Hens From The Chicken Man

Rick and I finally agreed to expand our chicken  flock. We built a newer and larger coop area so I didn't have to worry about the hens destroying my garden area and leaving tons of poop in our walkway. We liked the eggs on the daily basis, so why not add more chickens? The more the merrier!

I had been searching for chickens and debating on raising them from chicks or just buying some juvenile chickens instead. Although there were several chicken hatcheries available online, we decided to meet someone in our area to buy more pullets. We loaded the boys up, grabbed our animal carrier, and took a short drive to the person's house. When we got there, in this unassuming neighborhood, the man had a large variety of chickens and unfortunately way too many for his yard. There were makeshift cages and fences everywhere. Laundry was hanging and yet there were chickens underneath scratching about. Although we did take home two black copper marans, we felt sorry for the others. Did we just contribute to his continued overpopulated chicken operation or save some birds to give them a better lifestyle and calmer environment?

Either way, they were skitish when they came to our house. Our other hens didn't accept them, so it was a long time to get them accustomed to one another. In our minds, we can just put them into the same hen area and then they would be one happy flock. WRONG! The older hens chased and pulled the tail feathers of the new additions on a daily basis. The new pullets hid in corners and wouldn't come near us. They were shy but we attributed that to their young lives in the chicken man's house. We ended up having to put them in their own coop for about a month, but letting them roam around the yard with the other hens. So much for the notion that you can add new chickens at night to the hen house and the old hens just think that the new chickens have always been there.

In the past 3 months that we have had them, they are finally calming down and all hens are living together in the same pen area. We ultimately had to expand the coop area AGAIN. It's was sink or swim for the new chickens as we needed the pen for our new rabbit additions. Granted there were a lot of squabbles and pecking on the first official merge day, but they are quiet and pretty laid back now. Now, it is just a matter of time before those two marans are old enough to lay eggs...I just hope they are indeed hens!