TheBanyanTree: A Lotta Chicks
Julie Anna Teague
jateague at indiana.edu
Mon Mar 27 10:55:33 PST 2006
> Fortunately, I ordered all femals
> Rhose Island Reds, and .well, the Polish came "straight-run" I don't
> know what my "free" one is, though it's dark with brown markings and bigger
> than all the others.
Might be a "turken". Look in the catalog. (I love the Murray McMurray
catalog!) I know several people who got Turkens as their free bird.
Guess they can't sell them or something. They're pretty ugly, as
chickens go, poor things. My Rhode Island Reds were from McMurray too.
I think they are such beautiful birds and are the exact same color as
my orange cat. It's hiliarious to see the a matching chicken and cat,
about the same size, both skulking around the yard. We found that they
were actually a hybrid mix of Rhodies and something else. The true
Rhodies at the county fair were much more red than our chickens. We
had six of them, from someone who only wanted 20 but had to order the
minimum number. We had all six for a couple of years, but raccoons
discovered a way into the coop, and now we only have one--our pet
Penny, who free-ranges around the yard and visits the neighbors
occasionally and still, at over three years old, leaves us an egg
almost every day.
We were laughing, just this morning, because we recently visited Kauai
where there are wild chickens everywhere. We realized, when we got
back, that Penny is about three times the size of any chicken on Kauai,
including the roosters. She is fat as a little pig--a giant ball of
feathery fluff. We've taken to calling her The Queen of Kauai, because
she most definitely would be if we could land her there. She follows
us around like a dog and would live in the house with us if she could,
silly hen. This morning she was knocking at the front door and giving
us the stink eye, trying to get us to come out, or to let her in. And
when that didn't work, she came around to the back door and knocked
again. Unfortunately she has, recently, decided that she prefers to
sleep on the rack on the top of my Jeep. She has covered the top in
chicken poop. Most disgusting. Plus, it does nothing for my
professional image on the job, and it embarrasses the 15 year old
man-cub. I tried to run through a carwash this morning, but the
carwash was closed. So I'm still driving around in a chicken poop
covered vehicle. The price I pay, I suppose, for being
overly-permissive with my chicken.
Julie
Mine still reside int he sunroom, in totes. Soon, I will be adding a
> third tote, since the chicks are getting bigger and taking up all the
> space. I
> use the heat light only at night, now, the sunroom gets enough sun-heat
> during the days. Actually, I didn't use a heat bulb, but only a 100
> watt bulb,
> which seemed to keep things warm enough. I didn't want cooked chicks.
>
> Mine are getting tame, since I mess with them a couple times a day. I had
> them on chips, but found newspaper good enough. The chips kept getting in the
> waterers and clogging up the works. The paper stinks when wet, but
> it's a free
> comodity, after I've read the news.
>
> I plan on moving them all to the barn-chick-coop when all the feathers are in
> and before they think the house is their permenent abode. I agree that I
> don't care to eat my own "pets" but all those Red Stars are male, and
> I have had
> enough of attack-roosters. My Rhode Island Reds of last year were
> "straight-run" and so more than half wee roosters. . killer roosters.
>
> I sold them to the guy in town who does nails . .They were Korean and wanted
> real range chickens for their dinners. I found another couple that were
> roosters, and offered them to the same folks. "NOO-O-O-O!!!" they
> said. "They
> MEAN!!." and they refused to talke the rest. I ooved the early, a.m.
> crowing,
> but hated being attacked every day.
>
> I sent them to the local animal auction (rather than eat them) where they
> were bought by someone who l-o-v-e-d the sound of their crowing. I sent the
> length of PVC pipe along for free. (I used the pipe to proptect myself when
> they lived here.)
>
> Good luck with your chicks. (I have one that hops on my shoulder when I feed
> them, ala parrot-style.)
>
>
> NancyLee
>
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