My sister finally came to visit the chickens. My niece commented that they were no longer babies, but were teenagers like herself....developing and blossoming. And it is true. The yellow fluff is being replaced by white feathers. Their necks are getting longer and they are looking a bit awkward, like the classic awkward middle schooler.
My boys and I sit on the hay bail in the chicken house and watch. The males are starting to strut and fight. We think they are potential roosters. It is quite exciting when they fly to roost.
I'm loving the book I recommended a few weeks ago: Your Chickens by Gail Damerow. I keep renewing it at the library, so I think I need to find it and order it--used.
Here are some of my favorite facts:
The skeleton of a chicken looks like the skeleton of a dinosaur.
A spent chicken is a chicken who no longer lays eggs.
The chickens we bought, White Rocks, are endangered. Many dual-purpose breeds are on the endangered list.
A chicken might attack you if your pants flap in the breeze.
Avoid feeding your birds strong-tasting foods like onions, garlic, or fish, which can make their eggs and meat taste funny. Yuck!
One way to tell if you have a good laying hen, is if you can press two or three fingers between the public bone, and three fingers between the keel and the pubic bone. And they have moist vents. Anyone want to test this out? I've never liked the word moist.
A laying hen can have as many as 4,000 eggs in her body! Woe!
Cockerels learn to crow at 6-8 weeks.
5 comments:
you aren't going to eat your chickens are you?
We always had chickens when I was a kid. My mom and dad loved the eggs. The best fun I had with the baby chicks was when we'd find them a juicy worm, they would kick it around like they were playing soccer. Pretty entertaining.
Funny Joey! I too have good childhood chicken memories. Every kids should get to have chickens.
Ang, yes we are eating about half, as we ordered a straight set of 25....this means roughly 1/2 are boys and we will get to enjoy their meat. We really hope that Lightning Favorite Squeak is a female...that is the one rare breed we got. The boys are quite attached.
That is SO funny! Eric and I were just reading up on how to increase our egg production and came across "moist vents." That has become a big joke around here! :) And no, we havn't tested any vents!
I also have a weird aversion to the word moist. It's a disgusting word!!! Good luck with your little chickies!!!!
Kim, that is so funny!
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