Goodbye Chickies

My chickies are chicks no longer! It wasn’t so long ago that they were sleeping in a pile in my guest bedroom (pictured right), but now they are big enough that it’s time to find half of my flock a new home. Although I already had three grown hens, I decided to raise these five baby chicks this past Spring. After trying to convince other urban chicken-keeping wanna-be’s to raise their flock from chicks, in the end I just talked myself into it.

Initially the plan was to keep my original three, but since then I have changed my mind. Instead I decided to combine the older gals and younger gals into one large flock, let everyone work out the new pecking order, and then divide them up. That will help keep my flock young and on a consistent egg-producing schedule, instead of having all three older girls stop laying around the same time.

The new family will get Pearl and Hazel, both Araucanas, who are both steadily laying lovely little blue eggs. They will also get two younger girls who should start laying in the fall, right when the older gals close up shop for winter. I will be keeping Winnie because she has slowed way down on egg production. This may well be her last summer of laying altogether. Three of the young chickies will stay with me as well. I’m not excited about going through the summer with little egg supply, but I am hoping my sister can share some of her urban chicken eggs with me through the dry spell.

Now the question arises about which young chicks go where. I am thinking to keep the Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island Red. We are in love with these two girls. They are the sweetest and softest, winning us over several weeks ago. I think I will also keep the white Araucana, so I can have a blue egg layer (Winnie oddly lays peach eggs). The Brahma and dark brown Araucana will go with Pearl and Hazel. And don’t forget the Araucana chicks were straight run, so there is a chance both flocks might have a rooster which would leave us with 3-4 hens each.

All that said, I might change my mind again on the chicken combos. It’s honestly hard to part with any of them, but then I remind myself that they are farm-ish/city-ish animals. After spending the last 30 minutes chasing them around the yard though, I just can’t keep track of eight full grown hens. (They escaped the coop when I was refilling the water) It’s time they find their forever home. Unfortunately though, that means I need to start the daunting task of dealing with Craig’s list, weeding out potential chicken-eaters from the chicken-keepers, and asking lots of questions to make sure they go to a good home.