Bye-Bye, Chickens…
I have some surprising news. I haven’t shared the news with everyone yet because I’ve been living in denial. I kept hoping the day wouldn’t actually come, but now it’s only hours away.
Our chickens are leaving.
Tomorrow morning a nice family is coming over at 10 a.m. They are going to load the coop on their trailer, and I am going to load up all the birds in my car. We are driving to their home in Liberty Hill, which is a town about 30 minutes from here. They will get to live in the country, where they will have acres of land to forage for plants and bugs.
Here’s why. This is the very short explanation. I don’t teach in the school district anymore, so our kids might not be able to keep their transfers to the schools that they have been going to. We didn’t want to have to worry about possibly changing schools for the next 9 years, and we don’t want our kids to go to the schools in our attendance zone, so we made the very difficult decision to move.
In looking for a house, these were my priorities:
- a place with a big backyard (because nature is awesome and I wanted to keep my chickens)
- a place with kids that our kids can hang out with
- a place that has a decent house that we like
- a place with trees and some space between houses
- a house with a pool
Our current neighborhood doesn’t have a lot of kids. We live kinda far away from our kids’ friends. They don’t get to live near their school, where they can ride their bikes to their friends’ houses and hang out at the pool. We don’t even have a pool to go to where we live now. There are city pools, but the city closed the one that is nearby, and the other one is way too busy. We have a busy street in front of our house and a really loud train behind it. There are trains going by more than once an hour. It’s just not very kid-friendly around here. I want our kids to live in a neighborhood where they go to the school that we are zoned for. They can ride the bus. They can even walk or ride their bikes if they want to. They can be part of the community. We can all be part of the community.
Back in July, we found an awesome place in a neighborhood that has acre lots. The house actually already had a chicken coop and plenty of space for chickens. That was part of the reason that I really loved the place. Plus, it was on the creek! We put an offer on it, but we got outbid. After that we gave up on our house search for a while. We were hoping that our problem would just disappear, but after a while reality set in, and we started looking for a house again.
I wanted so badly to find a place that had big yards for chickens, but that’s really hard to find around here. We considered moving to the country (I’ve always wanted to do that anyway), but we decided it’s too far to drive in for work.
After giving up on the country, I went back to trying to get a house in that neighborhood with acre lots. It just wasn’t working out. It’s a special find around our area, so it’s in high demand and no one wants to leave once they get there.
About six weeks ago, we found our new house. The lot is just over ½ acre, and the backyard was very nice. Tons of trees, and it’s in a cul-de-sac. That’s why the yard is so big. I thought it was a great yard for chickens, but I had a feeling that they probably wouldn’t be allowed. I hoped they would.
We put an offer on the house and the owners accepted. We are scheduled to close next week. One of the first things I did was look up the neighborhood bylaws. This is what I found:
Section 3. Animal Husbandry.
No sheep, goats, horses, cattle, swine, poultry, dangerous animals (the determination as to what is a dangerous animal shall be in the sole discretion of the Association’s Board of Directors), snakes or livestock of any kind shall ever be kept in or upon any part of the Property except that no more than two (2) dogs, and not more than two (2) cats or other common household pets may be kept by the Owner or Occupant of any Living Unit, provided they are not kept for any commercial purpose.
I consider my chickens to be pets that provide delicious and healthy food, so I thought I could get around the livestock thing, but I don’t think I can get around the fact that chickens are poultry. So, no chickens. Damn. I was going to have to find a new home for the chickens. For the past 6 weeks, I’ve been a strange combination of excited and sad.
I was worried that it would be hard to find an acceptable home for my birds. It was easier than I thought! When I was getting my 8th grade son transferred to his new school, I stopped by his old school to ask some questions. We know one of the women that works in the front office pretty well, so I explained that we were transferring because we were moving because I quit teaching to start my nutritional therapy business. Then I told her (and the others that were there) that I would have to give up my chickens, and asked them if they knew anyone that wanted chickens. They all got really excited and called over one of the counselors. She had just moved to the country in Liberty Hill and was really excited about getting chickens. She already had a coop partly built, and when I told her that I needed a home for my chickens, she was thrilled. Of course I explained that they had to be treated wonderfully, fed well, and allowed to run around and forage. They also needed to be kept safe from predators. She was on board.
She came by the house that weekend to see the chickens. She loved them (how could you not?), and decided for sure that she wanted them. She just needed time to get her coop built and fence the area in. That was fine with me; I was in no hurry for them to leave.
I can’t believe it’s really happening. It’s going to be so weird without them here. They are always on my mind, which really isn’t a good thing. I worry. They are so vulnerable, and I worry about them nonstop. My stress level should go down a lot, although I’ll probably keep worrying about them for a while. I’m sure I’ll have nightmares about them getting killed out there in the country. There will probably be a lot more predators around. She said that I could come visit them whenever I wanted, but part of me wants a clean break. I don’t want to know if they get killed. I do want to see the chicks all grown up, though, so maybe I’ll go visit in a few months. Or maybe not. I’ve been in a funk all week. I feel like I’m taking this pretty well, but it’s weighing on me. I’ve been moping around. I’m going to be a mess tomorrow.
I have never been one to ditch animals, and I feel like I’m ditching our birds. It’s not the same as rehoming a dog or cat, because I don’t think the chickens are attached to us. Maybe in some way they are, but mostly, they just want to be fed. They follow us around because we throw them food scraps, and they just love getting their feed in the mornings. Other than that, they don’t have a lot of love for me. They’ll let me pick them up, but they don’t really like being handled.
I’m going to miss their sounds for sure. I’ll also miss seeing them run. They look so funny when they run because their wings stay tucked in and they look armless. It’s hilarious.
I wish more neighborhoods would allow backyard chickens. I think everyone should grow their own food however they can, and getting your own fresh eggs at home is a good way to do that. Plus, chickens are much better off being raised in a backyard than in a windowless warehouse, squished into a tiny space, fed GMO grans until they’re sick and miserable. I know neighborhood associations think of chicken as livestock, but it you only have 10 birds or so, it isn’t like having a farm operation. They don’t smell if you keep their space clean. As long as you don’t have a rooster, they aren’t very noisy. Those egg-laying celebrations can get a little loud, but that’s during daytime hours, so it’s not going to wake up the neighborhood. They are quieter than a barking dog, and those are allowed in the neighborhood.
(If you want to hear what this egg celebration sounds like, check out the video on my facebook page.)
Now that we won’t have chickens to make our eggs anymore, I’m going to get our eggs from the farmer’s market, and when that’s not a possibility, I’ll get them from a good company like Vital Farms that sells pasture-raised eggs at the grocery store.
I guess I’ll have to get back to blogging more about wellness and posting more recipes.
I’ll let you know how the move goes tomorrow. Hopefully I won’t cry my eyeballs out.
I can’t believe that tonight it my last night to coop them up. Tomorrow is my last morning to feed them. This sucks. At least I won’t have to worry about getting a ticket from the city having chickens in the front yard.