Friday, March 6, 2009

Decisions decisions

Decisions decisions, my little brain is wondering about a choice I may make. The man who bought Lucy and Melda's sisters sent me an email, he really likes the ones he got from me and wants to buy more. I like Lucy and Melda as they are calm and friendly even after coming from a farm with almost ninety chickens, they are strong, tough and good layers. The reason I am thinking about letting them go is for some of the same reasons. They can be destructive, if food is pulled out, if something is broke, if another hen has been pecked it will be one or both of them. The other reason is their blood filled rage against other new chickens, they can be very aggressive to a point that I never saw before.

I wanted to get more bantams and with these girls I know that is not possible, everything will be a fight that will last for months instead of a week. Having a small space I could keep more chickens if I kept bantams and now that I have Gracie I really have the bug. I like to watch her run around about her business. Last week I missed a really good chance, a man living close to me was cutting back on his chickens and was selling red silkie hens, partridge coloured cochins hens, mille fleur bantam trios plus some others in rooster hen pairs. At five dollars a hen that is a great deal and also a deal because most people just want to sell one hen with a rooster. Both those types of hens are nice looking and they would have fit in as Chico is a white silkie and Gracie is a black cochin. I had to think about it but of course they were all gone in a day or two. My reason for missing my chance was Lucy and Melda. If I put the new ones in the cage, then Gracie would be at risk, if I let them all run free, The blacks might really hurt the silkie hens as they could not fly away from them.

The red hens will fight as well but with them it would be more about being boss and not about attacking to kill. On the other side, they are great hens as pets and I want them to go to a good home. The man keeps all sorts of chickens freerun and sells eggs and I guess they would have a bigger home and yard to run around in. Seeing Amy's and John's bantams does not help the situation and only makes me want more, but I would feel guilty about sending away my black girls. I need to make up my mind on this one as there is a large bird auction coming up including all sorts of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, guinea hens etc etc and it will be really hard not to come home with someone... or two... or three.... or.........!

6 comments:

bubble said...

I wouldn't hesitate in buying more chickens but parting with the ones i already have would be difficult...although getting more hens that are smaller would be better for chico, wouldn't they?

Thats a hard one!

Amy :)

Tracey said...

Buy loads more and build another pen!
Tracey x

John Going Gently said...

I agree.....try to get a few more Steve.......I have only had a few problems with bullying.....the cage thing will, I am sure, work!
go for it

bubble said...

where are you? lol.

Amy :)

nobody-but-us-chickens said...

Amy: Yes Chico would be a lot happier, I am also thinking about Gracie because Chico goes crazy when she comes out of her cage, he just keeps mating with her over and over until she gets fed up and goes back in the cage on her own, so I want to give her a break as well. It is very hard at times then at other times not so hard. Take last night, while on the perches getting ready to sleep, Lucy walked up to Gracie and bit a chunk out of her comb for no reason because Gracie does not even sleep on the same perch.

Tracey: I would like to do that but I don't have much more room to build another coop and pen, plus I don't want town inspectors coming out to visit me.

John: Okay since you say to do it, I will get more! Haha, so if it does not work out, it will be allllll your fault! ;)

nobody-but-us-chickens said...

Amy: Was away for most of the weekend, I just went to answer as you commented lol!