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Don't you feel bad about missing these Buckeyes, I was the "lucky" person who emailed him first. I hightailed it clear up into the mountains to go collect my "prize" and they started shoving sqawking chickens into my truck before I had a chance to look at them.
They were not terrible chickens, but they were terribly ugly, being in the middle of a molt. I brought them home and settled them in an large, unused hen house with a yard and did not have to mix them with my 6 beloved E.E.s.
They spent most of their time eating each others feathers, both new and old alike. They laid 1 egg a day between the 29 of them (I think they planned it that way), and I could never catch the hen or hens that were laying.
Some of the hens were balding, had SPURS and looked suspiciously older than the others, despite being "1.5 yrs" old. Also, quite a few of the hens had white tips on their feathers. They had never been trained on roosts, so most of them spent the nights under the roosts, getting nailed by flying turds by the few that had stayed after I put them on the roosts.
After a couple of weeks, I let them out to free-range with my 6 E.E.s, and noticed an alarming habit of them eating the feathers off of my girls, so they had to go! I gave 13 of the hens to a friend (who swears he isn't mad, but still has not got a single egg out of them, and no longer calls as much). The other hens and the 2 roosters went to the first person who called on my ad for "hens" for $5 each (
note, I did not say laying hens). When he called, he said he could only afford 5 hens, but he would like to get some more later. I told him to come on over and he could have the whole flock for $25!
Most free things are not worth having, despite a few exceptions. I am lucky I did not end up contaminating my own flock. He did say that he had raised them from chicks and the hen house/ pen were new, so I figured it would be ok. Two weeks after they are gone, I STILL HAVE NOT MISSED THEM!
