A Chicken Coop

has appeared in our yard!
(Actually it took planning, a borrowed truck and a large group of kids and grown-ups pushing this huge lovely coop up a ramp and into our friend's truck.) Luckily it rolled down the ramp off the truck easily because there were only three of us to get it off the truck.
The coop was homemade by my friend Carrie, her husband Tom and their kids. .

Carrie and Tom passed it onto us after their grumpy neighbor forbade anymore chickens from entering his yard.
I'm sad for their loss, but so excited to get chickens in the spring.

Apparently I am not alone. I just read a delightful article by Susan Orlean in The New Yorker The It Bird about the dramatic increase in backyard chickens.
Rob brought the magazine home to me from the gym with trepidation. He admitted, "I think you'll like this article, but she brings her chicken to the vet and I don't want you to get any ideas. Chickens don't go to the vet." He waited for me to agree, but we clearly have some thinking to do, which is why I'm glad to have the winter to learn about the birds and figure out are we farmers or are we pet owners.? Do we make soup of them in the winter when their egg-laying slows or do we give them cozy fluffy beds with warming lamps?
I'll keep you posted.

I couldn't get the full article on-line but there was a sweet video of Ms. Orlean with her chickens.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2009/09/video-pecking-order.html

There was another chicken article in the NY times about Jan Brett the illustrator and her chickens. The image that stuck with me was "At night, when the chickens are sleepy, she’ll let one sit on her shoulder while she paints."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/greathomesanddestinations/25Away.html

How pleasing is that?