Peep-A-Boo!

And here they are, our little peepers! We ordered three silkie chicks through our local feed store Standard Feed, and after waiting for about two weeks we finally got the call we'd been waiting for with bated breath: Your chicks are here for pick-up!

We wanted silkies for their cute looks and less so for their egg production. As I mentioned a little while ago, we aren't in it just for the eggs - those are a neat side effect of having chicken. As a breed, silkies really appealed to us and we are madly in love with their looks. They are also a Bantam breed so they are smaller than the average chicken, but we were very surprised to see just how much smaller they are. The chicks were -tiny-!

We went with three different color for ease of identification: blue, white, and black. Since our family has Irish roots (and I'm a bit Iron Druid fan) we went with Irish names: Danu (pronounced "Da-noo") for our little blue chick, Niamh (pronounced "Neev") for our little white one, and Morrigan for our little black one with the attitude.Aren't they adorable?

See how tiny they are? This is Danu, our snuggle chic. she loves to cuddle right into the palm of your hand when you pick her up! They are about half the size of regular chicks of the same age.

And here's the peep squad rocking out under the red light of the heat lamp!

Cluck Yeah!

Life's been crazy - that seems to be the norm over here these days and I'm not particularly crazy about it - and while there's not been a peep from me here ,life did not come to a stand-still. Oh no, no such luck.

Biggest news - chicken are legal now!

Thanks to the initiative of Lauren Trad and "Hens in Jax" and the wide-spread support throughout town, Jacksonville is finally embarking on a limited two-year pilot project allowing up to 5 hens (no roosters) in combination with single family homes in residential areas. A few neighborhoods opted out but fortunately for us, Historic Springfield is on board!

In order to snatch up one of the 300 coveted backyard hen permits, Little Man and I signed up for the required class (we both enjoyed that very much thanks to the fun speakers), received our chicken class certificate, and then filed for our permit the next day. In less than a week we were holding our backyard hen permit in our hot, sweaty hands.

Cluck yeah!

Why chicken?
For the heck of it.
 I mean, we are not in it -just- for the eggs. At the end of the day it'd be cheaper to keep on buying organic eggs at the store, especially with our silkies who are not known for consistent egg production, but it's not nearly as much fun and as rewarding.

We ordered our Silkie chicks and while waiting for our chicks to arrive, we did major research on which coop for our hens, planned where to put it, did some slight rearranging in our backyard and got going on building a home for our feathered pets with benefits here at our little old house.

More on that later!