New Blood

Took the family to town today and among other things we brought back ten new chickens.

After a long cold winter of store bought eggs, our remaining nine hens have begun laying again, to much celebration. Trust me, a few months paying for those pale, tasteless things passed off as chicken eggs in the grocery stores is more than enough to make us appreciate the hard work our girls do out there in the hen house.

Two years ago we hatched a dozen eggs and raised our own babies, offspring from our original flock of buff Orpington and black Jersey Giant hens, sired by the late great rooster, King Richard, a Dominique - may he rest in piece and feed the garden well.

Since then, in addition to Richard, we've lost several other birds and the only roosters we have left are Terry the Terrorist, sibling to most of our hens today, and Dixie, a bantam golden Seabright rooster who despite his enthusiasm is a bit too short to reproduce. Give him an A for effort though, he never gives up.

Anyway, we decided it was time for some new blood in the chicken lot this year, so off to Weston's in Asheboro we went. We bought our first flock from them, as well as the new girls and boys today and each time the staff there are fast, courteous, and professional - give'em your business if you live around these parts.

When we purchased our first flock, the choices were all straight run chicks (boys and girls mixed, try your luck) and we got more roosters than hens. We managed to trade the boys here and there around the community and still had enough hens to keep us in eggs most of the year.

This year the selection offered at Weston's included several varieties of pullets only - no roosters! We decided to get ten birds and ended up with five red sex-links and one called a Golden Comet, all females. We rounded out the new brood with four straight run Anconas.

We're hoping a few of the Anconas will be male. If so, we'll keep the best rooster among them and send mean old Terry on down the road. We know a few places around the neighborhood where his "services" would be welcomed.

Maybe next year we'll try our hand at the incubator again and see what kind of crazy mixed up birds this years crop produces. Meanwhile, I sure do love those homegrown eggs.