The Saga of the SBCs

For my faithful blog followers, I want to apologize for not writing much this fall. I have been VERY blessed and VERY busy in my new adventures as a relief veterinarian.

This doesn't mean that I haven't been eating new things and trying to grow a fall-winter garden.....but the lack of blogging is also directly correlated to our chickens: Parmesan, Tandoori and Kebab.

As you can see from previous photos, our chickens used to have full access to our backyard. We have a 7 foot solid privacy fence that they never once tried to scale, even though their sister Piper does it regularly.

Once my collards, bok choy, brussels sprouts and lettuce went into the ground, the chickens went to work destroying them. Basically, most vegetation that is tasty to a human is also tasty to chickens. This made me very upset, since I had spent a lot of time and money getting the plants into the ground. To make matters worse....the chickens had not started laying at this point.

Out of frustration, we soon began calling the destructive non productive little she-devils the "SBCs" or STUPID BABY CHICKENS! AARRRRGGHHH!

So despite erecting complicated mesh fencing around our raised beds, somehow they kept breaking in and enjoying my fresh salad. We had to come up with a solution. They now have their OWN yard along the back few beds of our garden that are mostly in the shade. Now that they are completely sequestered, we can go back to calling them "Silly Baby Chickens" or "Sweet Baby Chickens" especially since they've been laying since late November.

I was concerned that the chickens would hit puberty at the wrong time of the year, since most chickens lay less during the short-days of the year and when its cold. Thank goodness for Rhode Island Red hens....nothing phases these little egg factories! They're not called "cold hardy" for nothing!

We are now getting 2-3 eggs per day. During the freezing weather and snow flurries they did stop laying for a few days. Their eggs are delicious, and once they are consumed, the shells go into the compost to help supplement our now chicken-free gardening endeavors.