Monday, December 15, 2008

Chicken Fever

There is a raging case of chicken fever going on at my house.

It's my fault. I brought up the topic as a conversation piece, a mere topic of discussion -- but it started a fire that soon raged out of control.

I should have known better. My husband loves most things rural, ie, anything done differently than how it's done in the city. Raising chickens for their eggs would definitely fall into that category. So why did I ever show my husband someone's chicken pictures?

It began innocently enough, with a discussion of egg differences in relation to different species and then went to pretty pictures and and then it all went to ....."that place" in a handbasket very quickly. It was exacerbated by the picture accompanying this post . Seeing such a familiar item as the covered cat litterbox seemed to be the last straw. Seeing chickens in as familiar an item as the covered litterbox brought it home for him that we too could have chickens.

Suddenly he was on-line reading all about chickens. He visited the library to check out books on chickens. He scoured the bookstores to see if he could find any more sources of information on chickens and chicken coops. He has lost his mind, for chickens.

Help!


Edited to add: I apparently did not correctly enter the hyperlinks so the links to Rurality's posts did not appear. If you want to see the pictures I showed my husband, they can be seen on Rurality's blog by cutting and pasting:
http://rurality.blogspot.com/2008/07/size-of-things.html
http://rurality.blogspot.com/2008/05/dumpling.html
http://rurality.blogspot.com/2007/03/spring-chickens.html
http://rurality.blogspot.com/2007/04/last-leg.html

Caution: Photos may be addictive. Unsuspecting spouses may be infected with the illness known as chicken fever. Looking at these photos may not be safe for young children or adults with weakened immune systems. ::goofy laugh:: View at your own risk.

4 comments:

Rurality said...

Heh. If you want to split an order from Ideal Hatchery in the spring, let me know! You have to order 25 chicks at a time and we really don't need that many. "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" is the book we like!

If you want a nice catalog to hold in your hands, order the Murray McMurray Hatchery one.

The Country Experience said...

Rurality, I just finished editing the post with the addy for the pics I had intended on including in the post. My newbie status is showing. "Technical difficulties", the monotonic voice intones. (Is "monotonic" a word? I'm going to have to look it up.)

That is the exact book he checked out of the library! I'll tell him about splitting an order. We certainly don't need 25 chicks, either. Have you had better luck with a certain kind?

Kristin @ Going Country said...

I did this exact same thing, with the added complication that my MiL is JUST like my husband and so both of them took the chicken ball and ran with it. And now we have chickens. But I take care of them, because it was my idea.

They're not so bad. A lot better than turkeys, for sure.

Rurality said...

Well different kinds are good for different things... depends on if you want them for meat, eggs, or both. We've had Dominiques, Leghorns, Buff Orpingtons, Easter Eggers, Lakenvelders, Marans, and Rhode Island Reds - I think that is all. :) If you have questions about any of those let me know. We liked the variety of different egg colors.