I'm a chicken... ...fan

You might recall our getting into the chicken thing... ...there were some motivations to do it, but it wasn't the money.  You know, if you buy a stock in a company you watch the reports for earning or losses?  If you buy chickens soley (sp?) for the $$, then you have only losses to add up.  At the market, for $1.69/dozen eggs, you won't be getting Return On Investment (ROI) in the lifetime of a home grown chicken, I don't think.

Your results may vary - I didn't have time to work any cheaper - didn't have (still don't have) the money to do it more nicely.  ...The good news is that the chickens are still happy, or at least they don't care.  Here is an excerpt of last years earnings... [proposed report, I should add...]

As previously shown in the earnings report details, the cost per egg is currently around $75.37.  However, we expect the next quarter results to improve a bit as we cut all initial startup expenses and work to improve productivity.  We are cautiously optimistic that egg production will increase dramatically as new productions lines mature.  Due to the current climate, we will maintain some higher than average expenditures until spring and summer conditions allow natural food supplies and lighting to improve allowing utilities and supplies costs to be reduced.

Additionally, initial fears of production decreases due to losses along the production chain have subsided. In fact, we have more production potential than was originally anticipated.  We now expect higher earnings potential with higher production and expected lower costs as the year progresses.

Yeah - you thought I couldn't talk turkey...  ...OK chicken.  I can at least talk chicken. 

Basically, we are excited to be getting eggs on a regular basis now.  The amount of daylight exposure turns out to be a key part of their egg laying happiness.  The first egg was the day we left for Christmas in Boise - they (she, whichever one it was) didn't know enough to get down from the roost first and it arrived on the floor below - ummm, scrambled.  ;)  nice.  All eggs are consistently arriving in the nesting box now though.

I have gotten a little bird-brained about this - my wife will attest to that with rolling eyes.  But it is really cool to watch 'em run around the yard.  They have impressive eyesight - bugs don't stand a chance, let alone the cool weather making them veeerrryyy slow on the escape thing right now. 

One bird disappeared two or three Sundays ago.  (We (I) often let them out while I am home.)  Daughter and I looked until sometime after dark that night and found no sign, no feathers, no tracks.  I began to suspect predator right away - they just don't wander off too far normally.  No coon or coyote tracks - there was fresh snow, so it should have shown something.  Anyway, put them away and tried to console Daughter, who did her best and did well praying for her safe return.  I got up at 11 pm to make another check - nope.  But while I tromped around the coop looking for any sign of that rogue little hen I heard the unmistakable howl of a coyote.  My thoughts now went sadly to the certainty of our little hen's demise.  I would have to take more precautions now that the coyotes knew of this potential food source...

Monday morning I rousted Daughter out of bed for another search party, but no success.  But Monday afternoon I got a call at work and she was back outside the coop on her own - a little spooked and jumpy, but otherwise fine. 

I don't know what to think - they aren't really pets.  Yet, you get sort of attached to critters.  Today I told Daughter that I thought that every animal, regardless of species, has a unique personality.  The Bible talks about the breath of life.  

(I don't know if you can comfortably assign all of that strictly to genetics.  All dogs can bite, for instance, but there are exceptionally good and bad dogs of every breed. )

I recall the examples that Jesus told to show us the care of God - the birds of the air, the lillies of the field...  I trust that He is concerned for His kids even more than I could be for "my" kids - and chickens too. 

People have more than animalistic life - they have the likeness, the image of God and they are that much more important than the birds of the air...  ...and our Father sees fit to teach us by example.  I find that touching and reassuring.  I hope that you do too...