Meet the New Kids

One of the people I contacted on the DOD (day of death) was Pam from Peaceful Valley Farm. I found her on Craigslist a few weeks before the 'event' when she was selling chickens. I wasn't ready to get new chickens - we didn't have our permanent coop up, but I wanted to get everything lined up. I'm funny like that! I did visit her to get ideas of how we might want to construct our coop. She lives in a national wildlife refuge, so if her chickens are safe, then certainly ours would be as well.

So, fast forward to last week. I didn't want Alice, the lone survivor, to be alone for too long. Chickens don't do well solo. Like many farm animals, they are better in a pack. So, three days after the murder and move, I visited Pam. She selected a few chickens for us to check out and we brought home two young birds.

 They came home in cat carriers. Alice was checking them out. They were checking everything out!

We haven't named them yet. Pam doesn't sex her chickens, so we don't know if we have two hens, two roosters, or one of each. The naming must wait until we know what sex they are. I'm thinking we might give them names of the Von Trapp family singers. You know, Liesl, Louisa, Friedrich, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta or Gretl.

We released them into the chicken tractor to let them mingle and get to know each other. Chickens can be mean - that whole 'pecking order' thing can be brutal. The two newbies know each other and get along just fine. I was concerned that they might gang up on Alice or that Alice, because she is so much bigger than them, would pick on them. So far, so good! I will say that on the evening of the introduction, I poured myself a glass of wine, grabbed my knitting, pulled up a chair and babysat the new roommates for a few hours. It was a great evening!