a notre maison, the chicken came first.

me and Rhoda (she pooped in my pocket during the shot)

Fanny

Rhoda

well, it's official...we are now proud owners of 3 chickens.  2 hens (Fanny and Rhoda) and 1 cock (Dickie).  I have always wanted chickens, but living in Los Angeles it just wasn't possible.  Well, it's possible, but if your neighbors complain then you have to give them away.  We also didn't have the space with the dogs and all.  I wanted to get chickens when I moved to france, but kept putting it off because I really didn't know where to get them, how to take care of them, what to do, etc...

Last Saturday our dear friends Ben and Anke came over for our version of thanksgiving...a mexican fiesta.  We made homemade guacamole, salsa and chicken/beef fajitas.  We also had nachos.  Alan (another friend) made these amazing peppers stuffed with Cantal cheese.  I'm not sure what it is about the french and dressing up.  Not sure if you read this post, where our friends Jacques and Fabrice came over the day after the election dressed as soldiers, with a bottle of champagne so we could toast an Obama victory,  that was our first taste of french humor.

So, on Saturday we had Indians over for dinner.  Yes, Ben and Anke dressed as Indians so that we could celebrate thanksgiving.  We told them that we normally don't dress up for thanksgiving, but we liked their creativity.  Crazy french.  They came with NO shoes and it's freezing outside.  On their faces, soot from the stove.  

our crazy freinds Ben & Anke

During dinner I told Ben that I really wanted chickens.  Not to eat, but to lay eggs.  He told me he'd bring me some.  "Sure, he's going to bring me chickens", I thought.  Well, on Monday Ben had to come and fix a leak around the shower...he comes in, we have some tea/coffee and we are talking and he says "oh, your chickens are in the car".  What!  Yes, 2 hens that are "almost ready to start laying eggs".  I know there is a technical term for that, so help me out if you know it.    We also have a cock, with a limp.  Yes, our cock has a limp!  great.

So, ben pulls them out of the car - the cock is in the carrier they use for his kids rabbit and the hens are in their "laundry basket".  What a great guy - he uses his laundry basket to bring over our hens.  We have a shed about 30 feet from our house and that will be their new home.  Ben told us to put them in for the day/night with food and water and bedding (straw) and then they'll know it's where they live and roost.  We went up to the farmers house to get some straw for their bedding and he also gave us some more food for them and wished us "bonne chance". Huh?

So, they were in the shed all day on Monday (to get used to their home) and the next morning we went to let them out for the day.  We just opened the door and they came out.  During the day they wandered around the meadow, the woods and just clucked around.  Then came dusk and Ben told us just to shoo them into the shed at night.  Well, how do you do that?  About 1/2 hour before it got dark we went to the shed and they were just hanging out.  I even got Rhoda to eat from my hand, damn her beak is sharp, ouch!  But they wouldn't go into the shed.  We were thinking we'd be outside chasing these chickens around all night.  

So what do you do when you don't know what to do....you google your question.  Damn, I love the internet.  We found out that what we did, putting them in the shed for a day was smart, because it's got them used to where they will roost and that at dusk they will just go into the shed on their own.  So we kept watching out the door and then all of a sudden I saw Dickie jump into the shed and then the hens followed.  Bruce went up to see them and they were all in bed, so cute.  So he shut the door to lock them in so that they don't get eaten by a fox or something.

I'm a farmer, well sort of.  I guess just a chicken owner.  I always read the blog Apiferafarm and so love her life (farm, chickens, goats, donkeys, art, lavender).  I emailed her with tons of questions about chickens and she emailed me back with so much information,  thank you!  Now I'm a bit closer with my chickens, we are friends.  I have held all of them and they are very sweet.  Yesterday I spent about 20 minutes in the coop cleaning it out, putting their nests where they roost up higher and talking to them, clucking around, getting them comfortable.  We can't wait until we go out and see our first eggs. We were told that during the winter they don't lay as many eggs and we are not sure when they will start laying, but we'll keep checking. 

Fresh eggs every morning, how great....how organic, how healthy....love it!