Chickens

So before the flood, you remember we had chickens for eggs. We loved our chickens AND all the fresh eggs. And as it turns out, collecting eggs every day was a really enjoyable chore for the kids. Well, the chickens survived the flood, but not the challenges after the flood. We think that perhaps a dog got into their pen and killed them all while Chris went to Fairbanks to meet us for shopping last July. And since we didn't have time to rebuild a coop before winter we decided to wait til this spring to get new chicks. 

We're so thankful for our friend Michele Swenson in Soldotna who offered to do the purchasing and take care of organizing their transport to Galena. 

So we now have 3 Americauna and 3 Plymouth Barred Rock chickens. They came to us 1 week old. We haven't named them yet, but its been a fun topic of conversation as many funny names have come up. 

        1 week old

Oh, and we still have a chicken coop to build, one that can handle -60 this winter. But we put them in a temporary summer chicken yard for now. 

We were also happy to experiment with raising chickens for meat for the first time. It was a plan for last summer and we were really excited to finally get around to it this summer. (Moose is still our main meat as well as bear and salmon). It was a great experience!  We raised 12 chickens, butchered at 10 weeks, and put 62 pounds of chicken in the freezer. 

The kids helped with the whole process while I baked bread. I had assumed Cara wouldn't last long, but she was just as fascinated as the boys, and even helped pluck the birds. Daniel came over to help along with the boys' friend, Joe. It was a very educational experience, and we have a lot of yummy home grown chicken in our freezer. We're putting this on the list for next summer.