The chickens are coming

So the neighbors and I made an agreement to raise chickens together. They already have a coop, but all their chickens are now gone.





So - I'll purchase and raise the chickens for the first few weeks (they need some care), and then I'll put them in their coop for them with some of my help - and we'll split the eggs.

I've learned so much about chickens! You purchase day old chicks from a hatchery, and they will send them through the mail.


Turns out there is a huge boom in chicken raising, and I found it difficult to get most of the ones that we had wanted. We had to order back in Nov for a March delivery of the popular breeds.

There are really two types of chickens - good egg layers that will lay about an egg a day, and "pretty" ones (As my neighbor likes to call them) which lay about one every third day. The good egg layers and the normal chickens that we've all seen - but then there are some crazy looking chickens.

I've been warned that I need to buy extra to share with the wildlife. Hawks and coyotes take off with them, especially when they are little. So - I've purchased (32) chicks that will be delivered the last week of this month. We assumed to lose 1/2, and when they start laying will give us about a dozen every other day, which is more than we can eat - but we know people.
They should start laying at the end of the summer.


Some of the real exotic ones don't come sexed , so you can assume that 1/2 will be males - if you play the odds - we could end up with 3 males. We can see which ones we like best, and eat all but 1 of them. Did you know that you don't have to have a male to have eggs?

I'm curious to see if the "pretty ones" are dumber than the ugly good egg layer ones.

... I haven't yet figured out how I raise 32 chickens in the house with two bird-dogs.



<--------- This one lays blueish-green eggs (but we couldn't get any of those!)