I have a confession...

I have a confession…

Believe it or not there was a point when I was ready to put the brakes on our chicken/eggs adventure. You see, my wife was the driving force behind the whole idea. She had studied all the great benefits of eating free range eggs and had decided she wanted to raise them herself. Now, don’t get me wrong, I liked the idea of chickens, but I didn’t really think about what the costs would be before starting.

Well, it was at the coop building stage that everything almost fell apart. The chicks had outgrown our guest bathroom and needed more room. My wife and I went down to Lowes to pick out the roofing materials. As I started adding up the price, I was having trouble seeing the payoff of this whole adventure. It was going to be well over $100.00. She could sense my apprehension and started asking me what was wrong. I’m not the best in the world at hiding my feelings (a wife has an uncanny ability to see right through a husband) and she soon figured out that I was really not feeling this whole chickens-in-the-backyard thing. “OK, let’s just forget it then” she said “I’ll find a home for the chicks and we’ll be done with it.” She started walking back to the truck with tears in her eyes and it was then that I realized how much these little chicks meant to her. (I admit husbands aren’t always the brightest creatures, but at least I figured that one out.) You can bet I wasn’t going home without that roofing material.

I gingerly suggested we try another store to compare pricing. She waited this one out in the truck as I went in and found a little better deal. I called her up on her cell phone and asked her to come help me load the stuff onto the cart. Things were starting to look up. J When I got home I officially started the coop and it went together very quickly. Less than 2 afternoons and the chicks had a nice new home. They were happy, I was happy and last but not least my wife was very happy.

Now that the chicks had their new home I was ready to see the eggs. That’s when I found out it takes time for the chicken to mature to the egg laying stage. Every week I kept asking when the eggs would start appearing, but it remained an inevitable yet indefinite date in the future. I continued to wait patiently (J) and eventually stopped asking about it. Then finally the day arrived, our first egg! A cute little egg, but an egg nonetheless.

Over the next few days the egg production began to grow from 1-2 a day then 3-4 a day and now 7-8 a day. They started out small but are now fairly large eggs, with a few double yolks thrown in every now and then. I have to admit that these are the most delicious eggs I have ever eaten. I am so thankful that my sweet wife got her little chicks after all.

Here’s hoping you will soon have your own fresh eggs, too! Take it from me, you won’t regret it.