Fiiiiiive, Silkie Roos!: Part 1

As you may have figured out, nothing is private around here. The following is a series of emails, somewhat edited for brevity and confidentiality, (as if either of those exist in my world) that I exchanged with a couple I did not know until recently. (The husband happens to be a pediatrician and business partner of my brother-in-law, who somehow couldn't care less about chickens but was copied on the entire exchange because THAT'S HOW WE ROLL A*!)

At any rate, here is a little peek into what goes on in my free time. (Unlike the other 500 blog posts that were all business-like....)

****

Hi Karen, 

When I saw Kurt last week (when he came to visit A*) he told us that you have chickens. We have chickens as well. (Blogger's note: Ok, let me just stop here because what he wrote was: We have chickens as well. But what I read was WE HAVE CHICKENS AS WELL!!!!!) I told Kurt that we had an issue because it turns out that one of our chickens, my favorite, is actually a silkie rooster. Unfortunately in the city we are unable to have roosters.

Kurt told me that you had obtained a total of nine Silky's trying to get a rooster but that they were all female. I was joking with Kurt and thought perhaps a trade could be in order.

My wife is the primary chicken farmer in our household. Her name is J*. Therefore I'm making this email intro so you both can take it from here. 

If some type of trade takes place we might have to negotiate visitation rights as our rooster 'Eli' (formerly Ellen) has won over our hearts. He loves to be pet and is just so darn cute. In spite of being very reluctant about this whole chicken concept I would miss him very much.

Thanks and I hope this leads to happier chickens and families.

T*

CEO Doctor (and Chicken Convert)

****

My reaction: Oh boy, I get to talk chickens! Woo hoo! (Sucker.)

****

Hi T* and J*, 

When Kurt called me the other day with the news that he had a way for me to "expand my chicken business", I got all excited.... before he finished the sentence with “by going into chicken trading.” (For a second there, I thought maybe he had finally recognized the genius in my plans for expanding our meager coop and run into a chicken empire…..no such luck.)

Anyway, yes, we bought 10 silkie peeps from a farmer I know and all of them are hens (well, not counting the peep that didn’t make it through its first 24 hours with us….probably the rooster I was hoping for but seriously, what are the odds?….Kurt said about 1 in 500….he doesn’t get rhetorical questions I guess.) We actually had three roosters previously but I wasn’t entirely convinced they were pure silkie (I think that particular person sold me cross breeds and knowingly gave me all roosters as I could tell within hours that they were very “roosterish” and I had never even had a Roo before) and so of course I couldn’t use them for breeding. And then the alpha of the Three Stooges became mean and quite aggressive and I got tired of explaining to friends and family that he really was good at heart….. so we gave them away to a friend who has a flock of roosters. (Don’t ask. She’s crazy.)

All that to say, I am sure we can work something out. I do want a Silkie rooster (although I was hoping for white but then Kurt explained that that could possibly be misconstrued for chicken racism so perhaps I need to rethink my breeding scheme.) 

Let me know what you are thinking. I do have a lot of silkie hens if that is what you are looking for. But I have plenty of others too if you want a bigger layer. 

Visitation would be fine of course. And I am happy to send pictures of the happy lad digging around out back if that would ease your sense of loss. It is funny how attached one can get to their birds….

Hope to hear from you guys again soon!

Karen

Chicken Tender

****

Hi Karen,

So I must admit to stalking you a bit on your blog to determine if you are Eli worthy.  You pretty much passed with flying colors!  Love your blog!!!  (Blogger's note: Good thing because I am totally putting you in it!) We were also happy to hear that you are not racist!  We have really been dragging our feet on finding Eli a home because, as far as chickens go, Eli is pretty special.  (Personally, I think I am becoming a crazy chicken lady; however, T* and the kids are having an equally hard time about this.)  If you would be willing to make a trade it would be much easier on the kids, but if you really don’t want to give up a chicken, we completely understand and are just happy to find Eli a great home.   Allowing us with visitation rights and photos are a must and non-negotiable though! :)  

....How's Nov.1?

Thanks Karen!  Looking forward to hearing from you!

J*

****

Nice, so I get a rooster AND a stalker! It's like an offer I can't refuse!

So, I was talking to my girls about which hen to give up and we admittedly had VERY different opinions on which one was okay to let go of. We will figure that piece out later but yes, I believe we are okay with Nov. 1st. I should hopefully have my, ahem, third coop by then (I'm not crazy, well, I'm not the craziest, but what is a girl supposed to do, turn down a free coop?! I mean, come on Kurt....) and so we will have plenty of space to keep Eli until I can safely introduce him to his new gals.

If you haven't introduced new chickens to your flock, please note that it isn't always an easy process....how many hens do you have? Hopefully it won't be bad since they are Silkies.....but hens can sometimes be kinda cranky about the new kid in town....and by cranky I mean they can maul them to pieces....but Silkies are a docile breed so hopefully you won't have that problem. And Eli will be ok because he is a Roo and will pretty quickly establish his dominance....once I remove the current Roo that is....but he and his mate need to be separated out anyway, otherwise I'm going to end up with a Sebrite Silkie mix which would not be at all in line with my original plan....and you can ask Kurt how well I stuck to THAT plan (one small coop and a dozen layers) but seriously, this is an even BETTER plan, my Chicken Empire, that is: Graceful like a Chickempire.....

OK, more later! 

-k

****

To be continued.....