Eggs (week ending 9/23): 14For the last couple of weeks I've been thinking that I'd like to get another couple of layers because the current output of the three hens now producing isn't quite up to what our family uses. I wasn't too worried about it, figuring that I was going to order some New Hampshire Reds, Buff Orpingtons, and meat birds in the spring.
Eggs (9/1/06 to date): 36
plus sixty or seventy collected 7/06 - 8/06
Then a friend of ours asked if we wanted some chickens. She and her husband had been given some as a housewarming gift, sort of a gag but not really. We were at the party when they got them - a nice trio of birds I couldn't quite identify, but the rooster was beautiful.
It turns out that the friend was afraid that their dog, a Husky, kept eyeing the birds with evil intent, and had concerns that the rooster's crowing would annoy the neighbors. Since we were the ones she came to for chicken advice, we were the logical ones to ask about adoption proceedings. Of course, I said yes.
She brought them over last Friday and I put them in a wire dog crate that I'd prepared for them - straw, a perch, and water. I kept them there until dark, when the other birds were asleep, and put them into the coop. They all seem to have assimilated with no problem. The two hens even laid eggs in the crate while waiting to be transferred.
There was one other interesting side effect. I was beginning to suspect that the Rhode Island Red rooster I got was having some potency problems. There were no signs of him chasing the hens, and the hens didn't show any of the ruffled feather signs of having been jumped. But the introduction of the second rooster brought out the man in the RIR. All of a sudden the hens are starting to look put-upon. The poor newcomer is so intimidated that he's been trying to spend his nights in the goat stall. I'm sure it'll all work itself out.
The icing on the cake - I'm pretty sure the hens are New Hampshire Reds. I thought one of the gift-givers at the party said they were New Hamps, and the look of them matches with some of the pictures of the New Hampshire Red section of Feathersite.
In other news, Ripley is now big enough to keep in the barnyard without escaping under the fence or through one of the gaps. I've now got her in a structured situation where she has a half-hour to eat in the morning or evening and, if she's not with a human being on a walk or working, she's in the barnyard with the goats. She's taking to the routine quite well. The breed seems to be quite intelligent. She has learned her name and some basic commands rather quicky. It's just that her size belies her intelligence, and the independent spirit of the Great Pyrenees can be taken as stubbornness or stupidity. I'm very impressed with the breed.
