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.
A chicken hoarder? Welcome to my club!
ReplyDeleteIt's a good club to be in!
DeleteI assume they are running because they are still traumatized?
ReplyDeleteThey 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.
DeleteThanks for following along. I look forward to the comments. Keeps me on my toes.