My Feathered Family Just Got Larger

I am now the proud parent of eight new hens that were adopted for me last night at an auction. I now have had 4 Barred Rock hens, 3 White Leghorns and an orange hen added to my flock of chickens. They are missing their tail feathers and some are missing feathers on their lower backs, but these will grow back in time. My flock is comprised of mostly Banty chickens with a Barred Rock and a Leghorn rooster rounding out the roster population.

We had 7 roosters and 5 hens, and though I was encouraged to butcher or sell off the roosters, I would not do it. I didn't want the roosters to be purchased by unscrupulous persons who wanted to use them for fighting or as bait for other fighting roosters. With the new adoptees we now have 13 hens and 7 roosters and while not perfect it is a better rooster to hen ratio for the flock. I did give away 2 roosters to the people I adopted the goats from earlier this year. Unfortunately one of the roosters I gave away died when a stray dog decimated their flock of chickens.

While I do collect the hens' eggs (unless they go broody and are sitting), I do not butcher any chickens. I do not de-beak any hens or roosters and don't clip the roosters' spurs. I do not believe in the practice of debeaking chickens and consider it barbaric. I had never seen a debeaked chicken until I adopted my first batch of hens. The top beaks were shorter than the bottom beaks and the bottom beaks reminded me of a scoop or shovel. My understanding of the practice is to keep hens from eating their eggs. I believe it makes it harder for the chickens to eat food. I have had chickens for over ten years now and have adopted many hens that have been debeaked. After their beaks grow back they are never clipped again and I  personally have never had a problem with either hens or roosters eating eggs.

Many chicken farmers buy chicks and sell off their older hens the following fall even though they are still capable of laying eggs. A hen will only lay one egg per day and during the winter
months the egg production can slow down. I believe this is due to the colder weather and limited hours of daylight. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the practice of selling off perfectly good egg producers and have no problems adopting them because I know they are still capable of laying healthy eggs.

My oldest hen is an Araucana (appropriately named Cuna) and she lays green eggs. She has lived with my flock for at least 10 years now and if she was a year old when I got her that would make her 11 years old. She still lays eggs, and while she has slowed down and does not lay an egg a day any more; she is still a valuable member of the flock.

The flock is allowed to live as natural a life as they can. During the winter months they are confined to the coop and provided with corn screening, kitchen scraps, egg shells, grit and oyster shells. We provide water in a heated waterer and there is a heat lamp for extra warmth. During the warmer months I still provide kitchen scraps and they are allowed to range free to eat any insects they can catch, weed seeds and plants. They have access to water both inside and outside the coop.

The flock voluntarily returns to the coop at night and they are closed in to keep them safe from the raccoons, fox, coyotes and other predators that would hunt them. We have eagles and red-tailed hawks and I have requested that they leave my flock alone. They have complied thus far to my appreciation, though a farmer about a mile to the north of me lost over 1,000 birds to eagles several years ago.

Earlier this year we did have a raccoon and a vixen that were taking my chickens. While I do not like killing creatures, the raccoon was dealt with for me by someone else. He was getting fat and lazy eating my chickens when he had access to berries nuts and fruits in the woods. The vixen was feeding young and traveling over half a mile to catch my chickens to feed her kits.  The vixen was sneaking up on the chickens by using the corn field as cover and they never saw her coming. I understanding trying to feed your family, but didn't want to provide her with a free lunch as she could have been hunting mice and rats nearer to where she had her kits. I solved the problem by eliminating access to the flock by keeping them in until the corn around us was harvested. They still had access to sunlight and fresh air, but were confined to quarters until the danger had passed.

I keep my flock safe by housing them in a coop. I let them out every morning that the weather is fine and if I have scraps for them they gather eagerly to see what the day's offerings are. I do a head count in the morning when I let them out and another one at night after they are all in the coop to make sure they are all there and healthy.  

I could do as many farmers do and not allow them outside at all. But then they wouldn't have access to all the insects, plants and berries that they love to eat. They would not have the freedom to bask in the sun or feel its warmth on their bodies. They wouldn't be able to play in puddles or take a mud bath. For my consideration in allowing them their freedom, they gift me with their eggs, the beauty of their brightly colored feathers (which I collect), their voices and their companionship.

In this season of giving and receiving blessings, I have received several new blessing early. May you be as blessed as I have been. Bless you and yours, be they two or four-legged.