We chose Barred Rock chickens for our flock, as they are an heritage breed with a sterling reputation. All six have made it through their chicken childhood, and are now chicken teenagers. I will detail my crack brooder design in a later post.
Here’s a chick at about five or six weeks (They don’t come with a birth certificate). I put them out early as the weather was so nice.
They grow fast, and Barred Rocks are well behaved for chickens, becoming almost like pets. One chicken, that we call Big Tail, falls asleep when you rub her back.
Raising chickens from tiny peeper chicks is a definite change from when I was a teenager, and our ten thousand fully grown chickens arrived on the back of flat bed trailers. These birds will destroy anything green that they can reach, and they love to eat Virginia Creeper. And before someone tells me that Hydrangea is poison to chickens, they won’t eat it, but they will pull the leaves off that they can reach. The one thing they won’t touch at all is Yaupon Holly, which was the source of the vomit inducing “black drink” concocted by native Americans. You’ll have to find your own recipe for that.
Southern Fusion Cooking 