saying good-bye to the city chicks

 

 Back when the city chicks were young…

If you’ve been reading here a while then you know that we are the people to four city chicks.  Getting the city chicks was a step in the direction of preparing ourselves for our dream of a home in the country.  It was also a step towards blooming where planted as we started an urban homestead and practiced sustainability. 

There was one problem with our city chicks and it was this:  our city is not really chicken friendly.  Oh, you can talk with council members and you’ll hear a couple of things.  Some will tell you that you can not have chickens.  Others say that you are not supposed to have chickens but if your neighbors don’t complain, you are ok.  Still others will tell you that the ordinance was vaguely written and did not explicitly state that you couldn’t have chickens. 

Even with the mixed messages, all would tell you that if the neighbors complained then you would have to get rid of the chickens and you would face the probability of a fine. 

For me, that was a problem.  A huge problem. 

 One last free range before they left.  Poor Bitey (the white one), was molting.  I guess she got to see how the other girls felt about losing their feathers to her as she is the top of the pecking order in our flock and kept them in line with feather pulling.

I was in a constant state of stress as I tried to keep the chickens from being chickens. 

Let me explain…

Chickens aren’t really noisy often but they make noises and the noises can be loud…say when they are laying an egg.  Sometimes they will complain very loudly if they are wanting to get out of the run or missing the other chickens.  I guess I just thought that they’d be quiet all of the time. 

Well, that didn’t happen! {smile}

I was constantly looking out of the window especially if the city chicks were in the fenced off area to free range because chickens can fly (even though we clipped wings).  One chicken even ended up in the front yard one day.  (And I discovered her when she very loudly called for the other chickens.)  If they happened to get loud, I would rush out of the house and try to discover what was upsetting them.  I could not relax with the city chicks because I was afraid that a neighbor would complain.  It.was.stressful.

 Loading the city chicks into the chicken tractor for their trip out to the country.  Each chicken was thanked for the eggs and given a talk about raccoons and such.

Since I am in the process of simplifying my life and reducing stress, we decided to find a new home for the chickens.  Our city chicks are now country chickens.

I miss them.  I cried like a baby when I made the final decision to let them go.  I felt like I had let them down.  And I felt like I was losing a piece of a dream that I have had for so long.  I knew that I would miss their silly antics and taking scraps out to them and watching them run to me for the treats.  Of course, I will miss the eggs.

 Last three eggs from our city chicks

Today I got word from my friend who adopted the city chicks about how they were all doing well and laying eggs.  I know they will enjoy the room to run around and be chickens and do chicken things.  I hope that our city will realize that the urban homesteading movement and knowing where our food comes from are very important in this world of genetically modified foods and the chemically laden foods that are on the store shelves.  I hope that with continued persistence from people wanting the ordinance to change that our city will realize that much bigger cities like Dallas and Nashville allow chickens within the city limits.

Maybe as people begin to realize that it is important what we put into our bodies and what we put into our food…maybe then, city chicks in the backyard will be more of the norm and we can all relax and enjoy the simple pleasures that chickens can bring to our busy lives. 

 How many times have I looked out this window to see what the city chicks were doing?  I still find myself looking out many times a day…It’s awfully quiet out there.