Hammy the chicken. |
The ladies have finally arrived! We have 6 happy, young hens – and one happy little boy.
If you recall in a previous post, I was supposed to get our chickens from a farmer friend, but that fell through. It was very frustrating.
As a result, we had an empty coop for months just sitting there waiting to be filled. For a brief moment, I considered getting a rabbit instead! Then, on a whim one night, I googled ‘Pullets in Pittsburgh’ to see what I would get.
I ended up on Craigslist (which I had never used before) looking at a listing for 10-week-old pullets being sold by a young woman a mere 45 minutes from where I live. Of course, I emailed immediately and we had a chicken pick-up scheduled within the hour. Two days later I had my ladies.
Two days after that, all the hens had names assigned to them by the resident 3-year-old. Hammy and Cobby are Barred Rocks, Bock-Bock is a Rhode Island Red, Boo-Boo is a red sex link, and Flower and Buffalo are Welsummers. The Rocks are a bit older and are laying already – gorgeous, plump brown eggs. We couldn’t be more pleased.
And so now, every night, I do a quick scan of Craigslist’s Farm and Garden listings. The neighbor across the street got himself two young turkeys from a listing there.
Who knows, maybe someday I’ll get that rabbit after all…