New Chickens (Part 2)

Hi, it's Celia again!

Today I'm going to continue telling you about our new chickens. If you didn't read yesterday's blog, go here. It will make more sense if you read that first.

We got to the King's farm with the minivan loaded with a dog crate and plastic tubs. We also took a sheet to cover the tubs so the chickens wouldn't hop out while we were driving. That would have been crazy! Mom already hates to drive and she would have hated it even more if she had to deal with chickens flapping around.

(Last summer Mom took her meat chickens to the butcher. While she was there a lady pulled up with some chickens for slaughter. The lady had put the chickens in plastic tubs but instead of covering the tubs with a sheet she put the lids on. Tight. When she got to the butcher most of the chickens were dead. She was so upset! The lady wanted the butcher to cut them up anyway, but the butcher said no. But back to my story.)

Here are the chickens at the Kings. They raise them from day old chicks.

When we got home we clipped their wings. You clip one wing on each chicken so they don't fly the coop. If they fly the coop you might be hunting for nests. Clipping doesn't hurt them, and it's not hard to do. Mom learned from watching youtube.

Here we are putting bands on their legs. Mom can't tell her chickens apart, so every year the new chickens get a different color leg band. Last year's were red, this year's are white. That way she can tell how old a chicken is. She only keeps the chickens for about 3 years then they go to the soup pot.

Here they are in the holding pen mom made by moving part of the chicken yard fence. You can see the new hens in the front, and our old hens in the back, wondering what in the world is going on. See the trees in the background? Those are in the middle of the chicken yard, and what the hens climb to get high enough to fly the coop. The new hens will stay in the pen for the day, and then Mom puts them in the henhouse at night. But I'll tell you about that tomorrow.