Saturday, October 15, 2011

chickening

I sorted through ALL the birds the morning, except the ever-expanding mob of babies free-ranging around the barn... because they're still young. I found a bunch to go to auction (oh boy I have to get up at 5am tomorrow, whee!), and I moved a bunch around. Time to put the cockerels into conditioning coops...

I am starting to get lots of phone calls and emails about chickens... I swear to you, when I have birds available, it will be posted 1) on the Random Rosecombs sale page 2) on the Random Rosecombs facebook page. All phone calls and emails are getting the same answer right now: "I don't have anything for sale right now. I will in a few months, but I don't know how many or what colors. Please keep an eye on the website for more information. I don't know how they will be priced yet, it depends how many are available." You gotta bear with me on this, seriously. I'm extremely busy, and selling chickens is a REALLY small part of my life, so it's not high priority, and I don't keep a waiting list because despite my best intentions I WILL forget to contact someone and it'll get ugly. When they're available, they're available.... eventually... ;-)

Here's what I can tell you right now about my bird-selling plans for the next few months:

-All the Blues and Splashes will be for sale. They are NOT "pure" Blue, so they will throw some other stuff.
-There will be a very very very very limited number of Black pairs or trios for sale. I'm waiting to see how the males finish out.
-There will be some Brassy/Blue Brassy birds available. I'm not sure yet how many. I may consider offers on the whole flock. We'll see.
-I have no idea about the BBReds. I'm buying some birds (my line, sold years and years ago) some time in the next few weeks, schedule to be determined. I will not make any decisions about selling BBReds until after I have these birds.

Anyway, here's some pics from my day:

That Blue Brassy Splash pullet is such a camera-whore:

Blue pullet:

Splash pullet:

Super nice BBRed pullet, definitely NOT for sale!:

Brassy Back and Blue Brassy Splash cockerels:

Blue cockerels:

These dark BBRed cockerels are half Brassy Back. These are likely to be my breeder males next year. Yup, they're too dark, but the BBRed line needs some help and I'm really pleased with these two youngsters so far:

Pure BBRed cockerels. Yeah, they're pretty... but will they grow sickle feathers? Time will tell, but I'm worried. I'm having a huge problem with sickle feathers, mostly in the BBReds. They don't drop the baby feathers, or will only drop one, so they either get no or one long "adult" sickle. I can't explain it. I don't EVER breed these birds but it keeps happening. AAAARG!

4 comments:

dougzilla said...

You could send a few here... It seems to be the new cool thing now to have backyard chickens in London, based on the number of roosters I hear when I go on my morning run. And, as you know, we are the epitome of hip and cool... ;-)

Katherine Plumer said...

Sure, I could send you some, but the paperwork/shipping/quarantine stuff would be a real pain in the asterisk. ;-) You'll just have to smuggle a few back in November.

dougzilla said...

Well, I've heard of people smuggling snakes and turtles and such in their pants, so I'm sure it's possible. Might make for a rather squirmy (and stinky and noisy) flight back though.

I'll just tell them it's my new Lady Gaga outfit or something... ;-)

Katherine Plumer said...

Oh wow, there are just way too many jokes that a dirty-minded person could make about a um... rooster. I of course would never think of such a thing. ;-)