Chickens!!

I did it..I bought new chicks....I kept putting it off because whenever I looked at the catalogs it was like picking vegetables and flowers....you want this, and you want that..and you want the other one too...

I like a mix of colors in my eggs.  Like the garden.. I like some brown eggs, some green, some white and every shade in between.  So every time I'd sit down to decide what to get, I would end up with about 30 birds.  Not that thats too many, but it is if we move.  It is easier to take a few or leave them at the local farm, then 30!  I even found a new one I never saw before that laid white eggs..usually I have various shades of browns, blues greens and even some pinks and khaki.  I never really saw a white egg layer (breed) that I liked... this year I found 3 I liked....

The Norwegian Jaerhons, the Mottled Ancona, and Austra White chickens.  I liked them all because they were both cold hardy, and not flighty and good foragers. 

A lot of white egg layers and small nervous birds..flighty and can fly over fences.  My brown layers (and tinted egg layers) tend to be larger heavier birds (usually for dual purpose but I let them live out their lives here) and they are usually calm and gentle.  Some breeds can be nasty.  I found that to be the case with Barred Rocks and Brahmas.  We once had a poultry farmer tell us he would never have a Brahma rooster if he had young children, because they are nasty and agressive, and very big.  They like to spike people..and he had a friend who was spiked in the neck from behind by one.  He told us they are perfect child height and could probably do serious damage to a child if not kill them spiking them in the neck...that was enough for us (we did have one at the time and had that experience with him trying to spike us.  Up until that point we just chopped the spikes off, but once we heard what he said we got rid of the rooster all together.

This time of the year many birds/breeds are sold out.  I didn't order any of the white layers. And I ordered from My pet Chicken because you can order a SMALL number..I settled for 5...boo hoo...

I ordered them form My Pet Chicken

http://www.mypetchicken.com/default.aspx

This is the company that offered the white layers (actually the offer over 300 breeds) I liked but that is going to have to wait until next year.  I would absolutely have a separate hutch/ run for fancy birds, if I had the room for them...some of the are so beautiful...then again I would also have Guinea Hens if I had the room too.  I will miss my Buff Orphingtons (I Love them) and Black Australorps..oh and Speckled Sussex..pretty calm gentle birds and great layers and winter birds...and MORE Aracaunas!  Next year right?

http://www.purelypoultry.com/

Aracaunas- they come in various shades of browns, from light to very dark, and some of them quite pretty, and the chicks look like chipmunks....

See you later..off to prepare a place for them until they are big enough to out in the outside house...they will arrive some times during the week of May 2 ....

Janie