Feathers and Fun: November 2015

O.C.D., some people translate that as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

At our house, O.C.D. stands for Obsessive Chicken Disorder!

A couple of weeks ago, I met up with a chicken breeder friend of mine to pick up a couple of pullets for my daughter-in-law... but, of course, I couldn't stop at that. I ended up added a couple of marans to my flock, so I'll have some dark chocolate eggs in a few weeks. THEN, I got a coop for the marans, because that is so much easier than incorporating them into an existing flock. THEN, the coop seemed kinda empty with just two chickens in it so I went to visit an Orpington breeder friend of mine and got two more pullets (a chocolate cuckoo & a jubilee). Now, the coop seems properly filled!

Wow, it has been a really long time since I updated my blog. I get so busy with this and that, that it just seems to get pushed to the side.

In July, I won an auction for some very rare chicks. Swedish Flower Hens from Greenfire Farms. It was one of those moments, late at night, when I couldn't sleep. I was picking around on Facebook and noticed someone had posted about something they were selling on a rare breed poultry auction site. I thought, "RARE BREED POULTRY AUCTION SITE... HOW DID I NOT KNOW THAT EXISTED?????" So, I followed the link, picked around a bit, and sorted the auctions by price. I found this auction for Swedish Flower Hens that was due to complete in just a few minutes and had no bids. It also had no minimum bid.. so I had to bid. I just had to. I assumed other people were watching the auction and would bid at the last minute. They didn't. I won. The next thing was to figure out how to tell my husband that I had 10 chicks coming in a few days. I don't remember how I told him, but he accepted the news with grace.

I had never had chicks shipped before, so I was a little nervous about that. I received a call from the post office about 8 AM one morning, telling me they had my chicks. I jump in the car and went to pick them up. There were 13 in the box. All safe and healthy and chirping away.

So, over the next several weeks, I gave a few away to my daughter-in-law (starting her on the chicken journey as well) and began the process of determining which ones I would keep and which ones I would sell/re-home.

In the end, I kept 4 girls and one boy. I kept a variety. Two girls with crests, two without. Two red, one black, one copper. Two with yellow legs; two with white legs. And one calico cockerel.

We are now almost to the point of lay. The cockerel has begun trying to mate. He is a real talker, so hoping my neighbors will love him as much as I do... because he is gorgeous!

Below are some photos from the Swedish Flower Hen journey...