2 years ago in the summer of 2016 my wife and I got our first chickens as adults on our own. Our families had chickens growing up but these were our first.
We decided to get our first chickens from a local lady that owns a small hatchery(out of her home)that specializes in rare chicken breeds.
She had a list of breeds that she sells and we decided to get golden campines.
So I told her I wanted 1 golden campine rooster and 3 hens.
When we arrived at her house she had them in cages and told me she would sell them as a package deal for $40 and that the 3 hens were close to point of lay.
I said to her "They all look like roosters their combs/waddles are big".
She told me that all golden campines have big comb/waddles its just the breed.
After we got them home they all started crowing after about 2-3 weeks. Lol
So I texted her back and told her that they are all crowing.
I asked if I could exchange them for hens. She told me no because of biosecurity purposes. She told me we could keep them and eventually she would give me replacement hens.
While we waited for the replacement golden campine hens(which took almost a year) we decided to look around for hens of laying age.
I talked to my co-workers about it and one of them told me he would trade one our 4 golden campine roosters for a ISA Brown hen. He told me his rooster died and he needed a new one.
Well the ISA Brown hen "Beatrice" he gave us was in full molt and was the rattiest, ugliest, biggest comb/waddles hen I had ever seen. She looks like a rooster.
Well Beatrice's feathers did grow back after 2-3 weeks and she started laying eggs only after being at our house for one week. She was even in molt! She was good layer for 2 years and just recently slowed way way down.
Shortly after we got Beatrice the ISA Brown hen a friend of mine gave us 2 ISA Brown hens that were only 9 months old for free. He kept them for one summer under a tarp with a bucket and didn't have a coop. He decided he didn't want to build one so gave them to us.
So that's my story about how we ended up with ISA Brown's.
We decided to get our first chickens from a local lady that owns a small hatchery(out of her home)that specializes in rare chicken breeds.
She had a list of breeds that she sells and we decided to get golden campines.
So I told her I wanted 1 golden campine rooster and 3 hens.
When we arrived at her house she had them in cages and told me she would sell them as a package deal for $40 and that the 3 hens were close to point of lay.
I said to her "They all look like roosters their combs/waddles are big".
She told me that all golden campines have big comb/waddles its just the breed.
After we got them home they all started crowing after about 2-3 weeks. Lol
So I texted her back and told her that they are all crowing.
I asked if I could exchange them for hens. She told me no because of biosecurity purposes. She told me we could keep them and eventually she would give me replacement hens.
While we waited for the replacement golden campine hens(which took almost a year) we decided to look around for hens of laying age.
I talked to my co-workers about it and one of them told me he would trade one our 4 golden campine roosters for a ISA Brown hen. He told me his rooster died and he needed a new one.
Well the ISA Brown hen "Beatrice" he gave us was in full molt and was the rattiest, ugliest, biggest comb/waddles hen I had ever seen. She looks like a rooster.
Well Beatrice's feathers did grow back after 2-3 weeks and she started laying eggs only after being at our house for one week. She was even in molt! She was good layer for 2 years and just recently slowed way way down.
Shortly after we got Beatrice the ISA Brown hen a friend of mine gave us 2 ISA Brown hens that were only 9 months old for free. He kept them for one summer under a tarp with a bucket and didn't have a coop. He decided he didn't want to build one so gave them to us.
So that's my story about how we ended up with ISA Brown's.
