Success My First Swap!!

[dbolman]

Saturday morning I headed to my first SWAP in Hudsonville Mi. I called the guy earlier in the wek and he told me to get there early (like 6:30) He also told me there would be 50-80 vendors. I thought, yeah right!! Anyway my girls and I got there at 6:40 and it was already busy. IT was so amazing. Every chicken, duck, pheasant, peacock. quail, dove and turkey you could imagine. It was so fun. I bought a buff Brahma hen, a light Brahma (standard-huge) a mille fluer and a Welsummer hen (psycho) Oh yeah and my dad bought my girls a baby lionhead bunny !! Whats one more creature at this point. There were so many beautiful pairs of birds. All of my new babies are doing fine except my Mille Fluer D'ucle has a tear bubble in one eye. It will clear up and then come back.Looks like little tiny bubbbles. Any ideas?
After getting my Buff Brahma hen I am kind of contemplating selling all my chickens and just having that one breed. She is so beautiful, little and layed back. There was a lady at the SWAP that had just Buff Brahmas and they were healthy beautiful birds. (very sweet) Ofcourse you think I got her name...NOPE Are these birds good layers. I know the eggs will be small; I don't care about that. I just don't know if it is good to have 9 chickens and each one a different breed. How long do I have to keep the new chickens in the coop before they can go free range like the others? I feel bad leaving them in the coop with such nice weather.

Tracy

 

[NapsWithChickens]

Congratulations! Sound like the swap was a blast!

I started out with a mixed flock of laying hens. I have a rainbow of birds - plummage & eggs - and I love it! People get such a kick out of seeing green, pink, white, light brown and chocolate brown eggs in my basket: very fun!

I've also started a small flock of smooth and frizzle cochins which I hope to breed. Oh, and I also have a breeding trio of Mille Fleur Leghorns. Chickens are slippery slope - hard to have one breed or just a few!

I guess that I would suggest keeping the new birds in the run/coop for the first week so that they associate it with food and shelter... then let them free range with the others. I would probably check on them at the end of the day to make sure that they all made it home though...

Have fun!