New Spring Hens

Foghorn meeting the new ladies

Hello and Happy Easter to all who celebrate!!

I hope your homes are filled with chocolate this weekend that you are desperately trying to avoid! I know mine is, and we don't even have any kids!! Instead, we spent our weekend collecting sap and playing with the new hens we got in!

About two weeks ago, Jonny and I headed to our local farm store to pick up some more taps for the maple trees when I realized I had not ordered my spring hens yet! We've been buying those grocery store eggs that my dog turns his nose up at.

I couldn't chose a type of laying hen. Every year the catalogue gets bigger it seems. You can find hens of every color, size and temperament  The boy working the counter saw my look of dismay and took the catalogue from my hands.
"Do you want meat or eggs?"
"Eggs" I replied.
"Day-old chicks or hens that are already laying?"
"Laying please"
"If you want them next weekend you can get brown ones or a mixed pack"
"Oh! A mix pack please!"

And my order was in. Well that was easy! Except I had no idea what was coming!  That felt like the longest 10 days ever! The morning they came in, my friend Ann and I rushed to the farm store to pick up my hens. There they were, sitting in their crate. For some reason this never gets less exciting for me. We slid them into the back of the car and headed home to surprise my very lonely rooster.

My handsome rooster had spent over 4 months alone over the winter. It was almost impossible to find new hens until spring. Poor guy was getting pretty grumpy. The hens rode home silently without a peep. We carried them out to the coop, (got our phones ready to take pictures) and busted the crate open! They just laid there... Their showmanship was lacking compared to my excitement level.

Me unpacking the chickens

So one by one I picked them up and put them beside the crate. They started chatting quietly and foghorn could hear them. I could hear him pacing behind the door to his coop, talking away. Alright, lets try this again...

I busted open the chicken coop door and out runs foghorn! There we go! That's more like it! He ran around, checking out each one. Talking away to them and showing them his puffed-up and over-inflated handsome chicken body. Ten minutes later it was as though they had always been a flock together. They spent all day together chatting away to each other. (Hens outside chatting really do sound like a bunch of women talking and laughing)    

The next morning, Foghorn didn't crow the first time until almost 8am!! Someone had a late night ;). That day he had paired off with a cute Leghorn hen and took her to his favorite bug-catching spots around the yard. When I went to close the coop in the evening, Foghorn and his new girl were sitting on the front porch watching the sunset together. I took my shoes back off and gave them another half hour to get to bed.

Ah, young love :)

Look at that stud! How could the lady hens resist?