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City Chickens: The Newest Addition to Our Flock

Everyone, meet Kiwi, the newest addition to our city flock!  (pardon my son's obnoxious laughter in this video)


Kiwi is such a cutie, but she is rather noisy.  I suppose this is because we are raising her alone, and she misses her sisters.  You see, we used to have four hens (the maximum allowed according to city ordinance), but one day, tragedy struck.  Two dogs on the loose (and the city was worried about the havoc our chickens would wreak) attacked our beautiful hens.

I will never forget the day I came outside to find those two dumb dogs in my yard, and feathers all over the place!  Three of our hens were attacked that day, and unfortunately, one of them did not make it.  So, this spring, we had the opportunity to add another chicken to our flock to replace the one that had been lost.  And we chose the noisiest one in the joint (hubby said we needed one with attitude).  And now, we have Kiwi.

She is a California White, which is a hybrid.  She is a cross between a California Grey rooster and a White Leghorn hen.  California Whites are supposed to be excellent layers.  However, she most likely will not start laying until this fall--perhaps around October.

We are happy to have our flock up to four again, but are not looking forward to integrating her into the existing flock.  This can be stressful time, not only for the chickens, but for us too.  Chickens really do have "pecking order," so the transition period when introducing a new member to the family is a little rough.

When we add Kiwi to the flock, it is likely that she wont be accepted with open wings, and may get picked on and beat up a little.  This is the nature of chickens.  Eventually, they will work their pecking order out, however, and Kiwi will be another member of the flock.

Comments

  1. sorry about your loss chicken...love the new one...unfortunately our bird dog Bliss was known to climb fences to catch chickens...we miss her...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Deb. It was very sad, but I don't blame the dogs, I know they were just doing what came naturally to them. Dogs on the loose is a problem in our neighborhood and it can be very frustrating!

    But now we know that the chicken tractor wasn't as secure as it should have been, so at least we learned something from the experience.

    ReplyDelete
  3. a gorgeous little chick to add to your family...hope she settles in well x

    ReplyDelete

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