Today our six pullets (young chickens) were introduced to the side yard. They been in several cages as they have grown, today with some temporary fencing and netting a safe habitat in the side yard was setup. It took only a few seconds before they started scratching in the short grass and exploring the new environment.
As we were setting up the temp cage for them I needed to check the light in the coop, the wife had reported it was not working. She had tried a new bulb however it was still intermittent. Using a flash light to see into the coop we found one of our existing grown chickens dead in the coop. She had been acting a bit funny the last few days. She had stopped laying some time ago and had lived out her remaining years free ranging with the other grow chickens in the side yard. I buried here under a large tree where her sisters have been buried over the years.
We didn’t start out to make pets of the chickens; however with time their personalities become know. Each is very different from the rest; each has her own way, her own favorite dust hole. Occasionally they make it up onto the back deck, we’ll be sitting watching TV and one, then another, then another chicken will pass the back sliding door as they look over the deck for any scrapes the dog may have missed. All I can say is ‘good luck’ as the one thing our old dog does well is get every last crumb. Heck, she watches the blue jays and squirrels hide peanuts in the yard, she then digs them up and eats them.
We’ve had as many as a dozen layers, now we are down to five old hens, all beyond their egg producing prime.
The pullets will add 5 hens and a rooster to the mix once we feel they are big enough to hold their own against Bertha, the head hen. I suspect a new pecking order will be established with the introduction of new blood and a rooster, we’ll have to wait and see.
One of the pullet hens seems to have splay feet; her feet don’t curl down, they curl out to the sides. Her feet are very symmetrical. She’s every bit as big as the two other hens of the same breed. Based on these two observations I’m convinced this is genetics and not a nutritional issue. She currently manages to roost; we’ll wait to see if she can once she’s full grown.
Today we saw the circle of life, the old die to make room for the young, it is as it’s always been and should always be. Personally living forever isn’t something I would wish on anyone.
