chick-chick-chickens!

We have been planning to get backyard chickens for a while now, and we got the plan into action this week after finding out that Monkey Moo's day care centre were having Henny Penny chicken hatching this week. Henny Penny is a company that supplies schools and other appropriate businesses with eggs and an incubator so that kids can see and learn about the hatching process The chicks hatch and stay at the venue in a special cage for 12 days and then they are given away to any parents that want to take them home, and any left are taken back by the Henny Penny franchisee and given to a farm.


I had been planning to get a couple of herritage breed hens, but decided this was too good an opportunity to pass up. Although they are hybrids, all the breeds they listed as using--autralorps, black and white leghorns, sussex, and lohmanns--were ones I would like and are egg laying breeds, so we decided to take our chances.


They were not sexed at hatching, so it was a case of taking a bunch and playing rooster lotto--apparently now we will not be able to tell the hens from the roosters until about 6-8 weeks of age, at which time we will re-home the roosters and/or excess hens.


In the end we decided to take six, two of each kind available, two blackies, two yellowies and two brownie/yellowies. I am not sure what breeds they are, I have tried searching google images for clues but I am not really finding any difinitive answers there. I am really looking forward to seeing what they grow into.