Chickens!

As you all may remember (or not, since I have been real slow posting) my chickens this year have been duds. I never have gotten so few eggs in a year from any chickens I have had before. I wanted some more but you can't get chicks here at Tractor Supply until spring and I wasn't sure I wanted to do the whole brood the chicks thing next year. So I have been keeping my eye out in the paper, on Craigslist, and the facebook sale things for our town for any chickens. Then yesterday as I was coming home from my violin lesson there was a sign that said "Chickens 4 Sale". It was just down the main road maybe a mile across the bridge (that goes over the lake) from us. So I made Phil go back with me but the guy was asleep and he wasn't waking up (and there was a pistol on the floor by the couch so Phil decided we wouldn't startle him awake, ha ha). Anyway, today it was raining and raining and raining. It never rains like this here, all day. But it is a light rain today so we went anyway.
The guy has all kinds of cages with chickens (yes, my type of person) but he was selling some young Buckeye chickens. The Buckeye is a breed of chicken created by a woman in Ohio and the name Buckeye is derived from the Ohio nickname "The Buckeye State". They are a dual purpose chicken with decent laying ability and are also fairly good as a meat bird. They are yellow skinned and lay brown eggs.

Here is a bit from Wikipedia:

The Buckeye was first bred and developed in 1896, by a Warren, Ohio resident named Nettie Metcalf.^[6] They are the only American breed of chicken known to have been developed by a woman, despite the fact that women were customarily given charge of the household poultry flock throughout much of U.S. history.^[7] Metcalf crossbred Barred Plymouth Rocks, Buff Cochins, and some black breasted red games to produce the Buckeye. Her goal was a functional breed that could produce well in the bitter Midwest winters. Contrary to popular belief the Buckeye breed was created before the Rhode Island Red breed and actually sent birds to the RIR breeders for them to improve their breed.^[8]

The Buckeye was admitted to the American Poultry Association's Standard of Perfection in 1904.^[9] Entrance into the Standard of Perfection signifies official certification as a breed by the Association, and thus allows Buckeyes to be entered into poultry shows and judged according to the breed standard (as outlined in the Standard of Perfection).

The recognition of Buckeyes in the Standard has been a significant factor in its survival.^[6] In the past, largely due its lack of color variations, the Buckeye has not been an especially popular exhibition breed, but there is growing interest in the exhibition poultry fancy for this dual-purpose, heritage variety of bird. Not adopted by commercial operations, the Buckeye has generally been a bird of smaller farm flocks. Today the breed status is listed as threatened by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy,^[10] threatened being defined as Threatened: Fewer than 1,000 breeding birds in the United States, with seven or fewer primary breeding flocks, and estimated global population less than 5,000.^[11] The breed is also included in the Slow Food USA Ark of Taste, a catalog of heritage foods in danger of extinction.^[12]

Mine are not all that noble looking in the rain today. They are small but I think they are just pullets (young birds) and are wet and a bit starved but I think they will do fine with proper care and food. 

Not a good picture either but it was still raining and my phone wouldn't take a picture because I never charge it anymore (cause I never use it!) so Phil took the picture with his while they were still in the cage. I'll get a better one when it is dry out. 

I got 7 chickens that I think are hens for $7 each which is too much but I wanted some and wanted to get a few for my brother who now has a place where he can keep them and has been wanting some for a while. So three of them will be going to him. I hope they lay better than my current bunch or at least inspire the current bunch to lay more. Right now they are being housed in the old duck pen. I'll let them get used to seeing each other a bit before I put them in together.