Chickens Anonymous Anyone?

I've said it many times now but it could stand to be repeated again that we just wanted a few chickens for eggs and meat.  So how is it - you might ask- that we now have almost 400 birds representing different breeds and types?

Willy wanted Jubilee Orpingtons and I wanted Serama.  It was so simple then!  A church friend found out we wanted chickens and graciously gave us some Dominique chicks.  We decided these would be our egg and meat birds.  Then we visited with a cousin to see how he set his birds up.  While there, he gave us a beautiful pair of Phoenix so I could have a rooster that crowed - immediate gratification!  He also gave us a pair of Eastern Wild Turkeys.  So now we are up to Donimiques, Phoenix and turkeys - none of which were part of our original plan, but oh well!  Willy ordered his Jubilee Orpington hatching eggs and we visited a farm near Dallas to look into my Seramas.  We came home with a trio of Seramas.  Little did we know that instead of having two pullets and a cockerel, we were sold two cockerels and a pullet.  This was fine for a time - until they fully matured - and then it was not so good for the hen.  We had to build them a pen and of course I would need more so that I had enough hens. Luckily, Willy had already built a nice double coop with runs for his Orpingtons (which had not hatched yet).  This held the Phoenix and Dominiques, but soon the Orpingtons would hatch and need their pen.  We would need another pen.

Serama Grow Out Pen

I found a reputable Serama breeder in Florida and ordered two trios from him.  He gifted us a pair of Bantam Cochins in our shipment.  We of course fell in love with the Cochins!   This required the building of still more pens!  My Seramas started laying and we started hatching so their numbers grew quickly.    I needed a chicken house for the Serama which we built (well mostly Willy and Tristan)!

Lady Amherst Pheasant

My cousin called and said he was giving up his pheasants - Ringneck and Lady Amherst - and wanted us to have them.  We now had more birds! Of course we could not even think of turning away these beautiful birds! This required the building of still more pens!

Belgian Maline Hen

Peafowl

Meanwhile, Willy discovered Belgian Malines, the gentle giants of the chicken world.  He ordered some chicks which required a pen and coop.  Again he built a double coop/run set up!  Then a neighbor gifted me some Peacock eggs.  I was delighted because Peacocks were already on my radar.  We needed more pens!


 I think by now the pattern of Poultry Addiction is abundantly clear!  We are NOT alone in this addiction.  All of our "chicken friends" suffer the same symptoms.  We all have too many chickens, have shows to sell our chickens and buy others (the buy others is part of the problem), and we NEVER have enough pens!  Just this morning, one such friend messaged me that she had found more chicks she wanted, but with the last two necessary pens not finished at her place she might have to wait!  We "chicken friends" recently found out that there is a film coming out called - "Chicken People"!  Go figure!  There must be many more chicken addicts that we first realized.  We have tentatively set a "girls night out" to see this film.

My husband and I have committed to bringing our back to our favorite rare breeds and limited numbers of those.  How this will actually turn out remains to be seen!  I'll keep you posted.