Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Chicken Trading

Blue-laced Red Wyandotte girls: Edith & Ethel
A couple of months ago I purchased two older Blue Laced Red Wyandotte hens.  After quarantining them for the recommended month, I introduced them to my flock during the day while they free-ranged.  They quickly started roosting in the larger coop and the integration was complete.  Or so I thought.  All of my chickens are a year old or younger, so these older girls decided that they needed to put everyone in their place.  This didn't go over well, and ended up with the older girls being out casts in the flock. The tension in the coop was very noticeable, and I decided that in order to bring peace back to the flock that the older girls needed to find a new home with an older flock.





Snickers!
 Luckily, the lady that I purchased my new Easter Egger girls, decided that the Wyandotte hens should fit nicely into her flock with her older birds! So this past Sunday, I made a trip up the mountain to do some trading!  It was a beautiful drive back to the county that I was raised in!  When I arrived at her house, we unloaded the Wyandottes, and she gave me a tour of her coops! She had beautiful chickens of several breeds including White Rocks, Ameracaunas, Easter Eggers, and a few others.  When we got to her Easter Egger coop she let me pick out which pullet I wanted in trade for the older girls!  I picked a beautiful brown, salmon and cream colored pullet whose name is now Snickers, to go along with the candy bar theme of the first three Easter Eggers.




We came home and got Snickers settled into the coop with her old flock-mates, and everyone settled in nicely without any tension!  I heard from the lady the next day and she integrated the Wyandotte girls into the coop with her White Rocks who were still in quarantine.  She said that they did wonderfully and she didn't foresee any problems out of them!  I am so glad that everyone settled in so nicely, and that peace has been restored!  It is definitely not fun when there is chaos in the coop!


Edith & Ethel in their new home!  Thanks for the photo E.Jones!



Snickers, Hershey, Carmello and Twix!  All settling in nicely!

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad to hear it all ended well! Sometimes it can be hard to get two flocks to integrate smoothly. The wyandottes are so pretty!

    PS - I sent you an email, but just wanted to let you know that you are the winner of my giveaway for a copy of Fresh Eggs Daily! Congrats! Just send me your mailing info and I'll be sure the copy gets out to you ASAP :)

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  2. Congrats on winning the Fresh Eggs Daily! I've just browsed through your posts and it's so interesting to see people on the other side of the world following their dreams too (I'm another crazy chicken owner from New Zealand!) Those wyandottes are so pretty, what a pity they didn't integrate. Sally

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