Out of our six new laying hens, this is the one (according to Jessica) that has the most personality. She calls her the Little Red Hen, or, in our acronymphilic household, the LRH. The day after they arrived last week, instead of staying cooped up (pun intended) in her chicken yard, the LRH promptly explored the garden by way of scrambling under the coop–and the shoop! Next she explored the duck yard and the duck hotel inside the shoop, all fences notwithstanding. We were told that ducks and chickens should not mix since the chickens are susceptible to disease, but we might take the fence down based on our experience combined with our excruciating sense of efficiency.

We’re getting three to four eggs a day out of these ladies. Eggs are costing us about $0.90 a dozen to produce (calculating on volume, not number of eggs). Plus we get avian comedy, work values for our kids, and a soundtrack to match.

Did you look up “acronymphilia” in your dictionary and not find it? Dibs. I just made it up. We might have a strange fondness for acronyms in our family. Besides watching the LRH, we drive the BGF (“Big Green Frog,” our name for the Ford Ginormous that Jessica drives), and eat TCFAs (Toxic Cheese Flavored Anomalies, or Toxic Corn Flavored Anomalies, my name for chippy-type foods). I thought we used more acronyms than this in our family, but my brain cell got tired trying to think of them.