It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we brought home four fluffy chicks. A lung infection, an oviduct infection, a passel of eggs, and two roosters later, the pullets are graduating to hens.
We remain thoroughly and hopelessly in love with Petunia and Luma. Though I’ve made no official calculations, I can confidently say that keeping garden chickens has not been cost effective, but it has certainly enriched our lives and provided us with a (somewhat) consistent and bountiful supply of fresh organic eggs.
The girls never molted in the fall, and they never really stopped laying, aside from the week Luma took off at the beginning of October. Again without calculations in hand, I would say that Petunia, the Barred Leghorn, lays overall more consistently than Luma, the Barred Rock. That said, my main question is how well they will lay in years to come and how healthy they will be.
On an entertainment note, the girls decided in January that they were definitely above Pudy in the hierarchy of critters. They chase her down on sight and generally bully her to the point that she now hides whenever they are roaming the garden. I figure it’s indirect payback for all the times she has picked on wild birds.
Nothing quite compares to the deep bliss of a dust bath!
Petunia is our sweet, sensitive one. She never misses a chance to fly up to your shoulder ‘just because’, and she always wants to be part of the action.
Luma can’t be bothered with human concerns, unless there’s food involved! She is quite content to spend long periods alone scratching for bugs.
