Went to Choose Our Hens Today!

[Whitewater]

So, we found a nice couple near us (about a half hour drive) via Craigslist who had some Black Australorps for sale, and we immediately contacted them and said 'Hey, we want three Australorps, would you sell them to us and if we paid you extra for them, would you keep them for a while until we're ready for them' (because of the permit situation and having to build a coop and all that) and the folks said, 'sure', so we had an agreement to buy via Craigslist back in early March, but we didn't get to actually SEE the chicks until today.

Yep, we went to the place today and put a deposit down on the chicks (about half of their total cost) and wow, they were really more people-oriented than I thought they'd be. The rest of what they had (all born on March 9th, or thereabouts) went fleeing in fear from the strangers, but the BA's just casually wandered over and started looking us up and down, it was like they knew they were going to be ours, somehow.

The owner of the youngsters put one of the BA's in my husband's arms and aside from a couple scared squawks, the young BA settled down very quickly and even began to enjoy the experience, relaxing and so on.

They're much cuter than I thought they would be from just seeing pictures of both adult and young chickens. The couple had a brown and white speckled Sussex that was absolutely gorgeous (and huge!) and a bunch of blue Andalusians and a mean Copper Maran rooster (as well as a Cuckoo Maran hen), as well as a silver laced Wyandotte and a buff Orpinton and a small yellow and black-flecked hen with a bunch of feathers on the top of her head, but I forget what kind it was. They also had a bunch of beautiful easter eggers and some adult Black Australorps -- that was nice because it gave us a chance to see what our youngsters would look like when they get grown up.

One of our BA's has quite a large comb, bigger than I was expecting for a hen (but nowhere near a rooster!), the other one hardly has any comb at all, and the third is somewhere between the two extremes. They seem to have lost all their baby fluff and have feathers, though I don't know enough about teenager birds to know whether they will get any bigger, body wise, or if they'll stay the same size but just be all feather. Right now they're about a quarter of the size of the adult Australorps we saw. And they kind of look like young teenage dogs, all gangly legs.

I suspect they will grow into their legs.

And I am so pleased that they appear to be nice *quiet* birds. That will definitely help with the neighbors, as we only have 1/8 of an acre, or just over! The farm had about 30 birds, and just about every one of the other hens was making noise, but not the black youngsters, nor their grown black hens. I have no idea if they'll still be quiet when they get old enough to lay eggs, but for right now, I really appreciate the lack of noise. Their rooster was crowing pretty much continuously, when he wasn't trying to attack us (they want to get rid of him), but while it was loud, I found it easy to tune out and it certainly was no louder than a dog!

One of the Australorps laid an egg right while we were there and there was no egg song at all! Such a pretty egg too, a light rosy brown. It was so neat to have a still-warm egg in the palm of my hand!!

Well . . . if there was a song, we were about 5-10 feet away from the coop and never heard a thing. This also reassures me. In fact, the only time we heard squawking was when the owner of the hens tried to catch one of our teenagers to show us up close, and the rest of the young birds scattered in every direction, yelling indignantly.

Our farmer aquaintance said that in her experience, her Australorps like to roost, so it's a good thing our coop design has two roosts in the run, and two in the henhouse! She also said that her BA's don't seem to want to fly, and we ought to be able to let ours run about our yard in safety, because we have a 4' fence, and they probably won't go over it.

I forgot the camera, which is sad because I wanted to take pictures. Ah well. Another 6 weeks and I'll (hopefully) be able to look at them every day

Anyhow, we stayed at the place for about an hour, and it was a good time (except for the rooster). I feel much more confident about this whole chicken-keeping business now. And I am really beginning to get excited for the day when we can bring our chickens home!

ETA: The farm couple gave us a dozen eggs from their hens, gratis! Granted, they're small eggs from new layers but I still can't wait to try them. Maybe I'll have scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow!


Whitewater (mods, feel free to move this if it's in the wrong place, I couldn't figure out where to stick my post)

 

[gryeyes]

I think you had a wonderful experience and I'm sure you'll be glad with your Australorps. I have one in my flock; Matilda is very affectionate and not very noisy at all. She does talk chicken-y things to me, but it's at a normal conversational level.

The photo was taken earlier today, on the occasion of my flock's FIRST opportunity to Free Range.

 

[Knock Kneed Hen]

I have three Australorps. I chose them because they're known for being docile and good pets. I thought they'd be nice for the kids. I just put a post but since you were just visiting someone with them I'll ask you.
Did any of them have black combs? Of my three, 2 have pink combs coming in and one has a black comb coming in. I don't know what to make of it.

I just like the looks of them.. very traditional looking. Big and plump and the dark eye makes them look extra soulful.

Have fun with them!

 

[Whitewater]

Nope, none of the Australorps we saw had black combs. The people who own the hens say that sometimes frostbite can leave black spots, but none of the hens I saw had any black anywhere. Our teenagers' combs were very pale indeed, not even pink. Kind of a cream color. I understand that as they mature, the combs will get red, and they'll also start laying when the combs change color -- but the teens are pretty pale right now. But not black, unfortunately.

LOL, you have a black comb . . . one of our youngsters has a noticeable amount of brown in her feathers, along with the black and green sheen. Dunno what to make of that! She's clearly all Australorp, maybe (like with your comb) it's just a recessive gene thing?

And yes, we had a very good time. You know it can be awkward sometimes, meeting people from Craigslist, but these two ladies were really fun, friendly and welcoming. It almost felt like we could get to be actual friends if we spent more time with each other. Of course, it helped that their flock of chickens (even the nasty rooster) were just beautiful, so right away I could give them truthful compliments. And their coops were clean and smelled of hay, the chickens feathers gleamed with health, it was obvious right away that they knew what they were doing. I was very reassured.

It's true, I would have to say that the Australorps, especially our three, were the most friendly and curious of the entire flock. Of course, they all ignored us once they figured out we did not come bearing food, but hey. LOL!

I'd never seen a speckled Sussex hen before, I still can't get over how huge and pretty and unique it was. Maybe if we can figure out how to keep the cat away from the chicks, we could get some of those next time

(Haha, I'm already talking about our next bunch of chickens! LOL!)


Whitewater