My family purchased our first chickens in 2010. Our first chicks were red sex links from the local feed store. They were named:
* Mary Jane
* Ken
* R2D2
* Little Cheep
* Daisy

I know we named the 6th one, but I just can't remember the name. They lived in a chicken tractor until they got a little too big for it. Then they moved into my great-grandpa's old pig house.




They layed 2 eggs a day on several occasions and were very friendly. While we were on vacation in 2011, a raccoon got into the coop and killed 2 of the hens. My grandma, the chicken-sitter, brought the remaining 4 back to her house in case the raccoon would come back the following night. The rest lived for a long time, the last one died this spring.

We didn't get any more chickens until 2013. In 2013, a kindergarten teacher that we knew bought an incubator and 7 eggs and hatched them in her class. At the same time, we ordered 6 buff orpington hens and a buff orpington rooster from a nearby hatchery. We had also gone to a local poultry show and purchased 2 silkies and a BLRW. We volunteered to bring the kindergarten chicks to our home after they spent three weeks in the classroom. One of the chicks that hatched in the classroom died shortly after it hatched, so we ended up bringing home 16 chickens. The kindergarten class chicks were a mix of breeds. We got a coronation sussex, 2 silver penciled plymouth rocks, a rhode island red, a splash ameraucana, and a welsummer. Our 2013 chicks were named:
* Lemon - the coronation sussex who ended up being a rooster
* Mickey - a silver penciled plymouth rock hen (we thought she was a rooster)
* Minnie - a silver penciled plymouth rock hen
* Caramel - a rhode island red hen
* Uno - a splash ameraucana
* Chipmunk - a welsummer
* Thomas Jefferson - a buff orpington rooster
* George Washington - a buff orpington hen (we thought he was a mistake rooster)
* Sally Hemmings - a buff orpington hen
* Martha Washington - a buff orpington hen
* Abigail Adams - a buff orpington hen
* Dot - a black silkie rooster
*Caroline - a blue silkie hen
* Little Peep - a BLRW rooster
The 3 other buff orpington hens, had historical names also, but I can't remember what they were. Uno, Chipmunk, and Little Peep were killed by another raccoon a month or two after they came to live with us. My family really wanted welsummer and ameraucana eggs, so we went to a local breeder and brought home a black ameraucana named Penguino, a blue ameraucana named Azul, and a welsummer named Acorn. Then a mysterious disease came through our flock and killed 6 of the buff orpingtons, Caramel, Azul, and Acorn. It was really sad. Here are pictures of the 2013 chickens:


This is Acorn (in the back), Caramel (by the feeder), Uno (in front of Acorn), and Mickey (in the front).



This is Little Peep with the 7 buff orpington chicks.


This is Dot and Caroline.



This is Azul (on the left), Penguino (in the middle) and Acorn (on the right).


In 2014, the same kindergarten teacher hatched eggs. She hatched 3 chicks. A hybrid ameraucana named Eggy and 2 silver penciled plymouth rocks named Olive and Doyle. We also bought 2 BLRW chicks named Snuggles and Pip and a splash ameraucana chick named Splash from a local breeder. Eggy, Olive (who was now Oliver), Doyle, Splash, and Pip were ALL roosters.


This is Eggy with Doyle messing around under him.



This is Pip.


This year the kindergarten teacher only had 2 eggs hatching, but she also ordered 6 pullets from a local hatchery. The hatchery gave us an extra surprise chick! Only one of the kindergarten eggs hatched. In addition, my family ordered 7 chicks from the same local hatchery. We ended up with 15 new chicks this year.
They were named:
* Dottie - a barred rock pullet
* Buttercup - a golden campine pullet
* Violet - a lavender orpington pullet
* Stroopwafel - a white crested black polish pullet
* Bubbles - a white crested black polish pullet
* Lacey - a partridge cochin pullet
* Rosa - a partridge cochin pullet
* Marbles - a white cochin pullet
* May - a golden cuckoo marans pullet
* Maple - a rhode island red pullet
* Cuddles - a rhode island red pullet
* Tempura - a red sex link pullet
* Sunny - a red sex link pullet
* Malaya - a black sumatra pullet
* Scout - a buckeye pullet

Here are pictures:


This is Dottie, Buttercup, Marbles, Lacey, Rosa, Stroopwafel, and Bubbles.


This is Scout as a 1 day old chick.


This is May.


This is Malaya.


This is Violet.

While these new chicks grew up, our roosters started fighting and our hens were getting hurt from all the attention from the roosters. We gave 4 roosters to homes where they wouldn't be killed for meat. Eggy, Doyle, Oliver, and Splash were all relocated.

Then, our silkie hen Caroline, went broody on 4 of her own eggs in June. Only one of them hatched. We named the chick Pancake. This is our happy silkie family.



Thank you for reading about my flock!