Thursday, July 26, 2012

Both Feet In

The Moose and I have decided to jump in with both feet again.  We have our new flock, which we hope will give us fertilized White Orpington eggs in the next coming months.  We’d like to hatch them, and hand raise them.  There is such a difference in birds when hand raised.   Can you blame them?  Our new flock is difficult to handle.  At this point there is no way we’d be able to let them roam The Compound.  We’d never be able to round them up if needed.  They’d just run away as you approach.   I find this extremely sad.  Maybe in the months to come, things will change, but the jury is still out.  We will have to let Corrie out on occasion, she’s already had a taste of freedom and she begs to be let out.  She knows what’s out there and we won’t be able to disappoint her.  She’s such a sweetie.
 The Hooligans would come when called; “snack time”, that includes Corrie.  They’d come out of every corner and run for the coop to see what they’d get.  On occasion we’d have to find Lucy and carry her back, as her head was always in the clouds, but they always headed home.  We do not have this benefit with the new ones.  That’s why we need to hand raise our own.  We also need them to allow us to pick them up so we can check them out, bandage a wound and of course just to cuddle.  We need and want this flexibility for us, and for them.
We are also hoping to start a batch of Buckeyes once again.   We absolutely loved this breed.  They were so friendly,  except the roosters on occasion, but they were absolutely beautiful to watch.   They are also an endangered breed and we could help them out.  Why not when we already understand the breed, and have had so much fun raising them.
Top; Nugget, Henrietta, Bottom; Monkey and the General

I found a breeder of Buckeyes and he comes with excellent references, and has an absolute love of the breed.  I’ll let you all know when we are ready to begin that phase.   Right now, we need to finish fortifying the coop/run.  Then we plan on dividing the run so we can keep the two breeds separate when we are ready for incubating eggs.  We also want an area to house broody, or sick chickens.  Something we’ve talked about from the beginning, and now we’ll have.
Who knows maybe we'll even consider some Production Reds, just for eggs.  Now I sound like a chicken hoarder.


4 comments:

  1. A chicken hoarder? Welcome to my club!

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  2. I assume they are running because they are still traumatized?

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    Replies
    1. They are running because they've never been handled before. The new flock was basically left on their own, minus an interruption for food and water. Nothing like the Hooligans were.

      Thanks for following along. I look forward to the comments. Keeps me on my toes.

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