Four Leaf Clover Farms

For some people, bringing home that first clutch of chicks seals the deal. Their cute little tail feathers and fluffy butts brings an insatiable desire to kick it up a notch and add to the flock. But the wise few hold off for that first group to mature and start laying eggs. Then, once that basket of eggs is collected and turns into the brightest-yolk-breakfast ever, inevitably a trip to the store to shop for more chicks comes next.

And so it was with us. Our journey began with six silly White Leghorns, aka "leggers":

• Bernice

• Adeline

• Chuckie

• Idiot

• Chickie

• Pete

 Next came a varied group of four:

• Rowan (Rhode Island Red)

• Dominique (Dominique!)

• Bluey (Barred Rock)

• Hawkeye (Easter Egger)

Sadly, Hawkeye was our first dearly departed - a hawk cornered her against the house one morning. Said hawk didn't get much, as we ran out to shoo it away. But the damage was extensive and unfortunately, fatal. 

Rowan, Dominique and Bluey, however, are all doing well. Their larger size seems to have given them a survival advantage.

We next added Spock to the flock, as we were keen to have extra help keeping the predators at bay. Our local feed store had a rooster they were giving away - it turned out we were too late for him, but when we inquired one of the nice employees offered us one of their extra roosters. We kept Spock quarantined for a little while so he could observe his new surroundings without any extra duress; then one night we put him in the coop with the hens and the rest is history. The next day he literally woke up and acted like he had always been there.

Interestingly, this is a great segue to our next addition - we decided to try our hand incubating some eggs. Long story short, three eggs hatched to give us Olivine and the roo-bros' Apollo and Odin. Olivine joined the flock whereas the boys were given away to a good home (we hope!).

By now, you can probably imagine what came next... some months later, upon visiting the feed store we couldn't help but notice a plethora of baby chicks for sale! Without missing a beat, we headed home with four more baby girls (approx. D.O.B. Feb 21, 2022):

• Selene (Sapphire Gem)

• Hekate (Ameraucana)

• Phoebe (Starlight Green Egger)

• Artemis (Ameraucana)

Unfortunately, Artemis didn't stay close to the flock and one day we found a pile of feathers but nothing else.