Recent content by Mini Farmer

Ha. Give him time. I have a NH Red Rooster and a Buff Orpington rooster. The NH Red started crowing at 9-10 weeks. I thought my Buff was a mute, or maybe just intimidated by his loudmouth companion. But alas, he's definitely NOT a mute, and he eventually started showing off his pipes like a...

I had a Buff Orpington go broody for about 5-6 weeks. I didn't do anything to break her, just kept taking her eggs (despite her squawks of protest). I didn't think she'd ever stop, but then, one day, she just hopped off the nest and rejoined the flock. Ours was broody in the winter too, and...

That first chick is certainly eyeing the camera like a rooster. Watch their combs though! The roos combs will really start to look far more pronounced than the girls, and probably soon!

My boys are Biff and Sal. Ladies are Scarlet, Mildred, Mabel, Daisy, Puddle, Angel, Alice, Trixie, Digger, and IBelieveICanFly. I think the last is self-explanatory.

Pics will help a lot. I got four Buff Orpington chicks last spring: three were ladies and one was a roo. His comb was a good deal bigger than the ladies pretty early on, and he carried himself a bit more upright than the girls. For the record, Biff (who was Buffy until we realized he was a...

My chickens took FOREVER to figure out how to use their roosts. I watched the 12 of them pile on top of each other in a corner of their coop for weeks on weeks. I was convinced they were going to smother each other to death every night. I tried moving them to the roost, over and over. I waited...

I had NO idea how well they can dig. I have holes deep enough to bury them two deep, I swear! No amount of reading can prepare you for the craziness that is raising chickens, nor can it really explain how darn attached I am to the little buggers. <3

I used to just grab a shovel and toss piles of plain old outside dirt into a small, low bin. They would eat it for grit and fight for dust bathing space, but they LOVED it.

I'd also watch for behavior. Both of my roos had the telltale "strut" going on pretty early on, and my NH Red Roo did the "one-eye-to-the-sky" head tilt from the first few weeks in the brooder.

My chicks piled in a corner of their coop every night until they were almost 19 weeks old. I thought for sure the whole bunch was just "special." One day, one of them figured it out, and the next evening, everyone was roosting as if they'd been doing it their entire lives. I suspect that if you...

They won't eat broccoli, and they'll only eat the seeds out of a pumpkin (the goats take care of the rest thankfully! ). I'm surprised to hear about chickens who don't like cabbage! I keep one hanging in their coop often, though these days the 12 of them can take out a HUGE cabbage in less than...

We live about 25 mins from Nashua, and we started our flock of 12 this past May (four Buff Orpingtons, four Barred Rocks, and four NH Reds). Our coop is simply a converted shed, nothing fancy at all. We don't heat the coop, but the girls (and boys, as two of the twelve ended up being roos -...

My girls love grapes, yogurt, watermelon, oatmeal, raisins...grass clippings! Lately I've been giving them frozen fruit (it all had freezerburn anyway) - peaches and mangos. All of it causes a complete frenzy. I love watching them eat, and I'm pretty sure I'm spoiling them rotten.

We just got our first flock of baby chicks last week, twelve in total: four Buff Orpingtons, four Barred Rocks, and four New Hampshire Reds. We're totally new to this, and I am so, so so so excited! :) A friend of mine directed me to the site, and I've been lurking as a guest for a week, so I...