Chicky Babes
by Ashley Weeks Cart
To say that Sunny is The Chick Whisperer is the understatement of the century (at least chez Cart).
She is so sweet and gentle and loving with our latest flock. She asked to hold them immediately upon arrival home, and suddenly she went from having one little lady in her lap to all sixteen. They snuggled up and were more than content to just laze in her arms. She was in fluffy, peep peep heaven.
This stage goes by so quickly, and by next week this lot will be a gangly, awkward, semi-feathered bunch, so we’re letting Sunny enjoy it as much as she can. People have asked why we have so many new chickens, and, well, these little ones are not just intended to be egg layers. About half the flock (and potentially more) will become meat for family supper.
Sunny already named two Tenders and Nugget.
Farm Life sure gives a kid a sense of life cycles. Be sure to watch the video below of the sixteen flock chick snuggle in action.
For those interested in where we source our poultry and what breeds we’ve selected:
Our full grown hens are down to four. We have one Buff Orpington, two Plymouth Barred Rocks and one Araucana (that lays blue eggs!). We ordered this latest flock from Murray McMurrary Hatchery. We order three Black Austalops, two Buff Orpingtons, three Araucanas, three Rhode Island Reds, four Blue Cochins, and the hatchery threw in one random exotic (Mohawk Baby) chicken for good measure. We ordered a few males in the hopes of getting at least one friendly-ish rooster to help protect the hens from hawks (our farm’s biggest predator for the chickens thus far). And we’d love to incubate our own eggs, so we need a rooster for fertilization. We’ll see. I’m gunning for one of the Blue Cochins (the poodles of the chicken world) to be a most effeminate, friendly rooster for Cartwheel Farm.