Sunday, February 12, 2012

Peaches, but not Cream

So I had to find Peaches a new home today. She had major issues with vocal volume control and I was afraid of offending the neighbors. After checking to see if I could pawn her off on my parents or their friends, I placed an ad on Craigslist.

About an hour later I got a response from a gal named Lori who lives less than ten miles from us. After speaking with her briefly I knew she would be the right home for one of my animals. You guys know all I have are weird, odd, unnatural acting animals in my household. Everything that comes into this house or yard is abnormal. I'm also one of those whose animals all seem to get along, cats and dogs sleeping together and the like. Even Izzy, who still tries to poke the cats into running so she can chase them, was supposedly not able to be homed with any other animals at all. I guess we're just lucky that the cats are too damned lazy to run. But I digress...

Well, I think I found my kindred spirit in Lori. I got to her home to drop off Peaches and was greeted out back by two sweet dogs, alpacas, emus, a miniature horse and a rather large flock of mixed chickens and turkeys. Which, total side note here, dang but it never occurred to me to have turkeys! Of course as much as Mister C loves turkey I suspect I'd have to keep a good eye on him to prevent any premature basting of them. I'd hate to come out and find my turkeys covered in butter. Yeah, I think I'll skip the turkeys for now. Having said that though, I think Peaches found the absolute perfect home at Lori's little farm and I'm glad for that.

After I got back home I made a point to go out to the coop where the rest of the gang was getting ready for bed. I did a head count and then explained to the girls how the new number was less than the previous number. I went on to mention how if we had any additional issues with loudness that the number would likely change again. So, if they like their living accommodations, my suggestion would be for them to quietly lay eggs and behave themselves.

I think they understood me, they cocked their heads at me a bunch. Several of the rebels gave me the stink eye though, I'll be watching them.

So anyway, thanks to Lori for taking on my problem child, I'm sure Peaches will fit in much better with her flock where she won't be in trouble for doing what's natural.

The ad is below...


Loud Hen, Low Price - $5

One exceedingly loud, obnoxious, domineering white leghorn hen needs to be re-homed today before the HOA comes and kicks the whole flock out. She is named "Peaches" but I'm fairly sure she has absolutely no clue what her name is. She will come running if she thinks you have oatmeal though.

For a few days I was concerned that "she" was a "he" because of the noise. But no, she's just the loudest damn hen I've ever run across. She complains about everything, it's constant and it's LOUD! Her gender was confirmed today when she laid her first egg. Her egg laying consisted of a long preamble about how she was going to lay an egg, five minutes of quiet while she did so, and then a loud and long broadcast about how awesome she was at laying an egg. I can't take this on a daily basis and I'm sure my neighbors are even less inclined to do so since they won't have the benefit of fresh eggs.

I raised her from a few days old so she is pretty easy to handle. She will come to me when called, and to anyone if they have food. Because of this, I would prefer she was being adopted for her egg laying abilities (or as a pet) and not as tonight's dinner. Having said that, as obnoxious as she is, she probably won't put up with wearing knitted sweaters or any such thing if you tend towards that.

Born on or about 9/2/2011 so she's just over five months old. Eats Purina brand Layena, most fruits or vegetables and, as mentioned above, adores oatmeal. Bugs, spiders and flying insects are also game. Leghorns are some of the best egg producers out there, they lay an average of 280 eggs per year (and can go as high as 320 eggs a year) so almost daily. Since she just laid her first egg today, she should have many years of laying in front of her.

This girl needs to find a new home, most likely on a farm or acreage and preferably one with no close neighbors to disturb. Producing hens generally cost at least $20, but she needs to go today so I'm only asking for a re-homing fee of $5 (cash). I need to get her out of here before the neighbors figure out which house has the chickens.

Bring a small kennel or some other method of transport.




1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you found a nice home for Peaches,sorry I couldn't take her,my yard would not be a safe place for her. Of course now you run the risk of the girls never producing eggs if they thought the might encounter the same problem as Peaches. Lay an egg=taking a ride to a new home,just a thought in case they compare notes. "Cluck cluck","I didn't lay that egg Rocky,you did, go get in the car."