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(A note from the chickens to children who say "Hello!" from the sidewalk.)
Hello there, young friends!
We see you peeking at us through the fence and thought we would introduce ourselves. We ARE chickens, and we have lived here at My Front Yard Flower Farm since we were two days old. If you want to know how old chicken years are compared to human years, opinions vary, but I like this site: Chicken Years to Human Years | CYHY (creatureyearstohumanyears.com).
There are several types of black-colored chickens, and we are of the Black Australorp variety. We are heritage birds, which means that Black Australorps have been around for quite a while! Aren't we beautiful (I am so modest)! Our superpower is that we lay lots of big, brown eggs. For many years, we held the world record for most eggs laid by one chicken in one year (364)! During the well-lit (sunny) times of the year a chicken will generally lay an egg every 26 hours, so the six of us can produce together up to 5 to 6 eggs a day. We keep the Lovely Assistant busy collecting them from our nesting box and Miss Dawn busy cooking them! I am told the eggs make DELICIOUS food for the humans! We are glad to give the eggs to our humans, as our humans work very hard to feed us and to give us fresh water every day and to move us to different areas in the backyard.
We live in a chicken tractor coop. A movable chicken coop is called a chicken tractor (because a tractor moves around). Our cage run keeps us safe from cats, dogs, and other local predators that might find us to be tasty snacks. Horrors! We enjoy looking in new places for tasty bugs and worms. We ESPECIALLY appreciate getting to check out the garden, as we can lie down in the dirt and take dirt baths! Don't you enjoy playing in the dirt, too?!
We love to munch on fresh fruit, berries and veggies (you should be eating yours, too!) and can make a tomato disappear in less than a minute! Yum! All that natural goodness, plus our pellet supplement, sunshine and exercise helps us make amazing eggs! We are so glad that our humans care for us!
Our names are: Attila the Hen (me), Henrietta, Henley, Hen Solo, Gretchen, and Omlet. No boy chickens here! The city of Olathe does not allow boy chickens, called roosters, because boy chickens are noisy--that is their superpower. Miss Dawn painted a picture of a rooster for us to show us what a boy chicken looks like.
I really like their long, swishy tailfeathers, don't you! We girls do not have swishy tailfeathers...I imagine that a long, swishy tail would get in the way of our girl job of egg laying.
We enjoy seeing you wave at us from the sidewalk! In the winter, Miss Dawn and Mr. Eric make a windbreak out of straw bales for us so that we can still enjoy scratching comfortably outside all winter long. Kansas has a lot of wind!
Maybe you should think about adding some of our chicken sisters to your backyard. We chickens come in all shapes, colors and sizes and are easy to take care of. We do not even need to be walked, which can be pretty nice not to have to do in uncomfortable weather!
Be good, and thanks for stopping by!
--Attila the Hen
P.S., If you ever color a picture of a chicken and want to share it with us, please have your adult post a picture of it to Instagram at #myfrontyardflowerfarm. Miss Dawn will make sure that we see it!