Chick Chick Chick Chick Chicken, lay a little egg for me!

Chickens finally arrive at Tuscan Farm

It's funny, but the first thing I thought we would get when we moved to our olive farm in Italy were chickens.  I had this romantic view of them padding around our groves and clucking away.  Laying eggs every day, which at Easter would of course be hatched and turned into little perfect chicks. 

The cock would roost away, letting us know that all was well in the world and the sun would shine.

After a couple of months I went to see our neighbour, who had chickens and ducks (hadn't thought of ducks) how exciting!  Andrea gave me the low down on how to set up my coop and run so that my chickens would be safe and happy.

Not such an easy task, with no money and a lot of foxes to eat my livestock, this was serious stuff. 

With a house to renovate and 600 trees to prune, vegetables to grow and a whole list of stuff we hadn't even thought of, our chicken coop kept going on the back burner.

We did manage to make the enclosure, with chicken wire, buried around 6 inches under the ground to stop any predators getting in.  Then we looked around the coop and realised there were around 6 trees that a fox could easily climb and jump in.  We covered the top with olive netting.  The coop was built out of pallets, all recycled and the nesting boxes.  All taking time and effort. 

This Christmas we went to collect our Christmas tree from the farm up the hill, we always go there as they sell trees in pots, we put in the house for Christmas and then plant afterwards.  Lovely memories and we are building a fair collection of trees now.  Anyway, the guy had chickens.  They were beautiful and I said to Chris, I want chickens, how can we still not have chickens?  He smiled and said, 'it will happen, don't worry'.

Christmas Day finally arrives, all excitement at the presents, Henry had made me a chopping board, Erik a Spaghetti Measurer and the ball through the hole game.  Beautiful, made out of Olive Wood, from our own olive trees, beautifully crafted by my two little men and my husband.  Then Chris goes outside to 'get some more wood' and walks in with a big red box.  There was a definite scuffling sound, could it be...... I opened the box and there they were, at last, Tuscan Farm's first two chickens.  Now when will they lay eggs?