Spring Chicken Activity

Spring is upon us (finally), and there's been lots of chicken activity on the farm the past few weeks.  Three weeks ago we bought our first ever Cornish-Rock crosses for meat.  They are four weeks old now and huge.  I would never have imagined how big these birds get so quickly.  So big in fact that we had to move them outside into the cage attached to the chicken coop.  They seem to be adjusting to their new living arrangements quite well and are enjoying a little more room to stretch their wings and legs.   They've even been moving around a bit more than their typical 'step-step-plop'.  Perhaps in another few days I will see if they would like out to free range with the rest of the chickens.  They sure do like to eat - and poop - and eat  - and poop some more.  It makes me wonder what those large-scale meat poultry houses must be like.  On second thought, I don't want to wonder about that.  It must be a horrible mess.

We also picked up 16 Americauna (Easter Egger) peeps this weekend.  Straight run only.  I guess this means we are going to have a few more chickens in our freezer come winter.  The first 10 peeps were found on Craigslist.  We placed them under Pearl, my white silkie hen who has been sitting on phantom eggs for about a month now.  They were already 4 days old but she too to them like they hatched beneath her fluffy little self.  She's not quite the mother that Delilah was, but she's doing her part.  The other 6 were found during a trip to Tractor Supply a few days later.  Since we aren't 100% convinced that Pearl's peeps really are all Americauna, we grabbed this half dozen just in case.  They are in the basement.  By this time next year my egg customers should happily be receiving some more greenies.  Everyone loves to see a green egg.  Including me.