His purpose, not only to tell us that he was back, was to ask us if we would consider "adopting" the chickens. Huh? Apparently, next year he and his wife will be gone for four months out of the year, and while they had their fun with the chickens, they decided they want to do some other sort of "decorating" in their yard, possibly put in a garden instead.
Now this poses an important question ... is this something we want to do? Do we want to keep the chickens as long-term pets? He said he wanted to ask us first before asking other people. We would keep the coop and the pen, although realistically, I think we'd make some changes to it if we decided to keep them. It's a big decision, as sometimes we like to go away for a few weekends during the summer. But if Dave is only gone during the winter, then maybe he could take care of them during those few weekends? Or if not, and we're only gone for a few days, maybe the chickens would be fine without needing anyone to check up on them, as long as we gave them fresh water and food before we left.
Anyway, I'm starting to toss around some Pro's and Con's:
Pro's:
1) I'll admit it, I've kind of grown attached to these girls. When I go out there to feed them, they always greet me at their fence. No matter how much pain I'm in, they put a smile on my face.
2) I can hear their clucking from inside our house. I hear it in the morning ... "Good morning, Jamie!" ... and I hear them at night ... "Good night, Jamie!". Of course, they really aren't saying that, but I pretend that they are. I pretend they're talking to me and it makes me happy.
3) Blake really wants a pet and I really don't want an indoor pet to clean up after. We all know that if a family gets a indoor pet for their child, who takes care of it? Mom does. And I don't want to take care of a hamster, or a fish, or any other indoor pet that Blake has been asking for. He's also been asking for baby chicks, and I could handle that.
4) It'll be great entertainment for when we have BBQ's. The smell of the grill will waft away any chicken smell. And in all honesty, you can't even smell them, unless they need their pen straw changed.
5) We know who to give our table scraps to when my Mom's dog Nikki isn't around.
6) We get free eggs every day, and our family goes through a lot of them!
7) We've been giving some of our eggs to other people, as long as they provide the egg carton. I like the job of washing the eggs and making sure they're "perfect" before I give them away. I enjoy doing that.
8) When we had our big snowstorm, we had to dig the chickens out of their coop because they were literally "snowed in". It was a fun adventure for me, seeing how fast I could dig the snow out of the pen and "rescue" the girls. That is one change we would make, is to make it into a stand-up pen. Crawling around on my knees shoveling snow was painful to my back. But it was still a fun adventure.
Cons:
1) When the opossum killed one of the chickens a while back, it was very devastating to us. If we keep them, we'd have to fix the pen to make it "wild animal-proof".
2) It costs about $20 every month or so for straw and food. Since we normally go through a lot of eggs every morning, I think that pretty much pays for itself. So that's both a Pro and a Con, I guess.
3) If we're gone on a lengthy vacation, and Dave is gone, who would take care of them?
4) Blake really wants baby chicks. Can we put baby chicks in with the big chickens?
I tried to think of a 5th Con, but I can't. I really like these chickens. They coo at me when I bring them some good treats (apples, popcorn, etc), cluck up a storm and kick out the food they don't like (grapefruit) and that is very funny to watch. They sometimes let me pet them. If I give them an especially great treat, such as the apples, one of them will come up to me and coo as though she's saying "Thank you!", then turn back around and go get her treat.
I think I want to keep them.
Now it's up to my hubby to decide.
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