My Pet Chicken Family, Adoptions Coming Up

Well, it's official, out of the dozen eggs my hen Henrietta was setting on, just five hatched.  My closest neighbors stopped by and she and her babies have now been spoken for. As soon as the baby chicks are 'raised', they'll all move down the road to their new home. All the babies look exactly like Barred Rocks, they're all healthy and the neighbors have been wanting a good mama hen for awhile now. Of course,I have visitation rights, will be fun to see all the babies after they're full grown. All pullets, from the looks of it.

Also, my neighbors bought several more of my menagerie for her boss, who runs a motel and restaurant at a tourist village a few miles away. He has a quality facility for them and features home grown eggs on his restaurant menu. He's right on the main highway and does a lot of business, especially during tourist season while the highway is open.

Getting another fellow worker into the hobby of raising chickens, too. He and his family are coming over this weekend to choose a 'baker's dozen' , twelve hens and one rooster. They want a good variety, so have come to the right place. I'm looking forward to showing them around. He's been building a chicken house and ordered all his supplies from Jeffers, through my website. That was nice of him, but he didn't do it entirely to be nice, he says he got a great deal.

I'll still keep my laying hens, some I've had as pets for several years and they still lay an egg every few days. I know, it's not financially "wise" to keep the hens so long, but here's how I look at it. Raising chickens is my hobby. I don't drink, gamble, eat out a lot or do anything else (well, except for buying chicken magazines and books) that the majority of people would consider wasteful, so I don't feel that keeping a few hens as pets for all their natural life is such a bad thing. They're about as special as my dog, cat, and rabbit.

If you're a die hard chicken hobbyist, maybe you'll understand. If not, well then, I'm still in the minority. Boy, I sound boring, don't I? Not bored, though.