So, as some of you may or may not know, our obsession with chickens is growing. It's growing so much that when we were coming back from Buffalo earlier in the week we stopped at the Roots Amish Market in Lancaster and picked up three new chickens!
The Roots Market was really something to see. We plan on going back there for sure because they have all kinds of wonderful stuff like whoopie pies and roll butter and ham hocks and all kinds of canned thing. Did you know about pickled watermelon rind?! It's WONDERFUL! Sweet and sour in all the right ways. I am making some very soon.
But back to the chickens. So, we go into the auction room and there are all types of birds in there. Not just chickens, but geese and quail and ducks too! The roosters were a-rooing, and chickens were a squawking. It was quite overwhelming at first. That is, until we found Ernie who set us staright on what was what.
We had come in search of Amrocks, which are a beautiful black and white variety of hen. And would you believe our luck? The only chickens in the joint that were still of laying age happened to be the Amrocks! Ernie explained that they had been breeding chickens...so the roosters have had their way with these ladies quite a bit and then the farmer said "to heck with these bitties!" and they put 'em up for auction. I bet our ladies sisters are on a dinner plate somewhere by now!
Well we stood around trying to decide if we were gonna pull the chicken trigger on these Amrocks and we decided, yes, we were. So, Ernie literally picked three at random and threw them in a box. He sold them to us for $5 a piece. We took our box of chickens and we split.
When we got them in the cage back in the car, I noticed they were looking a little worked over. I looked at those hens I turned to my husband and said, "Either we've made a smart buy here, or a really stupid one." One was missing a good amount of feathers and the other two looked "straggled." I started calling them "Straggle Rock." Now that we have got them home and under quarantine (so as not to spread any diseases to our already healthy flock) they are looking a bit better....that is to say, they aren't as stressed and are working real hard on growing back their feathers.
The Roots Market was really something to see. We plan on going back there for sure because they have all kinds of wonderful stuff like whoopie pies and roll butter and ham hocks and all kinds of canned thing. Did you know about pickled watermelon rind?! It's WONDERFUL! Sweet and sour in all the right ways. I am making some very soon.
But back to the chickens. So, we go into the auction room and there are all types of birds in there. Not just chickens, but geese and quail and ducks too! The roosters were a-rooing, and chickens were a squawking. It was quite overwhelming at first. That is, until we found Ernie who set us staright on what was what.
We had come in search of Amrocks, which are a beautiful black and white variety of hen. And would you believe our luck? The only chickens in the joint that were still of laying age happened to be the Amrocks! Ernie explained that they had been breeding chickens...so the roosters have had their way with these ladies quite a bit and then the farmer said "to heck with these bitties!" and they put 'em up for auction. I bet our ladies sisters are on a dinner plate somewhere by now!
Well we stood around trying to decide if we were gonna pull the chicken trigger on these Amrocks and we decided, yes, we were. So, Ernie literally picked three at random and threw them in a box. He sold them to us for $5 a piece. We took our box of chickens and we split.
When we got them in the cage back in the car, I noticed they were looking a little worked over. I looked at those hens I turned to my husband and said, "Either we've made a smart buy here, or a really stupid one." One was missing a good amount of feathers and the other two looked "straggled." I started calling them "Straggle Rock." Now that we have got them home and under quarantine (so as not to spread any diseases to our already healthy flock) they are looking a bit better....that is to say, they aren't as stressed and are working real hard on growing back their feathers.
I like this picture because it looks like the one chicken is photo bombing! Haha. Makes me laugh.
See how this chicken is missing all these feathers? She's been picked over by the rooster....poor thing. But I am confident they will grow back and be looking bushy in no time.
I just couldn't get a picture with all of them looking at me. But this was pretty good. From far away, their feathers look great, don't they?! I love the red color of their combs against the black and white. Purdy right?!?!?!
We haven't picked out names for them yet....any ideas?! Help us name our three new chickens!!!! Leave us your suggestions in the comments section below!!!
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