One day I was at my friend’s house and she said that they had decided to get rid of their laying hens and chicken coop. She offered them to us. We were thrilled!
And then there were more laying hens
We were blessed with a nice coop and sixteen super productive laying hens. Farmer Derek was able to load the coop up on his trailer. It was quite the sight! We hauled it home and set it up. Now we had two flocks of chickens consisting of twenty-eight birds all together.
Not very long after we got our second flock another friend was having problems with predators getting their chickens. They offered us their flock. Now we were really growing our egg production! We drove over to their farm and picked up eighteen hens and one guinea along with a chicken tractor.
Farmer Derek came home and built another coop for our third flock. He was able to salvage about ninety percent of the material from a neighbor’s old barn that had collapsed. Not without incident, he managed to fall off the coop and scrape his back. Have no fear! I had my essential oil “owie spray” and fixed him right up!
We were up to forty six layers! That’s a lot of “backyard” chickens. If you’ve never sat and observed chickens doing their chicken thing you really must try it sometime. They are quite the entertaining creatures. It is great fun to throw food scraps to them, watch them attack it and chase each other all over the yard. We had plenty of chicken entertainment for sure!
The original twelve chickens and coop went to live at my brother and sister-in-law’s place. We miss them and were sad to see them go. Fortunately, we have plenty of layers left. We have been very fortunate and have not lost any birds to predators. We have lost a couple to natural causes and have traded three as a barter. What a journey, we went from wanting to buy three little chicks to having three flocks and coops and now we have two flocks and coops consisting of twenty nine hens and one guinea.
[…] And Then There Were More […]