Getting Chickens

    Those of you who have been worrying about the mental health of our lone chicken, can stop worrying.  Our hen now has some more company; five more hens have been added to our flock.

    I think it is interesting how things always seem to fall into place.  We told some friends about our lonely chicken, and how we were going to have to get a couple more chickens to keep her company.  They mentioned that a friend of theirs had just gotten some new chickens from Monica.  Hearing that we figured that Monica might be a good source for some young chickens.

     Monica’s phone number wasn’t in the book, but Joan was able to get it from another friend.  I gave Monica a call yesterday afternoon and she told us to come on out to her place, so that is what we did.  What a treat to see her farm.  When we pulled up to her yard, a menagerie of animals ran in all directions.  There were ducks, turkeys, sheep, and chickens of all manner of breeds, all free-ranging in the yard.  Because there was such a wide variety of breeds there was something of interest to see everywhere I looked.  The photo shows one small cluster of what I saw.

    Monica has been slightly overwhelmed with an exploding population of farm animals, and was happy to pass some on to a good home.  Because they were all out roaming around, it wasn’t possible to catch any during our visit, so she told us she would wait until that night, when they had settled down to roost, then she would pick some out and bring them to town and drop them off (I was at the music jam night at the library).

    That is what happened, except that I ended up with five young hens of various colors, because I couldn’t make up my mind which ones to take.  For payment, Monica ask me to make a donation to the library, which I did, and so last night, after the jam session, I brought the new chickens home to their new house.  

    It is always a bit shocking when you see the reality of grouping new animals together.  I always assume they will be happy to meet each other, but generally, there is a lot of posturing and aggression.  I didn’t let the new birds out of the cage until this morning, when everyone was still a bit dozy, so there wasn’t any fireworks then.  At present, the all seem tolerant of each other, with our hen at one end of the run and the newcomers huddled at the other end.  I hope they all eventually become friends.

You can view my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca