After a notification on Facebook about a local chicken sale a few months ago, I waited till my man went out then went to buy some. I’d done my research already, I’d read up on a few breeds to see what their strengths were. I wanted chickens that laid over a long period of time, not the hybrids that laid lots in the first year or so then stopped. These were going to be pets as well as production machines so they wouldn’t be turfed out once they stopped laying. I chose Ancona chickens because they laid 6 eggs a week, were economical feeders and unlikely to get broody. I also got four Legbar and Maran crosses as they were also billed as reasonable layers. They were all about 8 weeks old and super cute.
Here they are checking out their new home…
New chickens checking out their run
I brought them home in a box, it was a very short journey then I unloaded them into the bathroom. Yes, the bathroom! You see my man had been promising to fix the chicken coop door once I got the chickens. I told him I couldn’t get chickens until I could lock them in the coop! So I finally gave in, got chickens and then I told him to come home quickly as the bathroom was broken.
He loved the surprise, I got a bonus hug, and he quickly set about fixing the coop.
I like a chemical-free lifestyle and wanted the chickens to have several weeks of organic food before starting to lay which is why I didn’t get pullets on the point of lay and opted for the younger (and cuter) birds.
I started looking forward to the 24 eggs a week. Six each from the Anconas and 3 or 4 a week from the maran-legbar crosses. And of course, as they’re now part of the family they needed names.
We chose Pepper & Lucy for the Anconas then Clara, Rose, Amy and Martha for the others. That’s right, I’m also a ‘Doctor Who’ fan, but I couldn’t resist ‘Pepper’ for one of the Ancona’s it just seemed to fit.
After suggesting the ‘Dr Who’ theme, the hubby then started a daily routine of asking, ‘Have they laid any eggs yet?’ I didn’t have the heart to tell him for a while that it would be at least another 4 months.
I’ll do another post about what I feed them on as I don’t buy organic chicken food, I couldn’t find a local resource for that and it was too expensive to ship so I did lots more research and decided to make my own chicken feed. More on that later xx
Here’s a link to the Seymour Poultry Club Facebook page. That’s where I found out about the sale.