Our farm used to only have sheep, cows, goats, and rabbits. Not surprisingly, I was pushing to add birds to the menagerie. I wanted to get a flock of Helmeted Guinefowl or an Emu but there were some associated problems. Guineafowl are apparently quite raucous and I read they can be bad for eating snakes. Emus are darned expensive and I couldn't bear having it end up as a burger for the rest of my family to eat. Then, early this fall, my dad found some free Rhode Island Reds on Kijiji. A total of 26 birds, they were advertised as being egg-layers (each lays an egg every other day), free range, and their meat isn't good for eating. Perfect.
When we first brought them home, I was trying to get my dad to keep them in our chicken coop for a couple days to acclimatize them to our farm before letting them out (this is imperative for guineafowl) but when we released them, he left the doors to the coop open and they quickly started to run all over the place. I kept madly running around trying to herd them back to the coop but they were too curious and wanted to investigate their new surroundings.
On the first day they turned our backyard into Kakariko Village.
I thought for sure we'd lose half of them by that night and have calls from neighbouring farmers asking if all the chickens running through their yards were ours but fortunately, the chickens immediately took to our property and stuck around. We do feed them in the coop each evening so that helps to keep them coming back.
I instantly fell in love with them. They're so curious about everything and hilarious. They follow all of us wherever we go on our property but if you turn around and start walking back toward them, they start nervously clucking (I've become very good at imitating this nervous call and it gets them really riled up). All of them are tame but they stay just out of reach to the point of frustration. Basically they let you get within a hands length and then start walking away. I've only been able to catch a couple of them so far but we try not to do it often to keep them stress-free. Almost every time I step out the door, I'm greeted to a group of wobbling chickens running full speed toward me.
As time goes on, they're getting more brave, too. They've ventured into our front yard now where my feeder system is. I'm involved in Project Feederwatch this winter so I was trying to think of ways of preventing them from eating my seed but I decided it's just too much a hassle. They're like squirrels. They'll find a way. It hasn't mattered too much yet anyway because the only thing that's come to my feeder so far is an American Goldfinch pair. I expect a better turn out after the first snowfall.
Project Feederwatch #fail
Our Rhode Islanders also love the dirt. I've never seen any creature take such vigorous dirt baths. They dig a hole in soft soil and scratch and toss it up onto their feathers and then roll around in it. It keeps their feathers clean and healthy for better insulation and getting rid of parasites.
Fine now but wait until they start digging out our annuals.
And the eggs! The eggs taste spectacular. We get about 12-18/day so we've been constantly looking up new recipes. What I can't believe is how eggy they taste. It makes me realize how much better food from free-range animals tastes than the tasteless watered-down versions you buy at grocery stores (from caged birds). Of course, 12-18 eggs a day is hard to keep up w/ so we give out a lot of eggs to family and friends.
I'm hoping they all survive the winter. It's hard to get an accurate count because some of them roost in our shed at night and during the day, they can be found virtually anywhere around the property. I'll end w/ a photo of one of our Reds settling in for the night.
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