Partridge Chanteclers

Friday EJ and I got to go to the farm store. I say “got to” instead of “had to” because it’s fun rather than a chore.

We’ve always gotten Rhode Island and New Hampshire Red chickens but last Spring we decided to get a couple Buff Orpington chickens. They are a pretty golden color so I call them “the blond chicks.” Last autumn EJ and I discussed trying to find another winter-hardy breed of chicken, hoping they would lay eggs during the winter. I did some research late last week and we decided to try to find Partridge Chantecler chicks. I read that they are a cold-hardy, breed of chicken that was created in the early 1900s by Dr. J. E. Wilkinson of Alberta, Canada. He wanted to develop a breed that could withstand harsh Canadian winters. They lay about 200 eggs per year, tend to go broody often, and are noted for being calm, gentle and personable if handled regularly as chicks. They are also good meat chickens, but we want them for their eggs rather than their meat. There is a white Chantecler, but we ordered the Partridge ones. I think they look a lot like the Reds, but the roosters have smaller combs.

We read that Partridge Chanteclers can be challenging to find. I found a couple places in the USA that sold them, but the minimum order was around 16 chicks, and we really only wanted four of them. Since we were planning to go to the farm store any way for other things, we decided to ask them if they could order six chicks for us.

As soon we entered the farm store, we heard chirping from further in. “Chick Days” had begun! Chick Days is when farm stores sell live poultry of various kinds in their store. It begins about now and lasts until…well, for months. We always take time to enjoy looking at the cute chicks running around in multiple large horse tanks set up near the back of the store. They didn’t have any Partridge Chantecler chicks at the store but I asked an employee if we could special order eight chicks. She said “Absolutely.” She told me that we were the first customers to order this breed this year and it was good that we came in when we did because the breeder was only selling 75 this year and they go fast. The store had to order a minimum of 25, but she increased it to 30 because (we laughed together knowingly) of chicken math. Chicken math is when you end up buying more chickens then you intended. A person might also find themselves buying other types of poultry–ducks, turkeys, etc.–as well. The employee said our chicks will arrive at the store in May. She will reserve our chicks for us and easily sell the others. I gave her my contact information after asking EJ if he was sure we didn’t want to order ten. It was tempting, but we held at eight.

While I was busy ordering our chicks, EJ got to talking to another customer who was waiting to buy chicks. They laughed about chicken math and then the man told EJ that he breeds show goats. He described his goat farm, which was very interesting. EJ ended up friending him on social media. We don’t plan to ever buy goats, but it’s fun to friend people we’ve met.

On Sunday we drove to the local hardware store to refill our 20 lb propane tanks for our little heaters. Although we’ve had a lot of warmer weather (in the 40s), there is still a lot of snow in the driveway so driving up and down it is an ordeal. To be honest, I keep my eyes closed so I don’t have to watch us careening down/up it.

However, I did not close my eyes when we returned from the hardware store because there was a bald eagle eating something right in the middle of the driveway! It majestically flew away as we approached. It would have been nice to get a photo/video of it, but I didn’t want to miss the experience by trying to get out my phone. I love bald eagles and it’s always a delight to see them.