Atlas – Page 2 – Crack of Dawn Farms

To Bird or not to Bird?

Those were the questions of the day today.

The boys and I were up at the crack of dawn to head to the Robertson County Fair Pullet Auction. After having discussed the “2 egg a day” dilemma at length with Jerry, we decided that we could, in fact, handle 6 pullets in addition to the 2 layers we have and the 6 juvenile birds due in mid-September. Why not?

After all, the 6 juvenile birds won’t be reliable layers until early Spring, and we do have room for plenty of birds now without having to worry about coop expansion projects. These ladies got the red roof inn of coops for the first version. Besides the 2 “old guard” are still not even roosting in the coop at night.

So, having gathered a little intel on how much these things typically go for, I figured I could toss my hat in the ring to try to get us some soon-to-be-laying birds to help sustain our fresh egg habit. I was looking forward to see what our local 4-Hers had done, especially those in our Clover Club homeschool 4-H club.

20140830_083021 — Crates of 6 pullets each lined up for early morning judging.

It was really neat to see all the pretty Black Star birds lined up for judging. And the kiddos were so excited to show off their hard work. I was getting more excited about the prospect of bringing half a dozen of these birds home to start working for my family. I was torn though… Do I hope for prices to stay low so I can afford to get them? Or, do I hope that they are high this year since the money raised helps support the 4-H programs? Either way, it was a win in my book, and I knew my max price/bird, so let’s go!

20140830_092145 — Thanks to Sam for letting Ryan help him transfer the birds to the buyer. Ryan was quite entertained getting to hold chickens!

Well, I’ll say it was a good year for 4-H! I played at the auction game (my first real auction experience ever!!). Annnnnd, I went home empty handed. For now. (just keep reading…) Turns out the bids quickly exceeded what I was willing to commit! Like I said… good for 4-H!

But, I came ready (actually more committed than I would have admitted when I left home this morning) to take home more birds, and I was not to be disappointed. A fellow 4-H mom and friend Elaine, who had 2 sons with entries in the auction, offered to have me get some of the extra birds (they only have to turn in 6 of the 21 they raised since spring) from them on my way home. Perfect!

It's hard to see, but these are the ladies chillaxin' in the dog crate on the way home. — It’s hard to see, but these are the ladies chillaxin’ in the dog crate on the way home.

Another win-win. The birds were well within my bird budget, they are from the same “batch” of hens that I would have gotten from the fair, and I only got 4 (my own internal compromise on head-count knowing that the 6 juvenile birds are coming in 2 weeks :-).

Now, if you ladies will teach the other two how this roost thing works, that would be great.

It started raining as we got home, but we got them all situated without getting too saturated. Decided to try getting these started off on the right foot and put them in the coop for a few days to help them know where their safest sleeping quarters are. They immediately went to the roost (to my knowledge, they are the first to actually use it), and seem pretty content so far.

Atlas isn’t sure what to make of it all yet, and I hope that the other gals can remember that the dog house makes a nice nesting box until we either 1) catch them to get them into the coop, or 2) release the newbies from their confinement to free range in the next few days, opening the coop back up for all to use.

When I went to check on everyone this afternoon, it was just business as usual. Here are a few fun pics of Atlas doing what he does best (being cute and playful) and the other hens doing what they do best (scratching and hunting for bugs).