Chicken Blog: We Are Already Debating When We'll Eat Them

OK, I named them. Yes, I know I'm not supposed to.

Chicken butts. From left to right: Ethel, Mabel and/or Gladys, and Buffy Orpington.

So here is the rundown on my mini chick operation. They are inside now, in an old cat litter box, inside our old dog crate, because...cats. With just 4 chicks, they won't get the mass body heat that a flock of 25 might out in a farm coop, so seemed easier to set up inside with a heat lamp than worry whether the garage would be too cold while we wait for the Michigan edition of Mother Nature to work out what the weather is going to be in late March.

Around Easter, we will probably move them to the garage since they won't need to be quite as warm, and they'll have a little more size on them.

And about 3 weeks after that, once they have feathers, they can be outside in the coop (the construction of which will have its own blog post, of course, possibly several, and should be HIGHLY AMUSING AND PROFANITY-FILLED).

Eggs happen - hopefully - when they are 4-6 months old, so maybe July or August. And already the farm boy husband is saying we will be eating them when the cold weather comes and they stop laying. My position is that we will keep them over the winter and get a few years of eggs out of everyone before they head to the soup pot. Who will win? Stay tuned.