Chicken Swap

Well, we did indeed have 5 roosters so before they started crowing and really making a fuss in the coop we knew it was time to swap them for hens!  One doesn't really need a rooster at all if you are just wanting laying hens.  In fact you never need a rooster if you just buy chicks every couple years. Hens will lay eggs for about 2 years and then get a bit too old and at that time have become " tough old birds" so they are only good to butcher for soup stock at that point.  Thus the phrase " tough old bird".  Soup stock, however, is tremendously healthy and there are any number of great directions online on how to make you own.  Chicken feet included.  I've made stock from carcasses before but never from the feet and I cannot wait to try ! Check out this post from one of my favorite homestead bloggers.    However, if you want to brood your own chicks, well then, ya gotta have a rooster as you know that's how babies are made !
Let me tell you - it was kinda fun to buy some chicks " unsexed" and discover what we had going.  Kinda like being pregnant and not knowing until birth if its a boy or girl!  HOWEVER........then came the swapping fiasco which is where our first " learn from your mistakes" event came into play.  Sigh...... no one ever said farmin' was easy.  So a week ago my husband grabbed 4 of our roosters and we loaded 'em up in a box in the back of our car and off we went to swap with the people we had purchased them from as chicks.   In no time at all we saw our chicken friends and hopped outta the car and revealed our roosters which quickly met the shocked look of our swapping friend who exclaimed" What ya been feeding them? " "Oh  *&#$!  I hope you aren't *%$#! with me"  at which I got kinda worried and thought well how bad can it be.  Then chicken friend revealed his hens and I can only hope the feeling I had inside of me was not revealed on my face.  Whoa - Lack of nutrition and quality care clearly visible.  The  " be kind and have manners" part of both my husband and I started bumbling on about " Wow, well we'll get 'em up to speed" and " Hey, are these really from the same set of chicks, are you sure?" and chicken friend going on and on about " well, must not have enough protein in my feed"   It was all rather awkward and we handed over our robust, bright white roosters with pristine feathers and deep red combs and in turn got our scrawny , pale, pecked at in places, featherless in parts,  so very sad looking hens.   Eesh.
I spent the remainder of the day comparing them to our hens and taking tons of pictures trying to capture the vast difference.

 We were busy helping our new scrawny hens to plenty of food, sunshine and water when all the sudden one of 'em seized up and died right before our very eyes. UGH !  Fast forward a couple weeks and another one died. (seriously!!)



Can you see the difference?!?  Of course you can !








Not making this stuff up !!!!!

  I was leary to keep the remaining two with our healthy bunch of hens but we really only have the one coop so we are hoping for the best.  To chicken friends credit, he replaced the dead hens with 2 remarkably healthier looking ones.  All a bit of a chicken mystery to me......and a lesson in overall health and care for your own animals.  We want to grow 'em healthy and happy because in return we get darn good eggs.  And next time.....I'm buying the cute little chicks at the farm supply store already sexed .  One day we'll have more space to keep a rooster around to brood our own chicks.  Now that'll be the real chicken farming life I'm dreaming of.  Ya want it done right? Gotta do it yourself.
One more pic for comparison ( organic fed, free rangin vs. ?! lack o' serious protein and sunshine)