We have had chickens for a little while now. They aren’t quite old enough to lay eggs so really they are free-loaders at this point, but they are some of the most hilarious freeloaders I have ever seen. If you have never seen chickens behave, you are missing a true treat!

We have a coop that is apparently adequately sized for holding the number of birds we have.  They do seem quite happy inside and are safe and healthy.  Still, we especially like to let them roam about our fenced yard.  I cannot leave them there all the time as the neighborhood cats are ferocious hunters…they leave dead stuff on our doorstep all the time.  So we let them out often to roam about but we sit with them all the time.  Abigail and I dragged a couple of lounge chairs over by their coop so we can watch their antics a few weeks ago.  We go and sit with the birds pretty much daily.  At least one of us gets their daily, but it is so much fun that we usually hang out together.

We were talking the other day as they birds pecked and scratched about…Abigail declared that watching the birds was relaxing and, “Almost as good as a day at the beach.”  Indeed, sitting on a lounge chair in the back yard with one’s daughter watching chickens is a great day!

One day in the somewhat near future, I expect that we will get eggs so the chickens will get out of freeloader status.  Until then, they get marked in the budget solidly as entertainment and team building expenses!