Overall Man and The Girls

CJ loves the chickens! He loves them so much they can really feel it - because he squeezes them so much that they begin to squack and jump out of his lap. CJ and the boys handle the chickens almost everyday by petting them and feeding them so that they are used to us and don't peck at us. So far they have been more friendly than some of our little friends and Navy have been to them.
I think I have talked about the chickens, but if I have not I will get yall up to speed on the topic. We call them "The Girls" because they are the only other females in our household.
The boys ask for other critters/animals quite often, especially Rodeo. So last spring... Rodeo wanted some birds and I said no we did not have a place for them in the house. He quickly responded with "do they have to live in the house?" and I thought about it and thought "typically yes at least that is the place I have always seen pet birds." So I got to thinking and with it being before Easter I remembered they always have baby chicks, and ducklings at feed stores for people to put in their children's baskets, but what to do with them after Easter?
So after talking it over with Dad we decided we would try chickens... We had been told that you usually loose a couple from sickness or injury so we thought about five would be good. If we loose one or two the boys would still each have their own chicken.
We ended up buying about ten total and there are four remaining. Our oldest and luckiest chicken is "Lucky Pecker" originally just named Pecker, but she lived through some varmint getting in and eating all of her friends during a storm. Then we have "Twilight" which is HJ's chicken and she is an Araucana so she will produce a blue/green egg. Then Rodeo's chicken is named "Tweeter" and she is also an Araucana. Finally, CJ's bird is named "Bar None" because she did not receive a name for a long time and CJ still calls her "Shicken". She and "Lucky Pecker" are both Barred Rock (aka Plymouth Rocks).
They have turned out to be a lot of fun and the boys really enjoy them. Navy gets along with them except for the few occasions where he likes to herd them around the yard and listen to them cluck frantically.
Now there is great anticipation because they should start laying any time now. We will let you know...