Last year saw the loss of a lot of my chickens due to predators and age. When my nephew and his wife decided to order chickens, I asked if they’d order an extra ten for me. They agreed. Then the day before the little chicks were scheduled to arrive, the door fell off my brooder pen. Seriously.
from a previous batch of chicks
Then I went out to the outdoor pen and saw what bad shape it was in and didn’t know how I’d ever keep them safe and inside the pen. My little peacock was quite big before I could keep him confined.
peacock baby from a couple years ago
I was also already struggling with trying to get weight on Aurora and it was in the middle of the copper crisis with all the goats, and I was overwhelmed, so I asked if I could leave them with him. Again, he was awesome. As the summer has gone on though, I’ve missed chickens and having eggs here.
This weekend they sent ten hens home with me. They are pretty girls.
Even though chickens have to establish a pecking order and can be quite mean, I wasn’t too worried about them getting along since there’s a lot more of the new ones than my old ones.
2 new barred rocks, nugget and my old red hen
But my phoenix hen is being naughty. She’s the smallest bird out there. They could step on her and smash her.
phoenix hen
Nugget just has more girls to take care of.
Nugget
The biggest problem is the peacocks. They are not very smart birds, and they just want to peck at the new ones. The new girls havnen’t figured out not to let the peacocks walk up to them and peck their face. Hopefully, everyone gets adjusted soon. I’ll keep a close eye on them to make sure nobody is seriously injured.
new hen and a peacock
It was just the next day when someone gave me my first egg.
It’s a cute little pullet egg!
Teresa
Eden Hills 