i am a chicken farmer part 2

Although the Chicken King experience was a bit discouraging we pushed on.  Our chicken dreams would not be crushed that easily.  Back to the drawing board.  We went back and forth weighing whether we should order eggs and deal with the roosters that would no doubt hatch with our precious hens or whether we would order chicks even though that would mean having a large amount of one breed because they often won't ship small orders without charging an a silly amount ($65 per bird) for shipping.  I had a vision of the two of us sitting in our lawn chairs drinking something beautiful with a varied rainbow of ridiculously flamboyant chickens frolicking about.  I was not ready to give up or willing to make a second appearance at the gate of the Chicken King's castle so it was back to the endless chicken research. 

We were so close to clicking the purchase button on a few birds and paying some CRAZY amount when a last desperate peek at Craigslist paid off.  An ad appeared out of nowhere offering several of the varieties of chicks we were interested in within about 30 minutes of our empty chicken brooder.  I fell in love with the first chicken lady the minute I spoke with her.  Linda oozed with feathery chicken passion when she spoke of her birds.  She suggested we come out and see her flock and ended our conversation by telling me that even if we didn't buy any of her chicks she would still love to have us out to show them off. 

The next day M and I loaded all eight of our children into our vehicles and headed out of the city to the country.  Old Florida country is beautiful.  Endless green pastures and ancient oaks dripping with Spanish moss adorned the roadsides.  I was day dreaming the entire ride out there of barn boots and front porches and sweet smelling laundry on clotheslines.  Soon we rolled up at the chicken paradise.  The gate, the winding road and the free ranging cattle made me long to have acreage and a matching farm.  The chicken woman greeted us warmly and wasted no time bringing us into her very large coop and run area. 

We were supposed to be focusing on picking out chickens however being chicken newbies we were also intrigued at every chicken supply and technique  Linda used.  It was so useful to see a successful method in place and producing happy chickens that I wanted to mentally document it all.  The buckets she used for nest boxes, the way she integrated new chicks into the rest of the flock, the chicken nipple watering system she used and on and on.  I had to force myself to focus eventually and make some decisions on who to bring home with us.  Linda was so patient with all of us and our children and even held a baby so M could hold a chicken.  She had the opposite mindset, demeanor and chicken raising philosophy from the annoying Chicken King.  I think Linda would have let us sit there all day petting her chickens and asking ridiculous novice chicken questions.  She never rushed us or judged or questioned or challenged us.  When we said we wanted pretty she showed us pretty birds.  When we said we wanted Easter colored eggs she showed us Easter Eggers.  She understood our vision and she had a coop cat which was a clear sign of her intelligence and trustworthiness. 

We had eight children in her coop at one time and the children were naturally calm and gentle with all the birds they selected.  We ended up picking out six chicks from Linda.  There was a little squabble about what chicks were riding with what children and I had to nurse the baby but after that we settled everyone in and the rain started to come down as we drove away to make our chicken dreams a reality.   

Our flock now consisted of:

2 Cuckoo Marans

2 Buff Orphingtons

1 Polish Top Hat

1 Golden Laced Wyandotte

We needed to feed the children on the way home.  Ironically M led the way and decided to  swing into the KFC drive through.  I sent her a text letting her know this was wrong on several levels and such a cold welcome for our chicks but followed her nonetheless.  To make matters worse this was the world’s slowest KFC and we ended up transferring all the chicks to M’s vehicle while waiting in line in the drive through.  I can only imagine what the other customers thought.  I know I giggled at the thought of it all as I ran through the rain to the back of M’s car with chicks in hand. 

We brought the one week chicks home to M's garage where we had set up the brooder.  The brooder was the old quail cage upcycled and scrubbed to remove any remaining quail body parts from the previous quail massacre. 

We were satisfied with our babies for about 24 hours and then decided we needed more.  I located yet another chicken lady with more of the chicken breeds we wanted with a similar mentality and passion for feathers.  Haley lived a bit further out in the country but I was up for another drive.  I headed out with all my boys and arrived at a similar farm.  I was greeted by several rather pushy goats upon exiting the van.  They were playful but demanding of attention.  Eventually several of my littles took to riding them and that seemed to occupy both the boys and the goats which allowed me to shop for chickens.   It was difficult enough to shop while keeping the goat rodeo in my peripheral vision but I felt like I needed to include M in any decisions so I was photographing and texting chick pics to her as fast as possible.  I believe that's known as Chexting.  Photographing chickens is a real challenge.  Some of them are not very photogenic or just look evil in photos but I did my best.  

Haley had one of our favorite breeds, silkies.  She had saved one splash silkie from a recent hatch because if seemed extra special and seemed to approve of our grand chicken vision and felt we would be a great fit.  The bumbling silkie is the silliest thing to watch.  One cannot watch a silkie hopping across the yard in its fluffy pajamas without cracking a smile unless you have no soul I suppose or are the Chicken King and see no value in pretty chickens.  M confirmed that we needed the silkie for sure.  I selected a black frizzle that had the most gorgeous turned out feathers I’d seen yet.  I also selected an Easter Egger.  I don’t find Easter Eggers beautiful however, their eggs are amazing colors so she was on my list to come home.  After selecting my three birds Haley told me she’d let me have a free one.  A free chicken?  I was hesitant because I was not sure how many chickens M expected me to return with but had my eye on a red frizzle that was beautiful but more importantly had a winning personality.  She had been following us around begging to be petted.  She was sweet and trusting.  Not a sketcher like M calls the skittish ones.    I decided to surprise M with her. 

While looking at chickens we walked past Haley’s rabbit cages.  She raises lion head rabbits.  I accidentally petted one and then accidentally ask to hold one and then accidentally fell in love…

I loaded up my boys, four new chicks, 1 snuggly baby rabbit and one smelly goat that wanted so badly to get in my van.  In the end the goat decided to stay at the farm.  Huck proclaimed that he would hold the puppy (the rabbit) on the way home and he did.

Look at that photo and tell me that you could have resisted bringing her home.  I seriously doubt it!

We added the following to our flock:

1 White Silkie

1 Red Frizzle

1 Black Frizzle

1 Easter Egger

1 Lion Head rabbit

I sent a text to my not so farmy husband that included photos of the five chickens I had just purchased.  He did not seem to note that the fifth chicken was actually our rabbit. 

We stopped at a farm supply store on the way home.  I include this detail only to make sure it's documented in this record that they were selling chicks and ducklings both and I was able to walk out of the store without buying any of them.  That may be important evidence later in the event that anyone determines that I have some sort of farm animal hoarding condition. 

I predict both of our newly discovered chicken ladies will offer a wealth of information for weeks to come as we have more questions and possibly want to add more to our flock.  M keeps in contact with Linda who has also agreed to take any unwanted or unintended roosters that we end up with.  Which is an amazing resource because I understand figuring out what to do with unwanted roosters can be a bit of a predicament if you aren't interested in culling them.  We talked back and forth a few times since our purchases and look forward to having a long chicken relationship in the future.  I recently played matchmaker when a friend of mine ask me if I would like to be the new owner of her pot belly pig named Luna.  I declined but hooked her up with my chicken lady.  Who knew I was a livestock matchmaker? 

Our original chicks were all young enough that they welcomed the new family members without issue.  To date they all get along as though they were hatched together.  Our flock now included nine hens and we were complete… for awhile.