New Hens have arrived!

Yesterday was the big chicken day around here. I felt the vegetation in the paddocks was sufficient and my desire for fresh eggs is growing so the time felt right to take the leap into chicken world. Mario helped me purchase four, eleven week old hens from the pet store in town. I have never owned birds but have read a lot about them on the internet. In a perfect world there are so many things I would like to do differently for my chickens but for the time being I am restrained to what Costa Rica has to offer.

John and Mario picked up the chickens from town and delivered them to me in a small cardboard box. I carefully carried the box into the coop and opened it and then had to take them out one at a time. I was a little surprised at how shell shocked the birds were once in their new environment. These are commercially raised chickens. Mario said they were probably raised around hundreds of other birds. Now the four of them have more than enough space to live a good life.

I plan on keeping them inside the coop for a few days before letting them explore the paddocks. It will be interesting to watch them go into the paddock for the first time as I am certain they have never experienced anything like that before. This morning I threw a worm in the coop. Everyone pecked at it but no one injured, killed or ate the worm. It looks like there might be a steep learning curve ahead for my birds.