the not-so-little layer chicks

In June, we went to the Wings and Whiskers sale in Petitcodiac, as I mentioned in this previous post. We picked up 27 chicks: 4 Rhode Island Reds, 1 Delaware, and 22 Barred Rocks. These are all breeds that we had been reading about and thought they would suit us. These ones all came from the same breeder and were in a brooder together. This eliminated the need for us to worry about integrating chicks from different flocks. Aside from two casualities (both Barred Rock, ) all of the chicks have done very well.

 

A couple weeks later, we purchased 10 more chicks. These ones were all hatched from blue-green eggs and were sired by a roo from a blue-green egg. They are a funny bunch. All of them are a bit different. Some are rumpless ( a characteristic from an Araucana ancestor), and one is a naked neck. The breeder we got them from raises all kinds of birds and is also in charge of birds and primates at a local zoo. Our chicks were actually hatched at the zoo. He does that so that visiting children have a chance to see them. I love that our chicks had such an interesting beginning! These guys were the same age as the first ones, and they all mixed together without any trouble. This place is also where we got Alice.

 

All of the chicks are getting bigger every day and individual personalities are starting to emerge. Oliver definitely has some special friends amongst the flock. We will soon know who is a rooster and who is a hen. I already have my suspicions about some of them. We won't be keeping all the roosters, so we are hoping for about 50% hens. That is more than enough to produce eggs for our family and sell some as well. We will have such an interesting mixture of brown eggs, small white eggs (from the silkies,) and blue-green eggs from our Easter Eggers. I can't wait!