abruptly a chicken owner!

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so just got back after getting keys... he definitely left us his entire flock. I'm certain of at least 40, possibly closer to 50 (they were running around a lot) he's clearly very old school in theme of "as long as it's laying its healthy" and there's some fairly alarming injuries (not just talking about missing feathers- at least two were missing eyes) Going by rules of thumb I've seen on here there's really only space for about 20. My husband is currently doing research on culling methods and my dad has friends who might take at least a few, so we'll see where we end up.

It was definitely a startling amount of chickens to "come home to."
 
update: one of the worst injured passed on her own, but all of the rest have perked up considerably with the addition of scratch grains, an additional (CLEAN) watering station, and a very large unidentified winter squash from the garden (which was a BIG hit!) Overall pecking and chasing has decreased both in frequency and intensity, and it's starting to feel far less like too small a space for the amount of chickens, although I think I will still be expanding it some.

There are still a few chickens I'm worried about- one won't put any weight on one leg although there's no sign of bumblefoot and her comb is super pale and she's very lethargic and doesn't seem to be eating much. Another has a huge lump on one side of her chest- easily visible due to the fact that she's almost naked atm. the third looks like something tore a flap of skin off of the back of her skull- the flap is black but the rest looks healed? she won't let me near enough to get a good look, but seems otherwise healthy. there are a few others that look like they have relatively minor problems that I'll be keeping an eye on.

the good news is that this year's pullets look very healthy and are very friendly, and the rooster who I was kind of worried about doesn't seem aggressive, loud, or territorial, although he's still very much keeping his distance.

next up, actually moving us in, and then shortly thereafter, cleaning out that horrifically dirty coop.
 

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