my 15 year wedding anniversary which is also quite special).  Today marks the 1st anniversary of me raising chickens!  1 year ago today, I went and bought my very first chicken “Grace” a White Delaware, “Grace” as you might recall recently hearing about, has sadly departed us in this world, 2 weeks ago.  She was an amazing chicken!  When she first came to live on the ranch, she was only 10 weeks old and extremely shy!  It wasn’t until after she was an established layer that she became my favorite chicken.  She would always come running when she heard my feet hit the deck.  She was my shadow, she followed me everywhere and was always under my feet!  She was full of personality and would even fly up on my back whenever I was in the run.  Ok, enough about “Grace” it makes me sad to think about the memories I have with her:*(  4 days after getting “Grace” I went out and got “Midnight” a chicken that I was told was a Red-Laced Wyandotte but later I learned she was actually a Black Sex Link, nevertheless, she is a great bird!  Grace and Midnight were my only 2 chickens thru the winter, then about mid way thru, a friend introduced me to and gave me my first Serama Bantams, (3) week old chicks which sadly, became just 1 a rooster my 3 year old daughter named “Blackie.” “Blackie” was a house chicken all winter long.  He became quite fond of my husband, who would go talk to him and “speak his language” quite frequently throughout the day.  I never intended to keep a rooster, I was always led to believe roosters were loud and mean, but not “Blackie.”  My children came to really love him (and so did I) so we decided to keep him.  As he matured, I knew he needed a mate, so my friend who gave me “Blackie” offered up a mate for him, a beautiful golden girl we named “Goldie.”  This is when “chicken math” took over my life!  Once those fertile eggs started being laid, I became a “hatch-o-holic, I became completely addicted!!!!  My 2 chickens became 3 then 4 then……….MANY!  I first started keeping chickens in an attempt to start raising as much of my own food as possible, but now I keep them not only for their eggs, but because I genuinely love them!!  Who would of thought chickens would make such wonderful, loving, full of personality pets!!  I relate them to dogs in that sense.  On the ranch, we now have 1 Black Sex Link, 1 Easter Egger, 1 Buff Orpington, 2 Red Sex Links, 1 Isa Brown, several Seramas, 1 Lavender Ameraucana, 1 Blue Olive Egger, 2 White Silkies, and 2 Ameraucana Bantams.  I LOVE CHICKENS!!!

chickens and ducks oh my!