Chicks, Man

When we lived in Santa Cruz, we had chickens two separate times. The first time, we were childless and spending all of our time creating our little urban farm in our backyard. Our chicks were cute, although 2 out of 3 were assholes, and eventually (sadly) they were murdered off by the neighborhood raccoons. It was quite vicious. And they got ALL the neighborhood chickens too.

The second time we got chicks, I ordered cute little bantams as a birthday gift to Marin. They were delivered to my local post office and all the workers in there were obsessed with the cute cheeping coming out of the box. We set up our chicks in a safe cage in our separate garage, but oddly, each day when we arrived, there was one less chick in the cage. There was no blood, no feathers, no nothing. It was so weird. Finally, after our flock had drastically depleted, I stood out in the driveway one evening to watch our unofficial family hummingbird in the tree above the garage, only to see a RAT drop down onto the roof. Yes, RATS had been sneaking in and kidnapping our chicks. Despite our best efforts, the rats wiped us out and we had to tell little Marin that the chicks had all flown away. It was so sad.

So, to say I have reservations about getting chicks AGAIN would be an understatement, but after seeing how happy my clients’ backyard chickens are (see the post here for their newborn session), I decided to try it out once more. This time, I ordered buff opringtons, which are known as the friendlies and quietest backyard chicken breed. They’re also supposed to be prolific layers, so I look forward to getting some fresh backyard eggs again! (Also, I’d like to note that these images were taken midday, supporting yet again, my reason for only doing outdoor sessions during golden hour. The light makes ALLLLLLL the difference.)

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