Every spring I'm pleasantly startled when I visit our local Farm and Fleet store for hardware and supplies, and find livestock for sale. Pictured above are the Rhode Island Red pullets ($2.99 each).
I would love to have purchased some for the back yard, but they would quickly have become food for the raptors or the foxes in the woods.
Reposted from last year because they are already available at Farm and Fleet, still $2.99 each. Here's a menu of the breeds available. I'm sorely tempted. In any case they are a cheerful reminder that spring is coming.
Raptors and foxes need to eat, too!
ReplyDeleteLiterally stole the words out of my mouth!
DeleteThen they should buy their own pullets.
DeleteNobel Peeps prize
ReplyDeletethose are the official bird of the the state with the longest name and the smallest area.
ReplyDeleteI-)
I rescued an Australorp hen a few years ago, someone had dumped her in a cache of 'unwanted' roosters, that is, all the roosters that people had hatched but were not permitted by council rules to keep but had not the courage (?) to kill. Needless to say if I left her there she would have been the breeder of the year. But I took her home, integrated her into my flock, showed her off to every visitor, saying 'Look at her blue feet, look at her black, near human eyes !'.
ReplyDeleteThat was some 8 years ago and now, as we all get older and maybe less able, she has gone a bit blind, so every morning I carry her out of her house and hand feed her, and every evening, before the gloaming, I do the same in reverse. She is unable to find her way back to the coop, but still able to move around, albeit as a caricature of a wind up toy chicken you might get from McDonalds, made in China and with a wind up knurled knob on the side.
She may well outlast me, which worries me as I don't know who will look after her should that happen.
Near everyone I know sees her as my folly or as food, while I see her as my second favourite pet.
Heat lamp is too low. Chicks are avoiding the hot spot.
ReplyDelete?? too low or too high ??
DeleteToo low vertically, not electrically. But it's OK if it's a little too low. The chicks will position themselves as near the lamp as they need to be. Better than having it too high.
DeleteGotcha. I misunderstood.
Delete