Here is the opener of my Chick/Chicken Thread.
As a little background to this project: My daughter's fiance has been bringing us several dozen home grown eggs everytime he returns from his visits to his family in South Dakota and its been nice getting farm fresh eggs....we've actually become quite spoiled with these fine quality eggs.
On a recent trip to the store, I just could not believe what prices for basic groceries have risen too. We've talked about starting a small flock for several years and finally decided to make the plunge and get a small flock of birds to provide the family with fresh eggs. My wife & I both had chickens when we were kids and the chickens do have a huge entertainment value besides the egg production aspects. I talked to the neighbors, and they are actually quite open at the prospects of fresh eggs should we have an excess, so we shouldn't have to much trouble disposing of any extra production. Their main concern is smell and garbage from the small flock.
Our community allows its citizens to have small flocks and we thought that this would be a benifit to our family to maintain a small flock of layer hens and serve to offset a few expenses. We've picked up 6 Buff Orpington Chicks & 2 Kaki Campbells Ducks some weeks ago. These little fellows were outside for the first time this last weekend; and have been spending their daytime hours outside ever since.
My wife and daughter wanted the Ducks. They both like to bake, and if you've ever had baked goods that were made using duck eggs in place of chicken eggs...well there is a very noticable difference. My wife also knows several ladies in the area that bake wedding cakes and such for a living, and one of their "secret ingredients" is to use duck eggs. I was torn between getting Runners and the Campbells, we settled on the Campbells.
On a recent trip to the store, I just could not believe what prices for basic groceries have risen too. We've talked about starting a small flock for several years and finally decided to make the plunge and get a small flock of birds to provide the family with fresh eggs. My wife & I both had chickens when we were kids and the chickens do have a huge entertainment value besides the egg production aspects. I talked to the neighbors, and they are actually quite open at the prospects of fresh eggs should we have an excess, so we shouldn't have to much trouble disposing of any extra production. Their main concern is smell and garbage from the small flock.
Our community allows its citizens to have small flocks and we thought that this would be a benifit to our family to maintain a small flock of layer hens and serve to offset a few expenses. We've picked up 6 Buff Orpington Chicks & 2 Kaki Campbells Ducks some weeks ago. These little fellows were outside for the first time this last weekend; and have been spending their daytime hours outside ever since.
My wife and daughter wanted the Ducks. They both like to bake, and if you've ever had baked goods that were made using duck eggs in place of chicken eggs...well there is a very noticable difference. My wife also knows several ladies in the area that bake wedding cakes and such for a living, and one of their "secret ingredients" is to use duck eggs. I was torn between getting Runners and the Campbells, we settled on the Campbells.
While all this has been going on...I'm in the middle of building the Coop & Run for the small flock.
I'll post photos and show the progression of my project. If any of you have suggestions or ideas that you would like to share...that would be much appreciated.
I hope that you enjoy the thread as much as I'm sure that I'll enjoy posting to it. 
Edited by Rock Home Isle - 4/26/12 at 6:03am
"Experince is the teacher of all things." Julius Ceaser
"The only real valuable thing is intuition." Albert Einstein
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest" Mark Twain
My Coop Project
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/656727/coop-project-maken-the-plunge-getting-chickens
"Experince is the teacher of all things." Julius Ceaser
"The only real valuable thing is intuition." Albert Einstein
"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest" Mark Twain
My Coop Project
http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/656727/coop-project-maken-the-plunge-getting-chickens
