Got Chickens? (We do!)

As I previously posted, I was planning to get day-old chicks. Well, those plans fell through, and I ended up getting some 6-week old chicks from a great guy named Jay Gregory - he runs Gregory Poultry, in Virginia. I first 'met' him through a yahoo group called ncpoultry2. To make the transaction, we met him in Winston Salem, while his family was there for a family trip to the Dixie Classic Fair. We drove there and met him in the morning, and by the afternoon, our new girls were settled in their coop.

We actually used the cage I had set up (I had to disassemble it) as the brooder to bring the birds home. (yes, we let them ride in the cab of our truck on the way home) On the ride home we got to know the girls a little better... uh... and smell them better too - six hens in an enclosed truck don't really smell lovely, just to let you know. We named them all by the time we got home. It was quite hard to keep the kids from sticking their fingers in the cage, and we used hand sanitizer liberally on the way home!

Here are some pictures of our new chickens - we've had them now for one week! They seem to be doing really well. They're used to their coop (they are too old for a brooder!), and they know to go up the ramp at bedtime!

This is one of the two Ameraucanas named Ginger.

Here I am, holding Sassy, one of the two Buff Orpingtons.

Anderson is holding Sassy also, who is saying "Please don't squish me!"

This is Betty, a Barred Plymouth Rock. She is the largest of the six, and the most friendly. After a week at our house, she will come running up to the front of the coop whenever you come by, and she likes to be petted.

Scarlett, our Rhode Island Red... she seems to be the most timid.

Gray Whitney - she's gray and buff/light brown - we named her after Ray Whitney of the Carolina Hurricanes.

This is Miss Priss... she's a Buff Orpington. We had originally named her Miss Piggy, but that has changed. She's very sweet and curious. She's the second most friendly one besides Betty.

The Wake Weekly did a final story regarding the "Hens in Wake Forest" campaign - I would like to give you a link to it, but it's not available online right now. The reporter used the picture of me above, and also took one of my daughter right next to the coop. It was a really nice story. I hope to be able to get it on here somehow so others (not in the WF area) who are following the story can read it.