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As a matter of fact, we ARE spring chickens

SQUEEEEE! (Also in color).

We took a long drive through the South Downs today (gas: $8.66/gallon US, e-yow) to Middle Farm and bought these two lovely birds.

Pekin bantams again. The one on the left is Victoria, a partridge, and the one on the right is Violet, a lavender.

Victoria was the given the name of Vita Sackville-West (two posts down) and Violet was her lover of many years. Though Vita and her husband were genuinely and deeply in love with each other (and he was into boys or llamas or little white dogs or something). Whatever — CHICKENS!

Tomorrow they will see sunshine and walk on grass for the very first time, and we will begin the long, ticklish business of introducing them to the flock, AKA the other two.

And thus my poultry inventory is complete.

Comments


Comment from EastAsia
Time: April 20, 2011, 9:43 pm

They are lovely! Is your flock complete because all four together can lay enough for breakfasteses?
I’d love to get some chicks—we have the room, but we also have coyotes. Sigh.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 20, 2011, 10:02 pm

Yep, I think four will do it. It’s not really about the eggs, though — these birds are surprisingly excellent company.

We have foxes. Lots and lots of them, and people tell us stories of foxes coming into the garden while you’re standing there and carrying chickens off. We are extra vigilant, but that’s one reason having just two seemed risky. Lose one, and a hen on her own is disconsolate.


Comment from EastAsia
Time: April 20, 2011, 10:12 pm

Brazen little bastids, foxes. And ‘yotes. I don’t think I could stand it if a chick was carried off. Coyote attacked one of chiwawas once, but she was too fat to carry off. 😉


Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: April 20, 2011, 11:15 pm

Has that stoat that visited you been back? I fear that he might find them interesting.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: April 20, 2011, 11:58 pm

Hmm, I wonder if Synthetic tiger Urine would give the Foxes a reason not to come calling…..

It is available online for garden pest control……

http://www.predatorpee.com/


Comment from Spad13
Time: April 21, 2011, 12:06 am

Scuba there is a Charlie Sheen joke in that synthetic tiger urine some way but I ain’t smart enough to come up with it.


Comment from Mark Matis
Time: April 21, 2011, 12:20 am

Hey, SWeas – any chance ya could stuff the newbies into two oversize eggs temporarily, and have them “hatch” in front of Mapp? With the squalling you have been describing, she may actually believe the oversize eggs are what she had laid, and that the newbies are her progeny…

Just a thought, mind you…


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: April 21, 2011, 12:50 am

I dunno Spad, if you have Charlie Sheen come pee around Stoatie’s house, you’ll probably end up with a bunch of stoned Foxes…..


Comment from PatAZ
Time: April 21, 2011, 2:20 am

They are special. Wish I could have some, but I have jackrabbits and coyotes. So, guess not.


Comment from Sporadic Small Arms Fire
Time: April 21, 2011, 2:41 am

“And thus my poultry inventory is complete.”

SWeas, the carvings on Mount Rushmore do (and will) require more work. And these chooks are not even mountains.

You may outfox the fox, but it is a numbers game.


Comment from Spad13
Time: April 21, 2011, 2:43 am

Scub or hyper active chickens pecking at “rocks”.


Comment from porknbean
Time: April 21, 2011, 4:06 am

Now see, I’d get sooper paranoid over foxes kidnapping my pet chickens with benefits, that I’d probably turn ’em into inside birds.


Comment from Elphaba
Time: April 21, 2011, 5:13 am

Adorable!


Comment from Mark Matis
Time: April 21, 2011, 11:52 am

If you are worried about predators, you can always make a chicken tractor for the chicklets. And chicken coops can be made resistant to ALMOST any credible predator. Yobs, of course, excepted. If YOU can get in, they can as well.


Comment from Uncle Monkey
Time: April 21, 2011, 4:44 pm

@Scubafreak
For a while when we had our famers market “licensed garden” we were getting the real deal (lion pee) and it made a difference. Kept me the hell out of the garden.
😛

Here’s something you all might find interesting – we just got the catalog and it’s a downloadable pdf too. Animation and Hollywood memorabilia – some amazing stuff. I hate getting these things! http://www.profilesinhistory.com/ Just click the Hollywood 44 Auction link to download.

Guaranteed entertainment.


Comment from Glenster
Time: April 21, 2011, 8:31 pm

Uncle Monkey: Oh man, I want GEN 11 !! One of my favorite movies…


Comment from Uncle Monkey
Time: April 21, 2011, 9:39 pm

Glenster said
Uncle Monkey: Oh man, I want GEN 11 !! One of my favorite movies…

Hey, estimated going price is only between $1-2M. No biggie! But hey, if that’s too steep you can always just get the “everlasting gobstopper” for only $15-20k.

We go to these auctions and events from time to time – and have ties to some folks in the industry.

We also have a LOT LESS MONEY because of it!


Comment from Nina from GCP
Time: April 24, 2011, 8:33 pm

Stoaty, when I posted your most recent minute and a half of chickens clucking and pecking, one of my coworkers just fell in love with how adorable they are. She still talks about it. You’ve inspired her to become a chicken mommy too. That’s a good deed, that is.

🙂


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 24, 2011, 8:49 pm

I recommend she hang out in a poultry forum for a while, Nina (my favorite is Practical Poultry, but it’s UK-centered). Different breeds have very different personalities and characteristics!

Mine are all Pekin Bantams, which are famously fun to be around and easy to take care of, but I think they’re called something else in the States. Cochins, maybe.


Comment from Can’t hark my cry
Time: April 24, 2011, 9:36 pm

This is an American poultry forum: http://www.backyardchickens.com/

It was featured in the American Bar Journal awhile back. Don’t ask. And, no, I don’t follow it, but it’s a starting place.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: April 24, 2011, 9:54 pm

Yes! I’ve visited Backyard Chickens. It’s a good forum.


Comment from Nina from GCP
Time: April 26, 2011, 12:10 am

I’ll pass the link along!

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