For the Full Flock

Okay, I talked to my chicken supplier. The great gal that matched us up with Goldie and Beaver last month, all in hopes of having a happy flock with Lizzie. She took the same kind of long sigh I did when I told her of Lizzie's sudden death. All that work seems wasted. But again, I am glad she had some happy times in the last few weeks, not being eaten by a raccoon or being tormented by our two mean leghorns.

Chicken Supplier Lady says she has chicks "under lights" right now and will be ready in about 4 1/2 months. They need to be 20 weeks or so before they can be given to a new home. That sounds fine to me. So, I know a few friends have mentioned maybe starting a flock this spring. If you want to contact this lady to get some pullets, now is the time to reserve your girls. I wholeheartedly recommend her birds. I can get you in touch with her, easily. Pullets, remember, are teenaged chickens, just on the verge of beginning to lay. What is nice, you didn't have to raise them from chicks, which is a lot of work.

She also pinions them for you. Both Goldie and Beaver came with their flight feathers clipped, so they can't fly. Chickens are not flight birds, of course. But they can sure flap up to the top of a fence and escape. So having those clipped keeps them from escaping, and it doesn't hurt them at all. Several of my chicken friends have lost birds from escapes like that. Again, I am very very pleased with Goldie and Beaver, and happy to wait out a few months for a third.

Unless someone suddenly gives us a chicken, I am happy to wait it out for a new pullet. I have absolutely loved our two new gals. They are sweet in disposition, not mean, curious and spry. So, we will need to do introductions again in a few months, and I think it will be easier because we have done it before AND the weather will be much warmer, hopefully.

So the coop soap opera continues. We have had fights within the coop, and fights from outside sources. We have love/hate relationships. We have had a mysterious death. It's drama that no soap can match.