Photo from Easy Homestead.

Photo from pinterest.

My Mom has chickens. I think it’s adorable.  They keep them well fed and well watered, but what I saw on Sunday served as a vivid reminder of proper hydration of outdoor animals.

My niece’s fiance brought the watering bucket out to change the chicken water when we went out to see the birds.  Of course clean water was already plentiful in their coop, but after he dumped the existing water and poured the new water, all the chickens quickly gathered and began drinking.  Why? Because the water was too HOT to drink.

Change water frequently during the summer.  Another idea is to freeze water in old milk cartons or other would-be throwaway liquid containers (after cleaning out, of course). Then put the block of ice outside so the water can hopefully stay cool enough to drink for several hours.

You can skip the commercial at the beginning of this video, but the video itself is nifty. I can’t believe this cat hasn’t had the chick for dinner!

Photo from Living the Country Life.

While my husband continues to say “NO!” to my monthly proposal to get some backyard chickens, I still dream.  Especially when I find a chicken coop this amazing.  From BackyardChickens.com,

We worked on this for about 8 weekends. Plus a few week nights. It took a long time. We made some mistakes and figured out how to fix them or work with them. But it was a lot of fun (mostly) and a great family project. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Still to do (maybe): add a chicken cam, an automatic door opener, an auto watering system, and landscaping.

It is gorgeous!

Baby chicks are just adorable!  I hadn’t even brought that into the equation as I’ve begun thinking about raising chickens in my yard.  We’re on an acre and a half rather out in the country’ish.  And my town allows chickens!

What are the benefits of raising your own chickens? Come to find out, the benefits are wonderful!

• The eggs taste better than those produced en masse because urban chickens have a better food supply.
• The chickens keep bugs and pests down. What do you picture when you think of a chicken?  The talon creatures scratching around in the dirt.  Looking for bugs.  Looking to rid your yard of bugs!
• Lots of compost materials for great fertilizer!

If you’re considering getting urban chickens – or suburban chickens in my case – let us know what happens!  Here’s some valuable information about raising chickens from UrbanChickens.com.

Photo by Lauren Mitchell.

This is crazy.  Which came first?  The ?? or the egg?

The great thing about being from a large family that’s filled with love and laughter is that even when you’re poor growing up, you never really realize it.  Mom and Dad did everything they could to make ends meet.  We had a huge garden wherever we lived, there was canning and freezing to be done, and at one point we even raised rabbits for food.

It never really bothered me to eat rabbit – my favorite was rabbit noodle soup.  However, our rabbit meals suddenly stopped one day when one of my brothers sat down at the table and innocently asked, “Mom! Which one is this?  The white one or the brown one?”

And thus ended our foray into barbecued bunny.  The Urban Chickens Network blog makes the point in a much less brutal way in Backyard Bunnies are NOT the Next Urban Chicken,

Urban chickens will provide a regular supply of protein-packed eggs for at least three years (sometimes much longer) and there’s no blood on your hands. Raising chickens means entering a nurturing relationship with an animal that rewards you sustainably and over time.

Bunnies, on the other hand, only give up their protein once: and that’s after the slaughter.

I think having a chicken would be pretty neat, but like my Mom I don’t think I could ever raise bunnies for meat again.

Photo by notsogoodphotography via flickr creative commons
(and your photo really was good!).
H/T Brittney’s Shared Items.