Frijole
Chirping
Hi all!
My chicken obsession began with a classroom project 28 years ago. I was assigned to a classroom for kids who were on the verge of expulsion. When the regular ed teacher couldn't handle them, they were permanently assigned to me for one (or more!) periods of their day. I had combination classes of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who were supposed to be learning math, English, History... all in one class. What do you do with that? You incubate eggs! We weighed the measured them, candled them, wrote papers, did research - it was EGG-citing (sorry).
From then came the box of chickens in my classroom. At the point that they started flying the coop, my husband graciously volunteered to build us a small chicken coop.
So many years later, we're now in the process of building our third coop, very Pinterest inspired, this time. We've incubated eggs, and taken unwanted chickens from friends, bought them from a feed store, and most recently, ordered them from a hatchery.
I currently have 7 teenagers (in our quail run, which makes a great spot), and 22 chicks (in the quail coop with penned off access from the bigger chicks but also the ability to be outdoors). We ordered a variety of "rare breeds", so this will be the first time for me with new varieties. In the past we had Americanas, Barred Rocks, Partridge Cochins, a little accidental Bantam, and a chicken named Picasso - (students noticed that her little egg had odd striations on it - that started a great study on Picasso - thus the name).
It has been a great deal of fun trying to identify the chicks (using the guide on the hatchery website). I believe my teens are Easter Eggers (or Olive Eggers) (Mrs. BossyPants and Tina) - a Buff laced Polish (Doug... if you've ever seen the movie "UP", and you've owned a Polish, you'll completely understand this name), a Rhode Island Red (Red), a Golden Campine (Speckels), a Mottled cochin bantam (Her name is Black and Yellow, and THEN we realized she would be Black and White), and Maxine (who I can't identify, but she is BEAUTIFUL black with copper feathers underlying throughout.)
All 22 of our babies also have names, but I won't bore you here
Throughout this story, we raised our five girls, and most recently, moved to Bakersfield. I work full time as a school district administrator, and my husband is a retired police chief. The Girls share a corral with two lambs and a Great Dane occasionally is allowed to visit, but is booted when she starts to drool.
I finally joined as a member when I began to realize that every time I needed some advice or knowledge I ended up on this website. Evidently all of you are equally obsessed.
I'm glad to be here, glad to share, and learn from all of you. Thanks for adding me in.
My chicken obsession began with a classroom project 28 years ago. I was assigned to a classroom for kids who were on the verge of expulsion. When the regular ed teacher couldn't handle them, they were permanently assigned to me for one (or more!) periods of their day. I had combination classes of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students who were supposed to be learning math, English, History... all in one class. What do you do with that? You incubate eggs! We weighed the measured them, candled them, wrote papers, did research - it was EGG-citing (sorry).
From then came the box of chickens in my classroom. At the point that they started flying the coop, my husband graciously volunteered to build us a small chicken coop.
So many years later, we're now in the process of building our third coop, very Pinterest inspired, this time. We've incubated eggs, and taken unwanted chickens from friends, bought them from a feed store, and most recently, ordered them from a hatchery.
I currently have 7 teenagers (in our quail run, which makes a great spot), and 22 chicks (in the quail coop with penned off access from the bigger chicks but also the ability to be outdoors). We ordered a variety of "rare breeds", so this will be the first time for me with new varieties. In the past we had Americanas, Barred Rocks, Partridge Cochins, a little accidental Bantam, and a chicken named Picasso - (students noticed that her little egg had odd striations on it - that started a great study on Picasso - thus the name).
It has been a great deal of fun trying to identify the chicks (using the guide on the hatchery website). I believe my teens are Easter Eggers (or Olive Eggers) (Mrs. BossyPants and Tina) - a Buff laced Polish (Doug... if you've ever seen the movie "UP", and you've owned a Polish, you'll completely understand this name), a Rhode Island Red (Red), a Golden Campine (Speckels), a Mottled cochin bantam (Her name is Black and Yellow, and THEN we realized she would be Black and White), and Maxine (who I can't identify, but she is BEAUTIFUL black with copper feathers underlying throughout.)
All 22 of our babies also have names, but I won't bore you here
Throughout this story, we raised our five girls, and most recently, moved to Bakersfield. I work full time as a school district administrator, and my husband is a retired police chief. The Girls share a corral with two lambs and a Great Dane occasionally is allowed to visit, but is booted when she starts to drool.
I finally joined as a member when I began to realize that every time I needed some advice or knowledge I ended up on this website. Evidently all of you are equally obsessed.
I'm glad to be here, glad to share, and learn from all of you. Thanks for adding me in.
