The chicken honeymoon is over.

As of tomorrow morning, our last two chickens, PittyPat and Audrey, will be part of another coop.... down the road at neighbor G's property.  During our walk this morning, we were talking to G & L and G mentioned that he was going to get more chickens.  Without hesitating a minute, I told him that he could have my last two hens if he wanted them.  Being that one of them is named after my husband's mother, though, I told G to give me time to ask my husband is that was okay with him first.

My husband was surprised that I wanted to give up the chickens, but he said that he wasn't attached to them, didn't take care of them, and to just do what I wanted.  I called G and told him that he could pick up the chickens tomorrow morning. I won't let them out of the coop till G gets here tomorrow. I didn't want PittyPat and Audrey to get stressed out by having to be chased around the yard today, so first thing tomorrow morning after our walk seemed like the best way to do this.

After Scarlett was killed by the snake a couple of weeks ago, I decided that raising chickens just wasn't for me. Both of the Rhode Island Reds that we had (Scarlett and Dolly) were extremely friendly, very personable hens..... they followed me around the yard, came running when I called them, and wanted to be picked up just about every day and carried to the coop in the evening.

All the other chickens have been just that--- chickens. Not pets.  Losing Dolly to the hawks, and Scarlett to the snake........ it was just too much chicken-drama for me. So before anything else happens out there in the coop, with the wildlife that comes by to prey on the hens, I decided to just let someone else have them. We will just go back to buying eggs at the store, or at the Farmers' Market.

G's coop is larger than ours...... he has ten other chickens there, with plans to get at least ten more.  I told Audrey and PittyPat tonight that they will take a little drive tomorrow and when they get out of G's truck, they will have lots of new friends.  They just looked at me and blinked those yellow eyes of theirs.  

As for me:   Free at last...... free at last.  No more running home to make sure the coop is locked up before dark...... no more tip-toeing into the coop checking for eggs and snakes at the same time.  My husband will power-wash the coop.... I will take all the chicken-stuff out of that space, and I'm betting that Gatsby (our outside cat) will make the coop his home away from home.

Gatsby has already tried to take up residence in there--- tonight when I was in the coop saying my farewells, Gatsby was making himself comfy on the little wicker table that I keep in there for the hens. The chickens would fly up on that table, then fly up to the roosting bar at night.  Gatsby was stretched out there tonight as if he were on a mountain top, looking over his kingdom.

Well, as of tomorrow, the coop kingdom is all Gatsby's.  I have to remember to tell G to NOT tell me if anything happens to either PittyPat or Audrey after they are on his property.  I don't want to hear about hawks or snakes or foxes.  All I want to know from G is that those two chickens are living happily ever feathered-after in their new coop.