From Rhode Island yet, sweet young things with plump breasts and very, very fertile. I only hope the older girls won't pick on them too much because of their youth and inexperience, after all they're here to lay eggs and not be just another pretty face.
We lost two hens, I think to poison. A squirrel, at the time of two hens sudden death, was acting funny as well. Lethargic squirrels aren't usual and he didn't want to leave the pond near the hens where water was available, a sign of a toxic blood poisoning used on rats. I think it was the asshole that lives across the alley that did it but I'm not sure since the hen house is located next to the alley anybody could have done the evil deed.
That's the price you pay when living in a city of many different types. You have your share of assholes that's for sure. But you have good people too, somewhere I think, although they seem to be in hiding at the moment. The young hens arrived, and they are real young, I think about five weeks old from the way their feathers have developed. Too young to be with the older hens as yet. I'm a bit miffed about it. Led to to believe they will be fine with the older hens, when right off, I could see my money going into dead chicks from being pecked to death if I left them in the coop with the other girls. They are in a wash tub at the moment with a piece of chicken wire over the top to keep Millie from finding them.
It's going to take a couple of more weeks before they're big enough to fend for themselves. Lucky we have the warm weather for them and I'll have the time to watch them. It's won't be until they are about seventeen weeks old that they will be able to lay eggs though. That means a few more months.
One thing for sure, I feel more like a farmer than I did when I bought pullets matured enough that they laid eggs right out of the box. In fact, my first hens had two eggs in their shipping box when I got them. Live and learn, or is it, adapt or die. I forget, but either one is a good lesson on life.
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