Quite a few things changed since the last time we looked into what chickens to get. The lady that I was talking to gave me quite a few insights and also of course tried to advertise the stock that she had. So first of all...
What did we decide on?
After back and forth with loads of information, I was told that Legbars are very tame chickens and that they would not cause any issues with children. This was particular interesting for me - I think I mentioned this in the previous blog post - as I saw quite a few articles and YouTube videos with roosters that can get a bit aggressive. Some companies even sell some sort of rubber or silicone "glove" which you slip over the rooster's back claw, so he can't attack you.
But also, obviously, I want our daughter to have the chance to get along with the chickens, without the chickens running away when they see us coming a mile away. So she said that Legbars are perfect for that. And she didn't need long to convince me.
Unfortunately she closed down her little business as she moved away, so we never got to the point where we could have ordered and pick-up the chickens. Which was quite a shame as she was about 30mins drive away from here, also in a town that I know and passed through on many occasions.
But she was so kind to give us another contact of hers who had the same chickens and was willing to pass on some to me. And in a way I am quite happy about that. For once, her contact Nick spoke English, which helped a lot and he had different type of legbars which was even better. So with his advice (lovely guy, same type of humour, definitely a plus) we decided to get 6 chickens. Mélina kept going on that she also wanted chicks. After a few days - in the spur of the moment - I also asked for a cockerel. So we got three Cream Legbas (more or less white) and three Opal Legbars (lovely different layers of brown) and one Opal Legbar cockerel.
We were told the chickens would not be ready to lay eggs (or the cockerel was also not ready to... erm... cuddle... with the chickens) and about three months old. Which was fine really, disappointing but it gave us some time to get used to them first as well.
Pick-up!
Beginning of June we picked the chickens up. My brother came from Germany and I of course made use of his pick-up truck to - yes punt intended - pick-up the chickens! There you go.
We had to drive about 1.5h to near Geneva in Switzerland (still on the French side though!) and were met by the ever so friendly Nick who also showed us around his chicken paradise. It was amazing. Whilst he got the chickens out he gave one in my hand and I had a cuddle. I did like that!
We used our cat's cat carriers. We had a large one which my husband used to travel with our cat in the car from the UK to France. A spacious metal cage that easily would have fit all the chickens, but we wanted them to have a little space. Then we also used a hard plastic carrier that we used in London when we travelled with her.
Luckily my brother's pickup has a seperate boot, so we could easily keep the chickens in an enclosed room and open the windows, which apparently was very important (which makes sense...!). Also luckily because obviously the chickens pooped a lot. So when halfway through we had a check whether they are still OK (lots of bents, we were worried they got bashed about) the chicken poop stink hit us hard.
Hilariously, all chickens did just stare at us, they did not move. It was rather surreal. Almost like they were in the middle of a breakout and pretended nothing was happening when we looked at them. We had a laugh.
In the end, all went well, the chickens were happy when released in the cage and instantly started rummaging around.
The one thing though that didn't go quite to plan was the fact that, the coop is made in a way, that the chickens are supposed to sit on the side and lay their eggs, so the lids open and we can easily take them out. I can't obviously try that yet, because the chickens are only around three months old, so it will be a few months before we get some eggs.
However, I installed some old security cameras in the coop to spy on them (cheeky, I know!) and noticed that the first thing they do, is chucking down all the hay into the middle of the coop. They then sit on the bare wood and snuggle up. They are also so ferociously cuddling up, that they managed to break out the separator that's supposed to give them some privacy when breeding. So I am not quite sure what to do about this yet. We will need to find a solution for this at some point.
But at the moment I am just glad that they seem to be happy and healthy.
We asked Nick if he gave the chickens any names yet, as our daughter wanted to name them. But he was quite direct about it, saying it makes no sense to name the chickens because the emotional attachment is otherwise quite big. So we didn't name them... well... sort of. We noticed that one chicken has a bit of a weird foot. One of the "toes" or claws is bent half-way through and sticking in the wrong direction. She has a bit of a wonky food I should say. It took about a week or so until Miss Wonky Foot was an established name and - bless her - my daughter decided that this is also her favourite chicken. So we have 6 hens and 1 rooster of which only one has a name. She better lives a long life or I will not hear the end of it. 😉
