Updating- after the urban chickens talk at the Philadelphia Flower Show in February, we decided to have a coupla chickens in a chicken tractor in suburbia. We were promised two red chickens, Rhode Island Red sexlinks, about 6 weeks ago from Skippack Creek Farm, but Joe sent us a message a few days ago that he had "miscalculated", and they would not be ready for another two months. So on Wednesday I started looking around for a different source for two chickens old enough to lay eggs. I was lucky to find Paul Shirk at Narvon (referred to by Tom Fetterman - thanks Tom !) has 4000 red sexlink 16 week pullets coming this week from Moyers at Quakertown and we could get two for $15 each ( yikes !! ) Paul also sells 100 for about $6.50 each. Paul told me that lots of people are interested in having a few chickens in SE PA. Oh, really ? We were further lucky. We get cheese from an Amish farmer near Lancaster, and they sell eggs, so maybe he would also sell a few chickens. So lucky. He sold us two American Auraucana hens that started laying in January, for $6 each, which is the lowest price anywhere for a chicken older than newly hatched, which are normally $3. And just in time for some light blue Easter eggs. According to Mr. & Mrs. Stolzfus, they do sell a few chickens, but (my words) that is not what they are about. They told us that "people from New York" pay them $6/dozen for the blue eggs. BTW, Happy Farms at Kintnersville will have Barred Rocks, which we preferred, in August, -but we couldn't wait that long ! We have lots of volunteer kale, and the birds are nuts about it. So far, they didn't eat any of the Jerusalem artichokes. But it's their first day here. They better learn to like JA- we planted a bunch, just for the birds. Fer & Al (aka FerAl) Two Amerauraucanas- white and decorated black
That wasn't our intro. Maybe not proper to have posted again under New Member Intro, but somehow it seemed appropriate. More news ! I found the first egg just a few minutes ago still warm from the bird ! I don't know which bird it came from, but if I find another today, I'll conclude that we have two of 'em layin', and that will be a big wahoo. BTW, I wondered about feeding them poppy leaves and found a message here via googling indicating chickens aren't attracted to poppies. Also concluding it is not toxic to them. We have poppies that would like to take over the veggie garden here, as they did a portion of my mom's garden. Imagine 12 feet square, nothing but poppies. I'll be glad to get in 10 messages, so I can add info to our profile, including signature I suppose. FerAl two Amerauraucanas, one dark, one pure white.
