Sadly, We Can't Keep Them All!
With all the upheaval of the forthcoming house move, I have had to have a long, hard think about what should and what shouldn't come with us.
At the moment, we are living in a rented farm cottage where both sets of neighbours also keep chickens and both also have cockerels. However, our next move is onto a street, so there are several more neighbours to consider.
Despite always having wanted to keep blue egg layers, the general opinion is that we shouldn't really have too many cockerels. At the moment we have 4, and nobody wants to say goodbye to Mr Chirpy, our little Pekin cockerel.
When we received notice to move out this house, I began rehoming much of what was here - but the friend who was supposed to come and collect the Silkies has never managed to make the trip. (It's quite far.) This means, I should really let them go, too. But we do like our Silkies. Maybe I could just sell a trio of them and keep the others. Surely having two cockerels at the bottom of such a long garden couldn't upset anyone too much?
I'm about to start splitting the birds up into what's coming with us and what will need to be sold.
If anyone is interested in a blue cuckoo Silkie cockerel, please get in contact. I may even sell a couple of hens with him.
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| Lavender Araucana Cockerel |
With all the upheaval of the forthcoming house move, I have had to have a long, hard think about what should and what shouldn't come with us.
At the moment, we are living in a rented farm cottage where both sets of neighbours also keep chickens and both also have cockerels. However, our next move is onto a street, so there are several more neighbours to consider.
Despite always having wanted to keep blue egg layers, the general opinion is that we shouldn't really have too many cockerels. At the moment we have 4, and nobody wants to say goodbye to Mr Chirpy, our little Pekin cockerel.
It means I now need to sacrifice the Araucanas and the Silkies. This is my handsome Araucana cockerel. He was the first one I ever hatched in the incubator from eggs that had been bought in via eBay. The seller said they were from proze-winning stock and, to date, I haven't had any need to doubt that. We never did name him, as I tend to only name the pet hens. The Araucanas and cuckoo Silkies were all left unnamed, as they were more for producing saleable 'commodities' by way of chicks and fertile eggs.
When we received notice to move out this house, I began rehoming much of what was here - but the friend who was supposed to come and collect the Silkies has never managed to make the trip. (It's quite far.) This means, I should really let them go, too. But we do like our Silkies. Maybe I could just sell a trio of them and keep the others. Surely having two cockerels at the bottom of such a long garden couldn't upset anyone too much?
My Blue Cuckoo Silkies were also hatched from eggs bought in via eBay. I was really lucky in finding a good breeder who sent me 7 eggs when I bought 6. To my delight, 6 of them hatched out and gave me 5 cuckoo marked birds and one splashy lavender hen, which will be staying with us, as she's become such a great friend for 'Dumbledorf', our mischievous, and always filthy, white mini-Silkie hen.
If anyone is interested in a blue cuckoo Silkie cockerel, please get in contact. I may even sell a couple of hens with him.
You can contact me through the Frugaldom forum.
Hope you start to feel better soon and that you get a buyer for your chickens.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lot of tough but right decisions are being made.
We enjoy hearing the cockerels next to us but its not for everyone and here first. It's a different matter if you're moving somewhere with animals.
sft x
The Araucanas are going next week - not such tough decisions, as I have all my incubators and can always hatch more eggs in the future. Friend has some of my birds and the ones in the photos are staying local. LOL
ReplyDeleteNow busy dismantling runs, ready to start moving everything as soon as we get the keys to new place. If we can get everything moved from the garden first, that'll let us get it back to how it was, when we first moved here.
The greenhouse, shed and patio are the biggest items to dismantle but have had several offers of help, so will be taking up those offers. :)
I'm interested in the cuckoos - can you email me? aarronh@gmail.com I'm not familiar with this site, and having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to contact you...
ReplyDelete