A hearty welcome to the newest member of the Mann family, Reece. As a new family member, I thought it might be appropriate to share her (sort of) birth story.
It all began two weeks ago, when I was talking to my dad on a Sunday night about how I wanted to get half a dozen eggs in an incubator and hatch some baby chicks for my kiddos. My siblings and I hatched chicks for our science fair projects in elementary school and it was a lot of fun. (It was also pretty convenient because we just passed down the same poster board and it didn't take very much effort, not to mention it was a HUGE hit at the fair.) So I share my plan to get some fuzzy little chick-a-dees with my dad and ask if he could help me get a little coop ready in the next couple months so we can have farm fresh eggs sometime next fall.
Fast forward 24 hours. When I get home from work Monday night, Dad shows up on my doorstep telling TC, "Hey come over. I got you something." And there is Miss Reece, a freaking full-grown hen in an office paper box with holes punched in the lid. Dad goes on to tell me that he was talking to some guys at work and told them I wanted to get some chickens, and one of them went home on his lunch break and brought back one for me. Reece sat next to his desk the rest of the day, until she started making a lot of noise and he eventually had to take her out to his car.
So there I was with no coop, no food and ONE full-grown chicken. Not exactly how I imagined this scenario go down in my head, but hey, the end result is (sort of) the same, right? So we got a make-shift pen together and I ran to Cal-Ranch for some feed.
When she laid her first egg the next day the kids were so excited. Matt? Not so much.
Matt: What are we going to do with the eggs?
Me: Uh... Eat them.
Matt: Are you serious?
Me: Yeah.
Matt: Gross.
Reece is what we call a "free range chicken" AKA a chicken who is generally running amok loose around the yard. "Free-range" can sometimes lead to less than ideal situations. For example, this weekend TC and I were eating chicken nuggets on the patio while Reece ran around in the yard. I went inside to get a drink, and came back out to find TC generously sharing his nuggets with Reece. I'm pretty sure that is considered cannibalism.... and I have some serious internal conflict about it. She also really likes grapes and she stole a cupcake right out of TC's little hands last night so I'm pretty sure she likes those too.
My husband thinks I'm half insane. But he is the one who is crazy - I think Miss Reece is egg-cellent! (See what I did there???)
