Chicken History
I've had chickens for decades, always for the eggs.

In the past I've had Production Reds, they lay a very large brown egg (can't close the carton on some of them). But, these gals got weeded out by the occasional predator, they were not survivalists, evidently they had some stupid genes, compared to my Ameraucana girls that lay the pink, blue or green eggs who managed to live to be ten years old and still be productive in the egg department. Back to the predator issue, yes, I do have a coup for them to sleep in that is predator proof, however, not all of my girls choose to use the coupe. Those that choose other sleeping arrangements, can be picked off by owls, raccoons, skunks, or foxes (everything loves to eat chicken). I also had a 'generic' hen I bought on the way thru Castroville one day, she had the frizzle gene which made her look like she had a bad 'hair' day with kinky feathers everywhere. She must have also had some bantam genes since she was perpetually broody. I got a lot of cross breeds with kinky 'hair'. She also must have had the stupid gene and eventually (after years of producing chicks) fed a predator. She must have passed the stupid with the kinky gene since I no longer have any kinky's. I've also always kept a few Barred Plymouth Rocks, which are pretty girls.

Current Chicken News

Welsummer hen

I decided to purchase some new chicks last fall (November 1) and I over did it a bit. I ordered 25 Ameraucana chicks, 19 Black Australorps chicks, 3 Cuckoo Maran chicks and 3 Welsummer chicks. I had purchased three adult Black Australorps a few months before, and was very impressed with them. They are supposed to be more heat tolerant, and we have plenty of heat here in Texas. The Cuckoo Marans and Welsummers lay a dark chocolate brown egg which I was curious about. Well they all started laying in April and I'm overwhelmed with eggs, nearly 4 dozen per day. I didn't really intend to go into the egg business, I had really envisioned selling a few hens to city folks that wanted a few fresh eggs for their family.

OK, here's my beef: Commercial Egg Layers are the most inhumanely treated animals in the factory farm business. (Check it out for yourself). I refuse to purchase store bought eggs which would support that industry. It's amazing what they can print on an egg carton to get past the conception of cruelty, like 'cage free' etc. that isn't at all true Liars, Liars, Pants on Fire. The only true FREE RANGE chickens are raised on small local farms in the 'country', or those that model Joel Salatin's farm in Swoope Virginia (I've been there).

The problem I ran into (selling hens) was (as usual) my marketing plan was non-existent. I was very successful raising the chicks into fat, gorgeous, Velcro chickens (always under your feed begging for more treats). In fact I created a monster! Even though they are very well fed, twice per day, the hens discovered my kitchen organic disposal system. I had always dumped my scraps on a pile under a giant climbing rose bush, next to my front deck. The earthworms really appreciate the scraps, and the rose bush flourished. However, it wasn't long until the curious hens discovered the organic buffet, and they could even time my footsteps as I crossed thru the house with more scraps. Eventually they began to camp out under the deck so that they could be the first ones to gobble up the scraps. Well either the hens that missed out (too slow on the beak) or the victorious ones, who perhaps got bored waiting for more scraps, started working on my prized plants in my back yard. As you well know, a goat owner has to have a sacred place to put precious plants or they become goat worn to the point of death. I had established a beautiful fenced in garden in my back yard, well out of reach of goat lips, but hadn't considered chicken beaks. These lovely hens turned into plant destruction savages. They shredded my lilies, consumed my blueberries, pecked huge, gapping, lesions in my gorgeous tomatoes, and devoured my Swiss chard. When Jesus put the sheep on his right hand and the goats on His left hand (Matthew 25:33.... remember the goats were the evil ones), I had to revise my version of the separation, with the goats on my right hand and the chickens on the left.

Anyway, anyone interested in purchasing some beautiful, gourmet hens?? They do produce lovely delicious eggs in multi color shells! I have pictures of them and would be happy to give additional information on the proper rearing of chickens.

Here is a group photo of hens. Most of them (light colored ones with fluffy cheeks) are the Ameraucana. There is one redish Wellsummer approaching the mineral feeder on the right, the only game hen I have is looking back at the approaching Cuckoo Maran (she looks like a Bard Rock as they have the cuckoo coloring) and there are two visable Black Australorps in the photo one at the far top and the other past the stacked wood. The hen leaving the group is also an Ameraucana but you can't see her fluffy cheeks.