As most of you know last summer we lost the majority of our chickens to a band of raccoons:
http://alandfaith.blogspot.com/search/label/Chickens
We have been down to four since July. They are doing fine, but I miss the rest of them running around the yard. So this morning bright and early we went to Waverly to the Exotic Bird Swap Meet. I was going to show you pictures of the swap meet, but I forgot my camera at home this morning. They sell anything and everything, mostly out of the backs of trucks. It’s like a huge garage sale with 150 vendors, all selling chickens, pigeons, goats, turkeys, miniature horses, puppies, cages, and anything else you might want.
We came home with 32 (as of this afternoon, it is down to 31) new chicks.
We have no way of knowing if we have hens or roosters as these are sold ‘straight run’ which means they don’t sex them, you get what you get. I’m figuring that half are more than likely roosters. I only want one rooster because they tend to fight and wear the hens out with more than one. I like to have one though, because they do try to protect their hens when they are running around the yard from wild cats or hawks. I’m sure we will also lose a few more chicks before they are big enough to go outside. We plan on ending up with 15 or so, which is plenty for the size of our coop.
But for now they are just so cute!
They are Bantams so they don’t get as big as regular chickens, and lay smaller eggs. They won’t start laying eggs until August or September. We have a good mix of funky breeds: Marans (lay dark brown eggs), Polish (have a white top hat of feathers), Silkies (they look like they are furry), Frizzle Cochin (their feathers are curled) and Aruacana (they lay green/blue eggs)
I’m excited to see them in a few weeks when we can really tell what they look like. (Al reinforced the pen so hopefully we will be able to keep any intruders away and all will be well!)
