Apparently, yes, they will let anyone purchase chickens. Seriously, no checking out the home environment, no making sure there is suitable food, and that you have no history of animal cruelty…. just, sure, how many do you want! You can’t get a dog that easily!
We decided on 10. If we get it right, great! If we get it wrong…. well, 10 is likely easy to cover up if we needed to. Just kidding, sort of….. it may have actually crossed my mind at some point. So off we go to the local hardware store to get the feed holder, a water container, a heat lamp (does this seem wise?) and various other sundry materials that you apparently need to make your chickens comfortable. Strangely enough it was all there at the store! No waiting till next Tuesday! I guess chickens have a higher priority in the grand scheme of things around here!
Chuck found a guy near by who was selling some young hens, Millers Brown Leghorns to be exact. And darned if the chicken man was not the husband of the puppy trainer Fallon and Darren were taking Ryker to. This kind of thing happens all the time in a small community! A little weird in my opinion, but I guess we will get used to it. So after puppy class Fallon and Darren spend some time chasing chickens. Our chicken man just pointed to them and said, go grab the ones you want. Rrrright!!! With those words they promptly scatter! One of the little buggers just squatted down when Fallon went for it – it was her easiest and only capture of the day. Darren managed to snag 3 and we relied on our chicken man to grab the rest of them for us – clearly we were novice chicken catchers! Otherwise we could still be chasing them. I think both chicken man and the hens knew we were city people!
Chicken Papa Chuck was at home fluffing the wood shavings and making sure that there was enough water, feed and light – breathless with anticipation for his chickens. Finally they were here, and we quickly got them settled into the coop. Step one was complete. I thought that they would be wandering around, getting settled and enjoying their amazing new home. Apparently they weren’t that impressed. They all headed over to the far corner and stayed there……. clucking. Ok, we will just let them settle in and see what happens.
Next up, when do we let them out and how do we get them back in? Silly me, I just figured you open the door and the little darlings will just head on out – I mean, really! look at that free range space….. It’s enormous! Remember, there are only 10 of them… 10! After a couple days and since so far we hadn’t killed any of them, Chuck and Fallon go out and open the back of the coop so that the girls can get out and forage in the grass. Either they were way more impressed with the coop than I thought, or they just decided to be obtuse, but these hens were having none of going outside! No amount of herding or shooing was getting them outside! Chuck and Fallon spent some time chasing them around the coop and then just decided to start throwing them out the opening to the back. They were determined to get them out of the coop! Stupid birds! The whole world was waiting out there for them.
Now the coming back in part was no problem at all! No need to ask these girls twice… marched right back into the coop pretty as you please! Maybe not so stupid after all??!! Of course that is where the food and water are! Over the next few days, we managed to make them understand that daylight means outside time, but then we had our next problem….. they wouldn’t leave the covered lean to section of the back of the coop. Not one teeny tiny chicken toe nail outside the covered area! No amount of coaxing was getting them out into that yard. What the heck? An entire 1/4 acre of free range at their disposal and they want to stay in the covered area? Are they chicken chickens we have here?
Back to the internet, and anybody we can ask about this issue…. Papa Chuck is concerned about his chickens! We got all kinds of advice but decided to start with the suggestion Fallon got from her boss who has chickens – who said that we needed a rooster. The hens won’t feel safe to wander without a rooster for protection. Clearly we do not have feminist chickens! Fallon’s boss happened to have a couple extra roosters hanging around and offered to let us have one. Perfect! One rooster to help the ladies feel comfortable – problem solved! NOT!
Apparently you probably shouldn’t just shove a new coop member into the fold without a proper introduction, particularly if he is of the male variety. Who knew?! I figured he would just be like “Hey girls! I’m here to save you!” Ha ha ha ha!! Over the course of the next day, we got a visual example of the definition of “henpecked”. Those hens went after that poor rooster with everything they had! They pecked and pecked at him mercilessly – pecking his head and his comb over and over until he just went and cowered in the corner – shoving his head in the corner so they couldn’t get at his comb. Nasty buggers! The next day, when they went outside, the rooster headed straight out into the field – probably willing to do anything to get away from the girls. He stood out there all day by himself…. the girls still stayed in the covered area. Stupid like a fox hens!!
Chuck spent the night searching the internet for a solution to the problem….. damn chickens were supposed to be easy…. relatively speaking… and now this! I’m not sure what he found or what his next steps were going to be, but apparently, when he went out to the coop the next day…. all was right in the chicken world! Our rooster found his voice and the little ladies of the coop where herded out the back and straight out into the field! Huh??!! We have no idea what happened behind the closed coop doors that night, but whatever it was – it worked! Our lovely, expensive electric fence will be needed after all!
So…… when do we get some eggs?
Sooo funny!