The Chicken Diaries - Week 3

On the 23 January (Saturday) we decided to drive to a breeder and get my son a new chicken. He had asked if he could get a new Mary and I thought, I might as well get a different breed of chicken and make sure it's female!

Misty Gums Poultry is in the the Hills rural district of Sydney and specialise in breeding Heritage hens. Paul, the owner, is friendly and supportive, and told us that he could only 95% guarantee we were getting a pullet. He offered to exchange a rooster for hen, or for credit to buy a different chicken. So, that made me happy because then we would definitely end up with a hen, one way or another.

Since my son liked Sussex chickens so much, I got him a light Sussex. There were plenty of other chickens there including some Silver-laced Wyandottes and some magnficent looking Barred Plymouth Rocks (and boy did these chickens look BIG - I guess that's what I'm getting myself in for!)

On the first day, Mary II was sleeping a lot and not eating or drinking. I had put her in with the others and they were establishing their pecking order. Hubby was not happy so we then removed her later in the day and she ate and drank a little after her separation. By the morning, she had escaped her separate pen and was sitting on the floor, but when I put her back she chirped loudly and constantly. I think she was missing the company of other chickens!

So I put her back with the others and she settled down and ate and drank voraciously, much to my relief!

So I've put them on the scales for their 3 week old pictures:

Bubbles is getting a nice lavender coloured feather coming through. Perhaps she's a blue chicken!

Cacciatore is getting feathers faster than the others. Her tail feathers are the longest and she looks a little scrappy at the moment as all her down is falling out.

Mary is already feathered very nicely, and though we thought we were buying a chicken the same size as our others, we didn't realise that she was actually almost 2 weeks behind (in weight) compared to our others. She is a light Sussex and is starting to get the dark feathers around her neck. She is a very loud chick.

Spot doesn't like being picked up, and is the biggest of the four. She flaps crazily when she is being picked up, but will sit on your finger once you get away from her box (otherwise she'd keep trying to fly to it)