"Two", she said. "I want two chickens. That will give us two eggs per day."
Autumn with her energy and enthusiasm took on the project of transforming an old dog house, the size of a small cabin, into a chicken coop. A screened-in porch was added on, coops built and a mirror hung on the wall to welcome two lucky chickens.
He found a feedstore that sold adult chickens. Off the three of them went to buy two chickens for "Autumn's House of Hens".
Home they came, with five chickens and one rooster.
The rooster promptly did what roosters do best. He crowed and cuckled the ladies one by one.
She fell in love with each of her new feathered friends, naming each of them, to fit their own unique personalities.
Phyllis, the banty silkie, soon began brooding on some eggs. She sat on these eggs long after the 21 days it takes for them to hatch. All the feathers had worn off her belly but still she sat on those eggs, desperately wanting to become a mother hen. The local feed store had day old hatchlings. She picked out four guineas and two mallard ducks.
Once back at The House of Hens, she carefully removed the old eggs out from under Phyllis and introduced her to one of the baby guineas. The hatchling looked up at Phyllis and asked, "Are you my Mama?"
It was love at first sight. Phyllis gathered that baby under her wing as well as the other three guineas and the two baby ducklings.
Life in the hen house became routine until one morning, several weeks later, when she found the rooster and one of the mallards killed by an intruder. It was a sad day at Burnt Biscuit Ranch. He attached a door to protect them at night and she eventually found a new rooster to tend to the ladies needs.
"Only two" is now a busy group of ten with enough eggs to make a lemon meringue pie every day, if only she knew how to make pie crust.