Hello everyone,
Thanks for allowing me to share a little about myself and my new found joy.
I've wanted to live on a farm my whole life. I'm not sure if I will ever achieve that but I know I can do the best I can with what I have. Farms seem so wholesome so I'm building an edible landscape on my urban lot and wanted a little more sustainability went looking around and found a good deal on a coop and 6 laying hens (beginning of July). A family on Craigslist was moving and needed to sell their flock and all the accessories.
1 - Plymouth Barred Rock "Big Z" 2 years old (2 eggs a week)
1 - an orange one with white tail "Honey" 1 year old (lays daily)
4 - Brown ones: I was told they were Americana
"Vanilla" 1 year old (1 dark brown egg every week or two) white earlobes
"Princess" 2 years old (1 dark brown egg every two-three weeks) small tiny comb
"Squawker" 2 years old (1 Blue egg every three-four weeks) beard
"Feathers" 1 year old (no eggs, yet) she had feather loss on head and bottom, her comb and bottom was dry and pale; she has grown her feather back on her head and some are coming back on her bottom - at first I thought the others were plucking/picking on her but now I wonder if she was just going through a molt.
My family likes eggs and this wasn't cutting it. So I did some research and my best guess was that "honey", my best layer with a great disposition, smart and a pleasurable personality was a Buff Orpington. After much consideration and bravery I went down to the local feed store and purchased four of the same (I wanted 6 but was a little "gun shy" as all this chicken business is new to me (city girl with country blood). It turns out, that "Honey" may in fact be a Golden Sex-link. So now I am considering getting 6 Golden Sex-links. The four Buffs are about 6 weeks old and all their fluff are now feathers so I plan to leave them outside this weekend while I begin a new flock of golden sex-links.
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for helping me get through these last few weeks. Every time I googled an issue or concern it brought me to this website. The information found here is invaluable to me. I am very happy to be a part of this community and hope in the future to help others with raising their chickens. To me it is more than a hobby it has become a lifestyle.
1SICKchick
[one Sensitive-Intelligent-Creative-Kind chick]
