In resurrecting this blog for our new venture in raising goats, I reflected back on our last three years in keeping chickens. We subtracted and added to our flock. Our first subtraction came with the departure of the roosters. Three of them proved difficult on the hens and on us. Stevie became aggressive. He flogged any perceived threat including our neighbor's young son. With spurs the size of Texas, he could wreak havoc in a heartbeat. We put an ad in Craigslist. The woman who came offered take all three Polish boys. Let me digress by saying that we had found a home for Andy, but retrieved him a week later because he was restricted to a small cage. This woman, taking all three, said she had ample space for the boys, and intended to use them to breed polish chickens.

With the boys gone, it was a quiet day at Echo Mountain View Farm. No crowing.

Andy

Amy and Allison

Prior to the boys departure, when Amy and Andy had been housed in the special need's coop, I got a call asking for fertilized eggs. Amy's white eggs contrasted with Allison's brown, so I gave two white eggs away. Twenty-one or so days later, Izzy was born, hatched under a Silkie hen. He was raised by Silkies for 8 months until he got too big for them, and the owner asked if we wanted him back.

Izzy

Gone as an egg, back as a beautiful, peaceful, non aggressive rooster. He is still with us today, and has fathered a couple of chickens!


Speaking of Silkie's, intrigued with the heritage breed, we drove to Tennessee to pick up some Silkie's and Black Copper Marans. At the top of this post is Suzie, the only survivor of that trek. Raising chickens is not for the faint of heart....Suzie's sister died early on and of the three Black Copper Marans, two were roosters and given away.

Piper

Piper, the only hen of the three, lived for two years and never really laid any good eggs. Hers were always filled with blood spots, far more than average or healthy. But she lived a happy life in the special need's coop.

Amy and Allison are both gone. We learned a lot about prolapsing and egg bound chickens in our experiences with Allison. She survived two episodes and lived happily ever after, not laying another egg. Then, one morning this summer, we found that she had died in her sleep. Sadly, Amy was the victim of the neighbor's dog. She, along with several other chickens, lost their lives in two separate instances of two separate neighbor's dogs coming through the property while the hens were free-ranging. Needless to say, we now never free range without direct supervision.


Anne at Echo Mountain View Road chickens