Chickens, Take 2

We have decided to try again with the urban chicken raising. Last weekend we went to Callahan's General Store and bought six week-old chicks, three Silver-Laced Wyandottes and three Rhode Island Reds.

This picture shows them in their cage on the screen porch but the next night the temperature plummeted into the 50's so we moved them into the music room where they would be warmer and better separated from our dogs.

They continue to grow, as chickens do--it still amazes me just how fast they grow. Over the next month or so we will be building a proper fully-enclosed chicken coop in the back yard, including an electrified wire barrier that should discourage dogs and any critter that might come into the backyard.

We have also started a program of trapping the feral cats that roam the yards and creek around our house and that are prime suspects in the prior chicken massacre. We trapped our first one last night and I delivered it to the animal shelter this morning. It would be a little bit easier if they were nasty vicious animals but in fact these cats are all cute and fairly well mannered. But we've both reached our limit of having the dogs go nuts and tear up the screens on the screen porch whenever the cats are about (which is always) and the danger to the chickens is too high. Plus we have a general responsibility to try to help control the feral cat population.