We made it through the winter and only lost a couple of hens. Three of our 6 chicks that we hatched late September made it. We lost 1 of them to a predator, 1 to Luke our livestock guardian dog, and 1 just disappeared. Of the 3 survivors, 2 are pullets and 1 cockerel. They are about 5 months old now.
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| Junior |
So, we've got 2 roosters now - Rocky, who is just over a year old and Junior, his son. I watched this morning as Junior had his way with one of the hens. While he was ..um...in progress, Rocky came over and knocked him off. Junior's going to have to learn to be more discreet and get the girls when dad's not looking. They are both handsome boys and Junior is really starting to look like a chip off the old block.
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| Rocky |
Our girls stopped laying this winter. We had some really bitter cold weather and egg production halted. Since we sell lots of eggs, Chet went and got some young Barred Rock pullets a couple of weeks ago. Not sure what his original plan was, but he came home with 30 of them. They'll start laying in the next couple of months and we'll be up to our eyeballs in eggs.
In the meantime, with the weather getting spring-like here, our older girls have started to lay again. We should be back in the egg business very soon. Unfortunately, feed prices rose over the winter, so we're having to raise prices. We'll be selling them for $3/dozen. Email us if you're interested. We generally have a waiting list.
Last fall, I wrote about a litter of kittens that started hanging around here. We fed them through the winter and neutered the ones we could catch and actually found a home for 2 of them. They look awfully happy to be in a home and off the streets!
