our urban barnyard

it’s a new experience for us, urban dwellers with animals (other than the requisite dog or two) so our path of urban animals began last spring with chicks.

we’ve had chickens before, 10 to 20 at a time at the house on the hill and they roamed freely throughout the orchard, yard, and property. we had chickens we hated such as the dreaded, though gorgeous, bantam rooster frank who attacked our daughter every time she left the house. we also had beloved chickens such as our jersey giant rooster golia who met his end when his best friend, daisy the dog, accidently licked him to death on a frigid february morning. we had a burial service and daisy stayed at the grave for nearly three days, dog grief is tough.

Now we have three black australorps, good winter layers, a little flighty but good producers and they’re not bad in the stew pot either. they have adjusted well to our backyard, living first in a large brooding box and then in their “chicken condo” (consisting of an old bathroom sink cabinet as the main floor, an old kitchen cabinet as the loft with laying boxes, and a 6′x3′ run all constructed of materials we had laying around) until we had the permanent coop completed.
Our three ladies, jojo, momo, and helen are now GIANT birds, talkative and great layers. we enjoyed eggs each day even during our 18″ of snow and freezing weather where they stayed snug as chickens-in-egg in their old doors and windows (complete with hardware) coop.

helen and jojo

pepper the rabbit came to us after a visit to the feed store for straw and a longing look from our daughter (who has spent the last 18 months petitioning for a rabbit). our “free rabbit” now enjoys a hutch built on a 23 degree day in january that ended in snow. She is a FAT rabbit that is now on a diet, exercising regularly and enjoying the daily attention of my daughter. She’s excited and the garden is excited for rabbit poo, a bevy of happiness for everyone.

as for daisy the dog she is still hanging out and is trying to figure out how to make the new chickens and the rabbit her pals but the fencing just gets in the way so she spends a lot of time staring at them, licking them through the fence (which they all stand still for) and laying next to the pens. flash the cat has no interest what-so-ever in the black birds or the fuzzy bunny; he could care less.

we are happy as pigs in poo with our little urban barnyard. the chickens are chickening, the rabbit is rabbiting and our daughter is learning responsibility in all kinds of weather.