The Backyard Bantams
Songster
Ok....so here’s the tale....
We got 7 little chicks 2 weeks ago, 4 silkies, a lavender Araucana and 2 EE girls (the EEs were professionally vent sexed.) I was planning on only getting bantams, but the EEs and Araucana were just so cute...
I told myself I would be decisive, not waste time, and enjoy getting to see chickens and choosing the nuggets. Yeah right. It was such a blur. I did catch a glimpse of the most gigantic chicken I haven ever seen, aka orpingtons, but only saw the silkies out of the corner of my eye.
When we came to the house we were concerned we had taken a wrong turn. I don’t know how to explain this, but up to the front gate was an absolute junk yard. Like, stuff piled up 2m high, equipment, dead trees, old furniture....we called the guy to make sure we hadn’t ended up at a serial killer’s lair or something. Then, out of nowhere, he came out of an entrance I hadn’t noticed before. We followed him in. We walked along a narrow, twisted path lined with junk. It was like when’s God helped Moses part the Red Sea, except the Red Sea was trash
As we turned a corner and came into the back, I saw a chicken. It was an ISA brown. I almost screamed in excitement. I haven’t really seen many chickens other than mine before. But......there were more! The yard was huge, And, you guessed it, very messy. There was a large flock of GIANT chickens (orpingtons) just snacking. Dozens of wacky chooks were just doing their chickeny business in very small rabbit hutches (not fit for 100th of a bunny size, like 40cm x 20cm) and cages. There was a shed and a bunch of bee hives, with some polish and silkie chickens. One of my biggest regrets was not seeing them properly. I could’ve seen an adult silkie IN PERSON, in all her fluffy glory! I did see a polish frizzle tho! It was funky!
He had promised us the night before some Mille Fleur d’uccles. He had none, and we were the first customer, so no idea what happened. There were lavender Araucanas, EE’s, ISA’s and silkies. I was hoping for some lavender, white, or splash silkies. He only had mixed colours. I wanted to carefully look over the chicks, making sure they were healthy, trying to find ones that looked like girls. YEAH RIGHT.
I was so overwhelmed by the tiny chicks and chickens, my mum was hurrying me up, I was trying to make a good decision...so we grabbed the chicks. We had our 8 nuggets, mum hands the guys the $80.. he goes; “nah actually they are $20 each.” I politely remind him the ad said $10. He goes, “no they were always $20, I just put $10 to attract buyers, I have quail and other stuff too.” There were no quail on the ad. Then he goes, “my friend mike puts ads up for free, and then makes people pay hundreds for fishing equipment. I didn’t want to be dishonest.” My mum only had enough for 7 chicks on her, so we had to put a precious silkie back.
The guy also had a couple sebrights. Now, I know sebrights are tiny, but I genuinely thought they were like, 8 weeks old. They were at POL!! I begged my mum for us to get just ONE, but she said no. Now I’m glad we didn’t! In fact, he said he sold POL lavender Araucanas for $300 each. So I suppose I was lucky to get little “Stegalls”. They are a bit rare. Now that I think about it, I can’t imagine what he would have charged me for a sebright
It’s not it’s like the guy committed a horrible crime or anything lol, but I was a bit a disappointed!
A N Y W A Y...........
They all seem happy and healthy, I’m hoping for good ratio of girls!! At least I know the two EEs are girls, I have a hunch that two more are also females! The guy also said he’d swap roos for hens when they are adults (which is wonderful bc finding good homes for roos is incredibly hard, I’m not allowed any) but now I’d bet a kilo of mealworms that he’ll make us pay
So there’s my chicken rant on how we got the nuggets. That took me 45 mins to write oop- what am I doing with my life.......?
If anyone is interested, I’d be happy to give an update when they are older! Maybe some pics! I am very confused about their colours!!
We got 7 little chicks 2 weeks ago, 4 silkies, a lavender Araucana and 2 EE girls (the EEs were professionally vent sexed.) I was planning on only getting bantams, but the EEs and Araucana were just so cute...
I told myself I would be decisive, not waste time, and enjoy getting to see chickens and choosing the nuggets. Yeah right. It was such a blur. I did catch a glimpse of the most gigantic chicken I haven ever seen, aka orpingtons, but only saw the silkies out of the corner of my eye.
When we came to the house we were concerned we had taken a wrong turn. I don’t know how to explain this, but up to the front gate was an absolute junk yard. Like, stuff piled up 2m high, equipment, dead trees, old furniture....we called the guy to make sure we hadn’t ended up at a serial killer’s lair or something. Then, out of nowhere, he came out of an entrance I hadn’t noticed before. We followed him in. We walked along a narrow, twisted path lined with junk. It was like when’s God helped Moses part the Red Sea, except the Red Sea was trash
As we turned a corner and came into the back, I saw a chicken. It was an ISA brown. I almost screamed in excitement. I haven’t really seen many chickens other than mine before. But......there were more! The yard was huge, And, you guessed it, very messy. There was a large flock of GIANT chickens (orpingtons) just snacking. Dozens of wacky chooks were just doing their chickeny business in very small rabbit hutches (not fit for 100th of a bunny size, like 40cm x 20cm) and cages. There was a shed and a bunch of bee hives, with some polish and silkie chickens. One of my biggest regrets was not seeing them properly. I could’ve seen an adult silkie IN PERSON, in all her fluffy glory! I did see a polish frizzle tho! It was funky!
He had promised us the night before some Mille Fleur d’uccles. He had none, and we were the first customer, so no idea what happened. There were lavender Araucanas, EE’s, ISA’s and silkies. I was hoping for some lavender, white, or splash silkies. He only had mixed colours. I wanted to carefully look over the chicks, making sure they were healthy, trying to find ones that looked like girls. YEAH RIGHT.
I was so overwhelmed by the tiny chicks and chickens, my mum was hurrying me up, I was trying to make a good decision...so we grabbed the chicks. We had our 8 nuggets, mum hands the guys the $80.. he goes; “nah actually they are $20 each.” I politely remind him the ad said $10. He goes, “no they were always $20, I just put $10 to attract buyers, I have quail and other stuff too.” There were no quail on the ad. Then he goes, “my friend mike puts ads up for free, and then makes people pay hundreds for fishing equipment. I didn’t want to be dishonest.” My mum only had enough for 7 chicks on her, so we had to put a precious silkie back.
The guy also had a couple sebrights. Now, I know sebrights are tiny, but I genuinely thought they were like, 8 weeks old. They were at POL!! I begged my mum for us to get just ONE, but she said no. Now I’m glad we didn’t! In fact, he said he sold POL lavender Araucanas for $300 each. So I suppose I was lucky to get little “Stegalls”. They are a bit rare. Now that I think about it, I can’t imagine what he would have charged me for a sebright
It’s not it’s like the guy committed a horrible crime or anything lol, but I was a bit a disappointed!
A N Y W A Y...........
They all seem happy and healthy, I’m hoping for good ratio of girls!! At least I know the two EEs are girls, I have a hunch that two more are also females! The guy also said he’d swap roos for hens when they are adults (which is wonderful bc finding good homes for roos is incredibly hard, I’m not allowed any) but now I’d bet a kilo of mealworms that he’ll make us pay
So there’s my chicken rant on how we got the nuggets. That took me 45 mins to write oop- what am I doing with my life.......?
If anyone is interested, I’d be happy to give an update when they are older! Maybe some pics! I am very confused about their colours!!
! She is a gold spangled hamburg bantam x. She is extremely derpy and small, yet Chonky.
