So, I have been looking at the layer flock and sighing just a touch, you see once I butchered out the meat hens, it left me with five two coming three year olds, one four coming five year old hen and one five coming six year old hen, a two year old rooster and a nice young this years rooster.

Now my one hen hatched out four lovely little hens! so that was great news but I normally like to have eight to ten hens for the farm, which meant that I was short hens, I had been on a waiting list for chicks not once but twice over the summer, I was taking mixed run chicks so I knew that I might only get x amount of hens, but the first hatch didn`t happen and when the second did, it was limited and they decided that they were going to hold them back for breeding stock, and by then, if I got wee chicks, I would be growing them out for the winter, not ideal in my mind, wee chicks should be born at the time of year where they can free range, hunt bugs and get that first heavy push of growth when they have access to everything that spring, summer and fall can bring them.

So I started looking but its seemed that I had two things that I was unhappy with, folks were wanting to sell breeding pairs, and I didn`t want the roosters or they wanted a crazy price for the hens, twenty to twenty five dollars a hen is not! going to happen.

But I was peeking on kijji now and again and finally my luck changed, and a quick email back and forth and bam, thank you so much, I had a appointment to go pick out my new girls. I could not have been more happy with them.. they range between four to five months in age, give or take a month or so. They are a lovely mix of bard rock, white sussex, and red Rohde Island, with a little easter egg dad thrown in on the reds, I should have nice big dark eggs from the bard, big light tan from the sussex and green or pink eggs from the red girls!

They had been born on the property from a broody hen!, they were true farm hens, put away for the night but day free ranging, but sweet and trusting with folks, interested and smart..

They are all getting S names and because their colors are different then my current birds, I will be able to easily track their ages over the next couple years! and I got them for ten each, which is a fair price indeed.

Here is hoping that they will be with me for a couple years and that some of them will make broody hen rating and stay till they are four or five. They have been checked over and appear both themselves to be in excellent health an as they were kind enough to give me a poo sample on the trip home in their crate, everything looks ship, shape and they settled right down in their new digs and started eating and drinking and checking it all out!