Monday, December 7, 2015

Chicken Drama Update and Ford Tractor Mecca





I didn't have much time to supervise the chicken introduction today as after I picked the new girls up and got them into the coop I had to take a journey to an old tractor salvage yard and parts store I know about waaaaaay out in the middle of nowhere. They specialize in old Fords but if you don't happen to know where this place is you will almost never find it.

I am still not 100% sure of all the parts I am going to need for the 861 rebuild but after checking in with these guys I am now totally certain parts are not going to be the problem. They had every part I could think of in stock and a couple I forgot about that the guy rattled off the top of his head too.

After talking with the guys there and getting some prices I went for a little walk about his sales and bone yard. I wish I had brought the camera with me. He had a 641 Workmaster diesel, Jubilees, 900's, 01 series all over the place. Even an 8N being parted out that had the tool box in it. I almost bought it on the spot.

When I got back home the new hens had eaten about half the hanging container of chicken feed and seemed to be right at home.

By sundown when I let the old hens and Rocky into the coop with the new hens none of them seemed to even acknowledge the others. In a few minutes the old hens were all up in their usual spots and the new hens were either on the low roost pole no one uses or huddled together in a group in one corner.

That's the same way the Black and Red sexlink hens I got before that had been kept in a large poultry barn setting acted the first few nights in the coop. It's like they have never seen a roost pole before and in fact they probably haven't. They just huddle together in some type of sad protective mass clump on the floor.

Hennypenny, who was one of those original Red sexlink hens still prefers to sleep in her own private box but I am hoping these new hens will find their way into being true free range birds eventually.

So night one is underway. I plan on getting up extra early tomorrow and releasing the flock before they start mingling on the floor together too much and then hope the new girls remember to come back. But so far so good.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!


2 comments:

  1. It is interesting to watch chickens get their social order sorted out, they just naturally seem to be able to do it without getting too violent, well I am excluding roosters as I have seen them kill when fighting to be king rooster. I usually take the winner out as I don't want to breed fighting roosters so the nice weak one gets to live. Kind of like modern white men in the city where it is hard to tell the hens from the roosters.
    I wish there was a tractor place around here like what you found, of course there may be and I don't know about it yet. But they aren't advertising if there is one.

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    Replies
    1. Sf - Ya so far there doesn't appear to be too much strife but egg production was way down today. Most of the new hens wouldn't even venture out of the coop though so there wasn't much interaction.

      The tractor place is a nice resource. The guy who runs it knows these old Fords inside and out.

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