Chickens Again

I made a discovery. There are chickens in my neighborhood. I was sitting on the deck sipping coffee and I heard the unmistakable clucking. After exploring I was able to identify the house through the bushes at the back of the yard. Yes, we are now a chicken integrated neighborhood.

It seems that this summer is the summer of chickens. I find them every where as of late. In fact the day I posted my entry about the seemingly endless hours I was trapped at Shelburne Farms with my own daughter lugging chickens around. The featured blog of note was titled the chicken lady. It was about a woman in California who raises chickens in the yard of her rental house. She even showed pictures of the chickens walking in the house. She listed off all the reasons she just had to have chickens. I don't get this.

My sister wants to get chicken too. I can not fathom this. Why I asked why chickens? "Because of the eggs," she said. She is not the only one to say this either. This seems obvious to you chicken fans. I am wondering is there some kind of egg shortage I am unaware of? Because my local grocery store seems well stocked. All I do is open the door to the refrigerator and lift the lid to check for broken shells.

I don't feed them, build housing for them, listen to them, or- most importantly- I do not need to touch them with their freaky flapping wings coming at me. I just pay the cashier and off I go. I just do not understand the desire to deal with all that for a couple of eggs. Plus I think the things are a bit carnivorous. While we were trapped in the Shelburne Farm chicken coop the kids were collecting the eggs. One little girl dropped an egg and it smashed on the floor. These chickens rushed at the broken egg pecking each other and eating it! I was horrified! This did not raise my opinion of the things at all. I'll take my eggs chilled on cardboard thank you.