As many of you know I have chickens. I love my chickens. They love me back. I proudly come from farmer stock and must have inherited this from my farmer Grandparents Cecelia and Stuart Root. Well, the farm now has nine new fluffy White Leghorn chicks (there were 16 but sad to say we lost 7 which often happens.) Below are a few pics of the young ladies. Ladies only! When I first had chickens I had three horny roosters whom I called the Three Tenors. Well, that trio didn’t last long. The trio went to a duet, then a solo act then…silence. Ahhhh. I think the day I butchered that last rooster all the ladies lit up a cigarette and had cocktails in celebration. They’re now a very content and peaceful all-girl colony.
If you ever decide to embark on chickens be ready for your ladies BEFORE they arrive. Identify your pen location, place your heat lamp and prep your starter food and waterer. When you get a call from the post office that your ladies “have arrived”, go immediately to pick them up or you’ll lose some of your flock. They are VERY fragile in these first few days of life. Place them under a heat lamp with “just the right” heat ratio. My lamp is usually about three feet above the girls. For my pen, I use a galvanized stockade water trough. Where do I get my ladies? I always order mine from Murray McMurray Hatchery (www.mcmurrayhatchery.com) whom I’ve used for years. They are the most accurate “sexers.” Sexers? Yes SEXERS! That means they ensure that you don’t get any roosters!
