Great Place to Pick Up Chicks

We have six chickens in the coop right now, laying anywhere from three to seven eggs a day, depending on a wide variety of factors.  Since we are a family of four, that means we have anywhere from a heap to a ton of extra eggs every day.

The solution to having too many eggs?  Get more chickens, naturally!

Seriously, there's no such thing as "too many eggs".  What we don't eat, we give away (see earlier postings for our feelings about barter versus sale of eggs) and what we don't give away, we give away.

So, really, "too many eggs" isn't going to happen.

Lonely chickens, however, might happen.  We have been astonished at how incredibly social these creatures are.  The flock currently in the coop is relatively small at six birds, but they are constantly clustered in the same four or five square feet of space -- which leaves plenty of empty space in the coop.

We therefore decided to take the plunge recently and get four more baby chicks.  Barred Rock chickens are kinda fuzzy when you first bring them home, but our new birds are a couple of weeks old now, and have sprouted recognizable feathers -- not as many as they will soon have, true, but enough for them to flap around with, and flat-foot jump from the ground to the wire on which their heat lamp is hung.  We may get some roasted baby chicken some time soon if they don't stop it.

Those of you thinking of taking the plunge and getting your own backyard birds, by all means, do so.  But just because we at Myrtle's are now kind of casual about the process, don't think it's all that easy.  We had to learn the hard way how to handle several variables.

For one thing, the "experts" all give you these incredibly complicated charts on what the temperature is supposed to be at each stage of the chicks' development.  As tricky as they make it sound, it makes one wonder how the genus gallus managed to survive in the wild, what with nobody running around with thermometers, or setting space heaters in just the right places at the right times.  Maybe... just maybe... poultry scientists have gone a little overboard.  Yes, they need to be kept warm.  How warm?  Warm enough that they look comfortable.  When should you change the temperature?  When they stop looking comfortable.  Got it?  Good!  Get some chickens!

We're going to integrate the flocks in about a month -- that will be a serious adventure.  We've done it once before, and the elder chickens did not, we must say, acquit themselves with any sort of ethical aplomb.  We had to stand out there with clubs like the Alabama National Guard to get them integrated.  It was not a pretty sight, and we expect more of the same.  But they will eventually get along; mostly, it will involve tricking them with games, like hanging cabbage heads from the ceiling of the coop.

Like people, chickens are easily distracted.

We'll keep you posted on the progress of these young'uns.  In the meantime...

Happy farming!