Whiteley Creek Homestead

At the beginning of February, I had ordered four "Red Star" and four "Black Star" hens from Murray McMurray Hatchery in Iowa but, when the shipment arrived, four "Pearl White Leghorns" were in the box instead of the Black Stars. Upon contacting the company, they offered to send me the Black Stars at no additional charge and I could keep the leghorns, so we now have a total of twelve hens. They will all be ready to begin laying in 1 1/2 – 2 weeks, so I will have more than enough eggs to share. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Olga, Pearl, Flossie, Opal, Henny-penny, Cora, Phoebe, Edith, Nettie, Abigail, Greta, and Olivia. They are happily enjoying a diet of *transitional feed and veggie kitchen scraps until they begin laying eggs when we will open the door of their fence so that they can roam our property freely searching for protein in the form of bugs and worms to supplement their grains and veggies. We wait to give them free-roaming status until they understand that the nesting boxes inside the chicken coop are to be used for laying eggs and it is not proper to plop eggs onto the ground wherever they take a notion. We also want to give them time to learn that they are to return to the safety of their coop each evening. (*Transitional feed is raised organically, but it is still within the three year window that is required to be certified organic. It is somewhat less expensive than certified organic feed. It comes from Buckwheat Growers in Wadena, Minnesota. A Brainerd farmer makes a run over to Wadena and stores a supply at his farm where I go to purchase it.)