This time yesterday we had one bantam hen, a few hours later we doubled that to two and now, after a trip to Hereford we doubled it again to four!
Waking up this morning and have a quiet chat to Lunar was delightful. She is a real chatty Cathy and is very bright eyed and I think she will be quite bold. I had forgotten to double check what Sarah fed her own and we just assumed she was already on growers pellets but she didn't seem to take too well to them so I got out the pestle and mortar and crushed them into fine crumbs which she then gobbled down very happily. She's a lovely colour, the lady at the farm that we got our latest two from is trying to breed lavenders with the typical yellow leg but ours is quite dark in the leg. I don't mind one jot, I'm already so enamoured with her, she's such a beauty. She's as delicate as Odette, the white swan in Swan Lake with the merest touch of lavender to her feathers and I could watch her for hours.
However, we were after one more to make the numbers up and Luke wanted another gold laced really, like Shakira had been. So off we went this morning to find one more. I had been feeling unhappy that we had only bought one chicken yesterday. They are so little to be on their own. As the new chicken would be the last to be introduced she would be at a disadvantage so perhaps we needed to buy two this time.
We pulled up on the dot of ten am and were met with a beautiful collie with one blazing blue eye and one dark brown named Flye. Just behind Flye strode Sue the chicken breeder and she kindly offered to take us around the whole farm to view her different chicken breeds; Silkies, Gold tops, Pekins in a myriad of colours and a couple of large fowl too. All the time Flye whipped around our legs and squatted low in the grass a if rounding us and the chickens up. We were offered a lovley leggy Blue laced cockerel but we aren't brave enough to risk having a potentially noisy cockerel in our back garden so turned that one down. When we came across the first pullet on offer though we immediately knew she was going home with us.We still hadn't finished our tour though so continued on.
The last place we visited was the barn with three heated pens in it. Masses of ten day old chicks huddled together under a warm lamp and chirped away in the first pen The next pen had chickens in that were about 5 weeks old and were starting to look more like the chickens they would eventually become; their feathers had grown and the down wasn't so prominent. They still chirruped away but were more active and less inclined to mass together under the lamp. The last pen had three options for us; two young gold laced and one buff laced. Gold laced, as you probably know, are a rich golden brown with black markings on their feather edges. The buff laced is patterned just the same but the colours are buff and white. We have never owned a buff laced before, it's not my favourite colourway but this little dot just looked so sweet and was gleaming white with beautiful streaks of copper on her feather edges. I checked with Luke and suggested we take the small buff laced and the older Goldlaced that was outside. I was unsure about the difference in ages but Sue assured me that it was only about ten days and that they would be fine together. I knew this little one was smaller but after being assured she would be fine I did a final nod and then Sue deftly caught her and placed her into Luke's palm where she sat, dwarfed and overwhelmed. We popped her straight into our wood shaving-lined carrying box so she wouldn't be so nervous then went to catch the bigger one who was happily unaware of her future outside. A round little gold laced, full of energy and sticking close to her surrogate mother she raced in different directions whilst Flye, Luke and I stopped her from getting too far from the net wielded Sue who managed after a few near misses to bag her bird and, scooping her out of the net showed us what a nicely patterned bird she was. Money was handed over, Sue bade us a cheery farewell and suggested we start breeding our own and we bumped down the single track lane back onto the main road, all the time with the two new additions tweeting and whistling from their box.
I was shocked though when we got them home to see how very small the buff laced one was and even more shocked when we saw Lunar who only yesterday looked minute. She must be three times the size of the baby. We now have to very carefully introduce them and that will have to wait till tonight when they are more placid and all ready for sleep. Till then, Lunar is still acclimatising on her own in the hen house (in the well ventilated greenhouse) and the new girls are on the floor of the greenhouse, still in their carrying box now with food and water added. We'll leave them all to settle down and tonight we will decide whether to put them all in together. If we do we shall have to monitor them all to ensure the little one has plenty of places to hide if she is picked on by the others. I always fear the worst but you do your very best to limit any problems, take the advice of people who are experts and keep an eye on the situation. Sadly I am working from 9 in the morning tomorrow till 10 at night so it's not ideal. We'll see how it goes in the morning; with the dawn chorus and early sunrises they will probably be awake from 6 onwards so we have some time to assess the situation.
I'm like a new Mum, all nervous and wanting the best for my brood.
Waking up this morning and have a quiet chat to Lunar was delightful. She is a real chatty Cathy and is very bright eyed and I think she will be quite bold. I had forgotten to double check what Sarah fed her own and we just assumed she was already on growers pellets but she didn't seem to take too well to them so I got out the pestle and mortar and crushed them into fine crumbs which she then gobbled down very happily. She's a lovely colour, the lady at the farm that we got our latest two from is trying to breed lavenders with the typical yellow leg but ours is quite dark in the leg. I don't mind one jot, I'm already so enamoured with her, she's such a beauty. She's as delicate as Odette, the white swan in Swan Lake with the merest touch of lavender to her feathers and I could watch her for hours.
However, we were after one more to make the numbers up and Luke wanted another gold laced really, like Shakira had been. So off we went this morning to find one more. I had been feeling unhappy that we had only bought one chicken yesterday. They are so little to be on their own. As the new chicken would be the last to be introduced she would be at a disadvantage so perhaps we needed to buy two this time.
We pulled up on the dot of ten am and were met with a beautiful collie with one blazing blue eye and one dark brown named Flye. Just behind Flye strode Sue the chicken breeder and she kindly offered to take us around the whole farm to view her different chicken breeds; Silkies, Gold tops, Pekins in a myriad of colours and a couple of large fowl too. All the time Flye whipped around our legs and squatted low in the grass a if rounding us and the chickens up. We were offered a lovley leggy Blue laced cockerel but we aren't brave enough to risk having a potentially noisy cockerel in our back garden so turned that one down. When we came across the first pullet on offer though we immediately knew she was going home with us.We still hadn't finished our tour though so continued on.
The last place we visited was the barn with three heated pens in it. Masses of ten day old chicks huddled together under a warm lamp and chirped away in the first pen The next pen had chickens in that were about 5 weeks old and were starting to look more like the chickens they would eventually become; their feathers had grown and the down wasn't so prominent. They still chirruped away but were more active and less inclined to mass together under the lamp. The last pen had three options for us; two young gold laced and one buff laced. Gold laced, as you probably know, are a rich golden brown with black markings on their feather edges. The buff laced is patterned just the same but the colours are buff and white. We have never owned a buff laced before, it's not my favourite colourway but this little dot just looked so sweet and was gleaming white with beautiful streaks of copper on her feather edges. I checked with Luke and suggested we take the small buff laced and the older Goldlaced that was outside. I was unsure about the difference in ages but Sue assured me that it was only about ten days and that they would be fine together. I knew this little one was smaller but after being assured she would be fine I did a final nod and then Sue deftly caught her and placed her into Luke's palm where she sat, dwarfed and overwhelmed. We popped her straight into our wood shaving-lined carrying box so she wouldn't be so nervous then went to catch the bigger one who was happily unaware of her future outside. A round little gold laced, full of energy and sticking close to her surrogate mother she raced in different directions whilst Flye, Luke and I stopped her from getting too far from the net wielded Sue who managed after a few near misses to bag her bird and, scooping her out of the net showed us what a nicely patterned bird she was. Money was handed over, Sue bade us a cheery farewell and suggested we start breeding our own and we bumped down the single track lane back onto the main road, all the time with the two new additions tweeting and whistling from their box.
I'm like a new Mum, all nervous and wanting the best for my brood.
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