I have for a long time been wanting to get back into raising chickens. (This summer had been the first summer since our fifteen year old was five that we have not had some sort of poultry in the barn yard.) After all , chickens are what got us started in the farming business when Emily arrived home from her great aunts house with a box of five little chicks. That was it she was hooked. Spending all of her waking hours totein' around a little hen. She loved those chickens so much. Soon five turned to us ordering her a surprise box of twenty five for easter. Never in a million years would one think that a little girl would fall asleep watching those chicks run back and forth from the water to the food trough and then to rest under the heat lamp. For days she set with the hatchery catalog looking at each picture of the chicks and tring to figure out what she had in that box. In a small little compostion book she would write down ehat she thought they were and what page they were on. by the time they were feathered out and in the barnyard she had most of them identified. Even talking to our extention agent and having him come to the house to help her identify the ones she did not know. Wow! I can't believe it has been almost 10 years ago, time sure has flown by. The summer she was in fourth grade we were at a flea market with my parents and low and behold what does this little brown eye girl wearing pigtails come carring back to my husband and I, you guessed it! Two little splashed colored silkie chicks. The cutiest little fluffy babies in the world! They melted my heart and hers. We raised them for quite sometime. Really up until she decided to get into showing sheep in depth. That was when the chicken yard was turned into a sheep pen and the poultry went out in the yard. This is the reason Wade made us get rid of something. When the chickens, ducks, and turkeys started pooping on the concrete he said :They are Gone!", and so it was. (A sad day I must say for the Haney women.)
Yesterday, a blessed yesterday! I recieved a late Christmas present per say. Two of the most precious little silkies I have ever seen! A hen and a rooster, just perfect for me! Straight off the Fraker Farm and raised by Paula herself, these little jems make me so happy! I got up this morning and headed to the barn only to be greeted by a hearty "Cock-a-doodle Do". Something I haven't heard in a long time.
