It has been quite a while since I’ve posted as I’ve had some career changes and gotten married. Things are getting caught up, so I wanted to post some anxiously awaited updates. I will start with chickens.

I read that once a chicken habit started, it was hard to keep control of the addiction. My initial plan was to “try” only one chicken, but that immediately segued into three:

• 1 Chicken would be lonely
• 2 Chickens minimum would be required (one to keep the 1st chicken company)
• 3 Chickens would be ideal  (an extra chicken as a backup)

My thought process was that 3 chickens would yield about 2 eggs per day, and a “flock” of 3 chickens shouldn’t be too hard to maintain. What I didn’t include in my thought process was:

• The stupidity of chickens
• Chickens should be isolated before being introduced to a flock
• A new isolated chicken by itself would be lonely (hence a need to buy two at a time)

One of my first 3 chickens had to be dispatched due to stupidity (I think she ate several feet of twine), so I needed a new backup chicken. Since I needed to buy new chickens in pairs and keep them isolated. it lead me to build a new coop (on which I will post more details later).

Now I had a secondary coop. I bought 2 new chickens, got them acclimated with the old chickens, and things were going well with 4 hens… for a while. I eventually realized that I had extra capacity that was not being utilized, mentioned it to a friend, and we agreed that I would take 2 of his chickens. He brought 4.

Things get kind of squirrelly after that. One of the hens turned out to be a rooster and was given away, a friend gave us a couple “prettier” hens, another hen died of stupidity, a hen was potentially hawked, one decided to provide her services elsewhere, we acquired some chickens wandered to our flock from a neighbor…

Chicken Summary to date:

• The flock peaked at 9 chickens
• It currently consists of 6 hens and 1 rooster
• We’ve acquired a total of 14 chickens
• 7 chickens have left the flock

Summary of lost chickens:

• Stupidity – potentially ate a bunch of twine, pendulous crop
• Stupidity – went through cat door, couldn’t find way back out of shop
• Maleness – turned out to be a rooster and was given away
• Possum – potentially attacked by a possum
• Hawk – was found injured in the middle of the day, there was a hawk lurking about
• Sickness – the hen was never quite right and was attacked by the other hens
• Stupidity– naively set out to make it on her own somewhere else

I have included an example of chicken stupidity just to prove my point. It was one of the coldest days of the year, so I heated their coops and provided in-coop food and water. This bird brain decided she’d rather spend the afternoon standing in cold water. It should also be noted that 3 of the chickens opt to stay in a tree during subfreezing temperatures rather than their heated coop.

Lessons Learnt:

• It is impossible to have just one chicken
• Like gasses, chicken populations grow to match their contained volume
• Chickens are stupid
• Eggs taste great