Movin’ On Up

I loved watching “The Jeffersons” when I was younger, and their theme song perfectly describes our chickens’ living quarters.

The ladies have moved out of the tub into their “piece of the pie” in the backyard.

Let me back up to a few weeks ago, when I wrote about how we entered the world of urban farming with the purchase of four chicks.

Well, funny thing. That number has increased to eight.

That’s because we had an incident a few weeks ago.  We thought we had lost one after we took them out for some sunshine, which is recommended.  I did not realize they are mostly feathers, and they easily squeezed their bodies through the chicken run fence! I was able to catch three, but Sunny disappeared. I panicked and made my husband go buy four more — at 8 p.m. I wanted to increase my survival rates!

I did not give up on Sunny, though. We kept looking for her under the coop. The next day, she ran out like she was escaping a fire. I guess the hunger pains were too much. When she returned to the bathtub, she was confused about the increased number of chicks in there. I am pretty sure she kept counting everyone. I guess I should not show her “Gremlins.” You know what water can do to those suckers.

We now call her Sunny Houdini. And, yes, my husband asked if he could take the new chicks back. Three of us voted no. He was the only yes. (That’s Democracy at work, folks.)

With the Polar Vortex, we could not move them outside at 10 weeks — the age when they can handle cooler air — because of the roller-coaster temperatures. (I was also scared they would get out of the run again even though we installed hardware cloth with a much smaller opening.) So they stayed in our bathtub. And they got bigger and bigger. And bigger. Sunny Houdini constantly jumped out of the tub because she was huge and must have remembered her wonderful night in the wild and knew there was more to this world than white porcelain. She was living the chicken version of “The Truman Show.”

Last week, after Sunny Houdini had jumped out of the bathtub for the 50th time, I told the ladies it was moving day. I put them in an ice tub (sans ice, people) and took them outside. They mostly hid under their indoor-outdoor ramp because the sun was too bright on their virgin eyes.

But ever since, they have been doing great. I think the ladies like their new digs.

Want to see our coop? We are on the Tour D’Coop, which is May 17. Get your tickets at Whole Foods. Our coop will  also be featured in Walter Magazine sometime soon! And we are in talks with a local restaurant to provide them eggs once the ladies start laying. Because eight chickens are going to lay a lot of eggs! Stay tuned!

And let’s not forget the real lady of the house, who is happy to have it all to herself these days: