Starting Small
Well we had to start somewhere and chickens are usually the recommended starting livestock, so last week we ordered our first laying hens, Black Stars (Black Sex Links). They’ll be arriving on the 21st of April. We originally thought we would hold off on animals until we finally moved home, but as that now looks further off than we had hoped we decided that we’d do some training so that we would be ready for a larger operation once we make it back to the Drawlyn.
Our neighbours across the way decided to try chickens last year. They started with summering a flock of 25 meat birds and did very well with them. We decided to follow suit this year but wanted to leap into layers as well. I still have misgivings about these hybrid neat birds though. I can’t help but think it’s fundamentally wrong to create a creature that will be helpless in it’s maturity even if it is destined for slaughter. So I have to admit that it’s likely we won't be getting the hybrids like I planned and getting a slower growing bird for a fall slaughter.
Ethics are a good reason to change plans, but is cuteness?
This is Elvis and Priscilla a Silkie pair we bought at the McDonald Corners auction last weekend. We hadn’t intended to buy anything just wanted to experience a small livestock auction., then I fell prey to the cuteness of a pair of Sultans. Unfortunately the Sultans and Silkies were going over the price I was willing to pay. Then in one of the last lots was a pair of Silkies and since the place was emptying out they went for a good price.
The two are quite charming and silly. The little roo struts like a rockstar despite his foofy silky coat and his red bubble hat. He has quite the groupie in Priscilla as she follows him everywhere. She isn’t put off by his dirty head feathers (I’m waiting until they’ve settled a bit before stressing him out by cleaning them.
This is Priscilla scratching with her feathery feet. She’s quite a bit braver than Elvis and will happily take greens from my hands until the roo gets agitated, then she runs back to coo over him. He’s a quite spoiled by her.
They are currently residing in an empty pony stall across the street in our neighbour’s stable. There their nights are warmed a bit by quarter horse and a pony. They will be tenanting there a while since the coop isn’t built yet and we still have frozen ground topped by a half foot of snow. This wasn’t originally a problem as of main layers were ordered as chicks and they won’t be here until the end of April. We were just going to use the tractor until we had the garden reading then we had planned to build the permanent layer coop. Cuteness foiled this plan. So yesterday I hacked together a new coop plan and hopefully the warm weather we had all winter will come back to us and we can get started.
These are the other small stable residents, Sunshine and Lucky, bought buy our neighbours at the same auction for their two girls.
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It is continuing to be weird weather wise around here (thus the crocuses are already in full bloom) so it's likely the coop will be up this weekend provided it doesn't rain the whole weekend. That is if I don't change the plans for it yet again. I so wanted a strawbale coop with an earthen floor! But since we have to build it so early in the spring I'm just happy that we have enough scrap wood that we didn't need to buy many things for it.
Also last weekend my dear man finished the seedling stand I had hoped to have up and in use before this. It's not too pretty but it is serving well not only for it's original purpose but also as a kitty bed (For more Angelkitten cuteness go to the Early Spring Flowers post at Coffeeshop Correspondent.) I still need to trim the plastic sheeting but that should be accomplished today.
