Hey y'all! I haven't been around in a while and I thought I'd stop by.
I'm on my fourth flock of hens in about 10 years. My first lasted about two years I think, and was partially absorbed into the second. That group was around until the flu wiped them out. The third group I had for a while, they were production reds plus a few random hens that my sister had to give up. A raccoon got most of them in one night. My current flock is the four hens that survived the raccoon, plus another 7 random breeds that my daughter and I bought as an impulse/rebound purchase after the raccoon incident. We got them late spring of 21, and most of them we got for a dollar each at Rural King.
So now I have one huge RIR, three ISA browns, two BLRW, a lavender orp, an americana that lays lovely blue eggs, a sapphire gem, a midnight maran that goes broody at the drop of a hat, and a coumbian wyandotte who's always trying to fly up to my shoulder. They're a pretty bunch but they don't lay eggs particularly well. We've named them all after Harry Potter characters, so they'll probably be around until old age gets them. I'm already starting to plan the next flock, even though it's likely a few years away.
I jokingly told my wife yesterday that I'm going to buy 24 White Leghorns. She said, "That won't be very pretty." and I said, "I'm going to have a snow drift of chickens." In reality, I'll probably mix up some leghorns and some ISAs, and who knows what else. Right now I'm enjoying having a healthy happy flock that also manages to lay a few eggs in their spare time.
The only real problem I have is mice living in the coop. I've tried a couple of different kinds of traps, but not being able to use anything the hens might get into is a bit limiting. I have a bucket-lid trap but I can't convince the mice that they'd prefer the bait to the free chicken feed that they're currently getting. Not sure yet what to do about that.
Anyway, that's me. Thanks for reading. Unless you didn't. In that case, thanks anyway. ;-)