The new man in town!

A couple of months back, we lost our rooster :(  We're still uncertain what caused his death.  Every year, we've lost members of our flock due to predators, but we have some hens that are brooders, so we've always simply let nature takes its course and replenish with new babies hatched from our hens.

However, without a rooster----- :(

Last week, one of our brooders started sitting on eggs.  Oh, Big Mama, girl.... those eggs aren't going to produce anything.

Therefore, I started a conversation about Big Mama with a coworker who also has chickens.  

Hallelujah---they have an excess amount of roosters!!!!

Last night, in the rain, Dom (son of coworker) drove the tractor down to our property and delivered our newest addition!!!  He's one of the smaller roosters they had had.  I understand their decision completely! This lil' guy wasn't getting much action on their property, and was most likely bullied by the bigger badder roosters.

Well, buddy!  Welcome to the Skattebo Ranch!  

Three of our hens are keeping their distance so far...

But White Mama seems to have attached herself to him already :)

We are calling him Steve.

Shortly after losing our rooster, Paul made a small purchase of 5 Rhode Island Reds and 5 ..... Plymouth Rocks (I think).  The chicks are now about 12 weeks old.  When we first started raising chickens years ago, all of our purchases were pure breeds, but over time.... we were producing mutts.  Eventually, the same well happen with these 10;  Steve is a mutt himself.  No biggy.  We aren't breeders;  we simply enjoy the eggs, and the girls enjoy them as pets.