Have I gone insane? Are all the hens of the world dying and if I don't replenish my hens now, I'll never get another chance??
If you asked my husband that last question his answer would probably be, "Well, my wife seems to think so."
Here's how it all went down.
I thought it may be fun **and educational** to hatch a few baby chicks with a kindly loaned incubator. We got 8 chicks out of the deal.
I also put in an order with Mt Healthy hatchery for 15 pullets and 1 cockerel. Technically only 9 of those chickens were mine, the other 7 were a friends.
But, some of those didn't make it on the long trip and died. I called the hatchery. They're replacing my 5 dead chicks and they are also sending me 10 cockerels, for free, + 1 extra hen, to keep those 5 chicks warm on the trip. (Those said cockerels will be future chicken stock.)
A week before those chicks were shipped, I started incubating our Buff Orpington eggs. 8 are fertile and I'm hoping that all of them will hatch on the 17th of this month.
This past Saturday we made the long journey to Grants Pass, hauling our hogs to the butcher. We made the mistake of stopping by the Grange Co-Op. Guess what deal they had going on? Buy one 40lb bag of Organic Chicken Feed- Get 3 chicks free. I thought.......
STOP. Did I just read that right? You're giving away free chicks along with the bags of chicken feed we already buy???!! Did the heavens just shine down a ray of sunshine directly on me? Will my husband allow me to buy 8 bags??? Sadly, no.
Are you still with me here? I know that I'm not even with me here. 2 people in the last 24 hours have asked me how many chickens we have and I just stand there with a puzzled look on my face. "Um, well, ya know, I'm not quite sure right now."
Let's see....
8 chicks in brooder in garage (if my feather sexing was correct, 6 hens, 2 roosters)
4 chicks in brooder in 2nd bathroom
3 chicks in brooder at friends house (who I split the hatchery order with)
16 more chickens (including roosters) coming from hatchery this Friday. We'll see how many live.
8 eggs in incubator, due to hatch March 17th
1 duckling coming on Friday, as well, from feed store
9 hens outside
1 duck hen outside
1 rooster outside
See my dilemma? The next time someone asks me how many chickens we have I'm just going to say, "A lot."
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13 comments:
LOL...I was getting lost...but I think the summary at the end helped a bit. =)
Why am I not surprised your hubby wouldn't let you buy 8 bags of feed?!?!?! =)
I am sure that hatching the eggs is a great learning experience though.
I knew there was a reason I liked you! Hehe...I see nothing wrong with being a chicken farmer!!! And for the sake of education too...;)
I've got 50 meat chicks coming in May, but shhhh...I haven't broken that bit of news yet! :)
OH MY....ROTFL Kim....are you serious??! :) I think my hubby would have a heart attack if that just showed up in the mail someday.
If you ever move out of WA or if we ever move to WA, we HAVE TO BE neighbors!
You are SO much like me! As soon as I saw the sign for chicks at one of the local feed stores, we stopped in to see what they had. Sadly, I was SHOCKED at the price of the chicks and after talking to my hubby we decided to buy an incubator and try raising our own. SO....we have 10 eggs in the incubator that I pray hatch. :) I have the same illness you do...a sucker for baby chicks! :) Enjoy yours!
I'm so cracking up right now!! I've been incubating chicks in our front bathroom and just moved them outside to our hillbilly brooder lol. Thought I was the only crazy person out there, sad thing is I don't have kids yet for an excuse to do these things! Just a love for animals. We have a friend that owns a feed store that sells to us at cost, which is a good thing and a bad thing ;)
Sounds like fun to me! Good luck with your little (um medium) flock.
So exciting and fun! Enjoy all those babies!
I followed along okay, but the summary did help. ;) Hope no more arrive dead, that is such a bummer. I can't wait to hear if the eggs hatch! That is exciting! The kids got to experience that in kindergarten.
We just took our kids to see the baby chicks, ducks, geese, and turkeys at the new Big R store in Conifer. It's been ages since I've had chickens and ducks. Wish we could start raising them again! Maybe someday. :)
Have a blessed day!
Jessica
Wow. I'm worn out just thinking about all that. I can't wait until I can have chickens.
Oh me, oh my! Grants Pass!!! My family is from Shady Cove!! That's just crazy!
Hi, sweet Heather!!
You are so much like me....I can only answer "a lot" also. I do know that I have less that I had 6 months ago due to fox, hawk, owl ( we got home just after dark one evening and something had scared some out of the chicken house, some were roosting in a very tall tree), skunk and raccoon ( that same evening some hid under the chicken house and I couldn't find them). I have around 50 coming from Hatchery and tomorrow 16 fertile eggs, Black Copper Marans, Lavender Orpingtons, and Light Sussex coming to go in the incubator with 15 duck eggs and 7 goose eggs. I have news and will email you tomorrow! Love you!! Gail
I'm forwarding this post to my sister who loves chickens....she will be jealous of your chickens! blessings, marlene
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