Three New Chicks

Today I got three new girls to add to my chicken collection.  These girls are Barred Rocks.  I am a little nervous about them.  I got them on Craigslist.  The elderly couple that I bought them from didn't seem to be in it for the "pet" part of the chickens.  This pic shows three nice lookin' birds.

 

This girl took a moment to pose.

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!!
Stephanie at A Ditchin' Time Quilts is having a giveaway.  You could win a super cute car trash bag!  Hurry, drawing ends 8/18.

I gathered eggs today.  The egg on the left is from the Barred Rock chickens I got today.  The egg on the right is a regular sized egg.  Holy cow!

And then I might as well post this pic.  The egg on the left was produced by one of the chickens that I raised from a chick that I purchased this spring from TSC.

Here's the part I'm a little nervous about.  After my research I believe the chickens are missing feathers due to feather plucking from other chickens.  I think with a little TLC I'll be able to take care of the matter.  I don't believe it's mites or lice.  Here's an ugly shot of the missing butt feathers:

 

They are isolated from the other chickens, but can still see them.  It will be that why for the while.  In the mean time I ordered some pinless peepers.  Hopefully another chicken was the culprit where I purchased them, and these chickens were just the victims.  Time will tell.  I hope they didn't learn any bad habits there.  Barred Rocks are a little more aggressive than my Buff Orpington.  But sometimes chickens pick feathers from one another because they are bored.  The place that I got them didn't seem to have any chicken toys in the run.  The didn't have any grass at all in their huge free range pen.  The pen was covered with nets because of a hawk problem.  Wish me luck with these girls!

 

Here's my count now:

 

1 Buff Orpington rooster (I think he's still too young to mate.  He doesn't crow yet.)

10 Buff Orpington hens (1 black, 3 red, 6 buff) all approx. hatched 5/13

2 Buff Orpington "teens"  They just started laying eggs.  Hatched approx. 3/14

4 TSC "red pullets" Hatched approx . 4/14.  (red/gold sex links)

3 Barred Rock hens hatched approx. 11/12 (wings clipped 8/14/14).