The Chickens

These are our second set of chicks that we got the first week of September this year. In the pic you can see 2 of the heads have black on them. These are 2 exotics that they always send free with every order. In our last order we got a gorgeous rooster we named Junior. He was a little skittish and kind of kept to himself separate from the others as he got older.In our last batch we ended up with about 6 roosters which is NOT what we wanted at all. When they are this small it is difficult to be able to sex the chicks.

 After 2 1/2 months of feeding them this is what the little exotics look like now. The picture isn't of the best quality but this is a gorgeous bird. They are also a little skittish too. I am not sure if this has something to do with being different than the other hens or not. Their legs are a creepy color of gray and their faces look like chipmunks with big puffy cheeks. I haven't named them yet. I am still trying to figure out their personalities.

The white hens are the little yellow chicks in the first picture. They are eating us out of house and home. They grow through 50 lbs of feed about every 2 days. Every other day I give them some of the mashed corn that we have for our pigs and they love it. I also give them greens from our greenhouse. They are particularly fond of the old fashion southern mustard greens. It's appropriately called Hen Pecked Mustard.





We are going to block off one section of their yard and plant them some greens to graze in. Once that section starts growing we will plant another section. I'm not sure how long these sections will last with 56 chickens. Until we get our coyote and fox issues under control we have to keep them pinned up. We are hoping that in the spring we will be able to let them out to free range during the day. They will automatically go back in at night and they are safe. But during the day is the issue since this summer I was in the field picking okra across from the pen and a coyote came out of the woods and got one of my favorite hens. I was scared to death. This behavior was so unlike them. They usually wait til nightime.And to come out in the middle of the day with people around was just plain scary. So we are waiting til spring and hopefully they will get to free range again.