Since we live in a small town and have a baby on the way, we thought it would be best if we didn’t have a rooster.  When we ordered our 15 egg layers from McMurray Hatchery, they threw in a free rare breed chick.  They don’t guarantee male or female with that free chick.  We ended up with a beautiful rooster, a blue laced red wyandotte.

 

Of course, we didn’t know that he was a rooster for many months, so we had named him Stella (assuming he was a she and would lay eggs).  Stella soon became “Stella the Fella“.

We were lucky enough to find relatives (Ryan’s parents) that would take Stella to live on their farm.  We didn’t want him to be lonely, so we included a few hens as well.

This past weekend, the chickens took their 3 hour journey to their new home.  After a bit of research, we found that they would do best in a kennel in the back of our truck.  We have a topper, so they were completely contained.  Ryan loaded the birds up for their trip, but I think he was sad to see his rooster go.  He is greatly outnumbered around here with 2 female dogs and 12 hens.

 

The hens were put in a separate kennel from Stella in hopes that they wouldn’t be too stressed out or begin to fight during the drive.

 

We included a Rhode Island Red, a Welsummer, and an Andalusian.  We put straw in their kennels and they settled right in.  They actually seemed to travel very well and didn’t make a peep until we arrived at their new home.

The chickens seem to have adjusted well and the hens are laying, so they must not have minded the trip too much.  If we were traveling a greater distance, we definitely would have included food and water in the kennels, but they did just fine for the 3 hours they were in there.  We were very surprised there wasn’t much of a mess at all.  We had lined the truck bed with a tarp, but that was completely unnecessary.  If we were to travel with chickens again, we would definitely do it the same way.

As sad as it is to see some of our chickens go, we have a new batch of chickens coming at the end of May.  If you missed it, read all about that here.  We will update when we have more chicken news.  Thanks for reading!