a minivan full of chickens

Well... we got chickens!

Today has been a wild day, lemmetellya. After an early morning run with Kai, we scooted to our friend Jane’s place to pick up 5 Rhode Island Red chickens. These gals have seen a few winters; they’re seasoned, and they are calm af. We had a fun time rounding them up and were pleasantly surprised with how quiet they were on the drive home. We packed them into our crates and used other crates on top as lids (u know we be bootstrappin it)

So we get the girls back to our place and they are loving the coop!! We spent the last week setting up a coop in the big back barn. It’s basically a giant bird cage; logs, perches, A SWING. These girls have quite the crib. They found their food, water, grits, dust bath & nesting boxes just fine. I threw in some turnips from the field and they have eaten them up. I think that’s what I’m most excited about atm with having chickens… feeding them all the decaying produce from the field.

Jakoby has been doing some research on raising Soldier Flies for live chicken food. We also have our worm bin which could be thinned out & fed to the gals. Over the next few days, we will be fencing in the back of the property, which will give the chickens free range of 2 acres and an abundance of bugs to enjoy. We are hoping Kai will join them back there, but after their first encounter today, we’re not sure how well that will go.

Anyone have a purebred BIRD HUNTING dog that you’ve converted into a bird guardian dog? She’s 11 months old today, so there’s still lots of training time & potential.. Just not sure if it’s in her DNA, yaknow? What is for sure in her DNA is to chase birds, grab them by the neck and shake them so violently that their necks snap. WOAH, got morbid real quick!!

But for real, nature is WILD. Nature doesn’t have emotions like humans. I don’t really know why humans have so much emotion, because when you observe animals or nature, it's just the way it is. Everything keeps moving on.

When we brought the second flock of chickens home (we packed 19 chickens into our minivan this evening), the two flocks’ alphas went at it. They were sizing each other up, pecking at each others’ faces.. the hens were getting heated. At one point I put my boot in between the two, but it didn’t change the dynamic. They had to sort it out themselves. When two flocks merge, it seems natural that the two leaders would figure out who’s going to be the alpha of the new tribe. Eventually one of the hens surrendered/submitted and then everything calmed right down. The two flocks have now somewhat mingled and I find that just so darn cute.

So the second round of chickens we picked up this evening are a Rainbow Blend, which means there are several different types of chickens that lay different coloured eggs. Some lay blue eggs, some lay pink eggs, some lay dark brown eggs with spots. All our birds are beautiful and I feel grateful to be hanging with more animals. I feel different with the chickens than I do with the dog. All animals are amazing, and they each bring out different parts of us.

Anyways, it’s been a long day. Jakoby just finished up some last minute coop adjustments and it is now time for tea, bath & bed. Thanks for reading, check back soon for more chicken tales!

Much love