Three years ago the subject of keeping chickens came up. Right about then more and more people were looking for more self-sustainability, what with job losses and skyrocketing fuel prices driving up the cost of everything. We have bought our pork and beef shares so we wouldn't have to pay grocery store prices and because we liked the idea of raising our munchkins on food that we KNEW had no growth hormones and unhealthy lifestyles. I bought a bread machine. I was making cookies. I needed eggs. We all love chicken. So we started looking. For reasons I won't go into here, we ended up shelving the idea.
Fast forward to March, 2011 and the idea has come back in full force. We found two breeds that fit our needs (cold hardy, bears confinement well, heavy, docile, dual-purpose, but above all-FRIENDLY birds) perfectly. We built a chicken tractor. We decided (for the sake of space) to go with Speckled Sussex. Had a bit of trouble finding any "readily", however and ended up pre-ordering 3 pullets from Meyer Hatchery in Polk Ohio. There was a month wait and I developed chicken lust. Ended up buying two Buff Orpington pullets from our local feed store. BO also is a good breed for what we want.
So we've had the two BO girls for over a week and put them in the brooder we made out of Zoe's dog kennel. They adapted well and are friendly. It's endlessly amusing to watch the two of them and they're quite happy jumping on our hands and climbing up our arms when we stick them into the brooder. They seem to be happier having Scott pick them up than me, but he's got larger, warmer hands. I'm sure they feel more secure with him holding them.
The 3 SS girls spent the first night in the travel box but the next morning we put up a divider in the brooder box. They didn't have their feet under them yet and we were afraid the bigger girls would trample them or pick on them or smother them in their sleep. One of the times that I went down to check on them, I was fussing around with the cage trying to create some shade from the heat lamp when I realized that the tiny baby (I'm calling her Nan) had squeezed out of the divider and was roaming with the big girls. No one was panicked but I got the impression the big girls were sort of huddled into the corner with a "get it away, get it away!" sort of vibe. I picked Nan up and deposited her into the "nursery" and secured the divider to the side of the kennel so no one could squeeze in or out again. That was yesterday, Tuesday. This morning I went downstairs and found one of the big girls roosted quite comfortably on TOP of the divider and the other one down INSIDE. Everyone was calm and no one was being pecked to death. After putting the big girls back into their area I watched for a bit until everyone settled down to sleep. A couple of hours later I went back down and found both big girls down inside the nursery. No one was stressed. They all ate together and the three little ones were busily scratching and leaning up against the big girls.
So we've had the two BO girls for over a week and put them in the brooder we made out of Zoe's dog kennel. They adapted well and are friendly. It's endlessly amusing to watch the two of them and they're quite happy jumping on our hands and climbing up our arms when we stick them into the brooder. They seem to be happier having Scott pick them up than me, but he's got larger, warmer hands. I'm sure they feel more secure with him holding them.
