free chickens

A few days ago I got a call from "Pappy". Pappy has become a good friend though we met purely through business- he's the foreman for the tree company who I call for mulch. And being that I'm STILL is dire need of mulch, I was especially happy to receive this call. But it was for a completely different reason. Pappy knew of some laying hens who's inheritor was less-than-happy to keep them. We called a few friends to see if they could use them first, but ended up pulling out our old stand-by pen and doing some minor repairs to ready it for these 12 chickens.

So yesterday I got a call from Pappy's friend and zoomed off to pick them up. It appears to be 6 red stars, 1 rhode island red, 3 leghorns and 2 polish frizzies. I'm kinda excited over the frizzies as we've never had "interesting" looking birds before. I was warned that the black one is sassy, but they seems to be doing well so far. They came from a 12' by 12' (guessing here) penned yard with a traditional coop. Our 6'x3' pen is quite a difference, but I think they'll adjust fine. I'm concerned about the leghorns given that the last time we had leghorns they cannibalized each other like crazy. No fun. But I'm watching closely for pecking. We've had them 24 hours and have gotten a single small white egg. Certainly hoping that picks up a bit better. Also hoping that maybe these frizzies will be broody enough to hatch out eggs once our day range coop is built. Will be a fun change of pace at any rate.