TheBanyanTree: A Lotta Chicks

[Julie Anna Teague]

> 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
>