So I have come to realize that chickens are slowly taking over my life. I find myself spending more and more time browsing threads on this site, looking at different chicken breeds on hatchery websites, and researching about said chicken breeds endlessly.
When I first got the idea to get chickens, I was just think fresh eggs would be nice. Not to mention I would have meat after I butchered them. I figure the ideal time to butcher the laying hens would be around 3 years old, but it depends on how well egg production is. I didn't think that chickens would slowly consume me.
It took awhile for me to convince my mom to let me get chickens. The house where we live already has a chicken coop on the property, it just needed to be fixed up and a run attached. Well it took a couple months for my mom to cave in. My dad was the easier one. It was originally my Aunt that gave me the idea. She has chickens. Then a girl I work with got chicks from my local Agway. After seeing pictures I figured I'd bring it up with my mom again. It took a couple posts on facebook about chickens on large scale farms being fed arsenic to get her to agree.
Once she was all for it I just had to convince my DH. It didn't take much for him. After that I did extensive research on what breeds I wanted, which ones would suit me best. When I thought I had found the breed for me I called the local Agway to see what they had. They had 12 extra "Ameracauna" chicks. Needless to say that since I got a late start it was either getting some of them or special ordering 15 through them. Well I didn't want 15 chicks at the time. Not to mention my coop is not big enough for 15 chickens. 13 yes, 15 would have been a stretch in my eyes. That is using the 4 sq ft per bird rule.
So I had my mind set on getting 4 birds. Went to Agway while we were doing laundry at the laundry mat. They had a 6 bird minimum, so I purchased 6. The gentleman working there almost seemed like he might be willing to give me less if I had asked, but hey what the heck is 2 more chickens. Well then I started reading up on "Ameracauna" chickens, only to come and find out that I most likely had Easter Eggers. Wasn't disappointed by this at all. I have seen pictures of beautiful EEs. Noticed after having them for about a week or two that one of them was developing a scissor beak. Tried my hardest with a few different methods to help her eat and put on weight. I unfortunately didn't realize how serious it was until it was too late. I had my DH cull her after having her for 3 weeks.
I told the DH a couple of days later that I couldn't have just 5 chickens. I didn't like the odd number of laying hens. So I convinced him to let me get 3 more, after all that was the smallest minimum I could find for some online hatcheries. Well I started browsing for more breeds I would like to get. Started noticing that one of my chicks comb was starting to turn a little pink. Convinced that that one might end up being a roo I talked DH into letting me order 4. Then I had to show him the pictures of Brahmas with their feather covered feet, convinced him to let me order 5. I did not tell the poor man that I had ordered 6 until after he gave me his credit card and I had already placed the order. My original plan was to get rid of any roo I might end up with by sending it to freezer camp. I told my mom this. She informed me that if it turned out to be a roo we were going to keep it. So thinking I was going to have 10 chickens I now am going to have 11. I want to call the hatchery where I placed my order and add another one before it ships, but DH wont let me. I am respecting his wishes for now.
I am sure there are others out there who are like me and feel like they are now being controlled by chickens. I feel like all I want to do is talk about them. Not to mention it has been a battle of about 3 and a half weeks of tweaking the remodeling of the chicken coop to get it perfect. DH is a saint for putting up with how many times I have changed my mind and for doing all the heavy work. I already have plans to build a bigger coop next summer to house even more laying hens and taking the small coop I have now and using it for turkeys and I have convinced my mom to allow me to section off a part of our shed for meat birds. My DH thinks its funny to sing Old McDonald Had a Farm and put my name in there. I don't laugh. Okay maybe I laugh for a second. But then I realize he's kind of right. My dad has been saying we need to raise a couple of pigs. My brother wants a goat and mom was just saying the other day we should raise a cow. I have come to the conclusion that chickens are a gateway animal for a farm.
The sad part is, even though I know I'll do most of the work, I am doing research on goats. I love my brother to death, but I know if we get a couple it will be me taking care of them. Scary enough, I'm okay with that, they are actually kind of cute. Does anybody else want to get more farm animals now that they have had chickens?
When I first got the idea to get chickens, I was just think fresh eggs would be nice. Not to mention I would have meat after I butchered them. I figure the ideal time to butcher the laying hens would be around 3 years old, but it depends on how well egg production is. I didn't think that chickens would slowly consume me.
It took awhile for me to convince my mom to let me get chickens. The house where we live already has a chicken coop on the property, it just needed to be fixed up and a run attached. Well it took a couple months for my mom to cave in. My dad was the easier one. It was originally my Aunt that gave me the idea. She has chickens. Then a girl I work with got chicks from my local Agway. After seeing pictures I figured I'd bring it up with my mom again. It took a couple posts on facebook about chickens on large scale farms being fed arsenic to get her to agree.
Once she was all for it I just had to convince my DH. It didn't take much for him. After that I did extensive research on what breeds I wanted, which ones would suit me best. When I thought I had found the breed for me I called the local Agway to see what they had. They had 12 extra "Ameracauna" chicks. Needless to say that since I got a late start it was either getting some of them or special ordering 15 through them. Well I didn't want 15 chicks at the time. Not to mention my coop is not big enough for 15 chickens. 13 yes, 15 would have been a stretch in my eyes. That is using the 4 sq ft per bird rule.
So I had my mind set on getting 4 birds. Went to Agway while we were doing laundry at the laundry mat. They had a 6 bird minimum, so I purchased 6. The gentleman working there almost seemed like he might be willing to give me less if I had asked, but hey what the heck is 2 more chickens. Well then I started reading up on "Ameracauna" chickens, only to come and find out that I most likely had Easter Eggers. Wasn't disappointed by this at all. I have seen pictures of beautiful EEs. Noticed after having them for about a week or two that one of them was developing a scissor beak. Tried my hardest with a few different methods to help her eat and put on weight. I unfortunately didn't realize how serious it was until it was too late. I had my DH cull her after having her for 3 weeks.
I told the DH a couple of days later that I couldn't have just 5 chickens. I didn't like the odd number of laying hens. So I convinced him to let me get 3 more, after all that was the smallest minimum I could find for some online hatcheries. Well I started browsing for more breeds I would like to get. Started noticing that one of my chicks comb was starting to turn a little pink. Convinced that that one might end up being a roo I talked DH into letting me order 4. Then I had to show him the pictures of Brahmas with their feather covered feet, convinced him to let me order 5. I did not tell the poor man that I had ordered 6 until after he gave me his credit card and I had already placed the order. My original plan was to get rid of any roo I might end up with by sending it to freezer camp. I told my mom this. She informed me that if it turned out to be a roo we were going to keep it. So thinking I was going to have 10 chickens I now am going to have 11. I want to call the hatchery where I placed my order and add another one before it ships, but DH wont let me. I am respecting his wishes for now.
I am sure there are others out there who are like me and feel like they are now being controlled by chickens. I feel like all I want to do is talk about them. Not to mention it has been a battle of about 3 and a half weeks of tweaking the remodeling of the chicken coop to get it perfect. DH is a saint for putting up with how many times I have changed my mind and for doing all the heavy work. I already have plans to build a bigger coop next summer to house even more laying hens and taking the small coop I have now and using it for turkeys and I have convinced my mom to allow me to section off a part of our shed for meat birds. My DH thinks its funny to sing Old McDonald Had a Farm and put my name in there. I don't laugh. Okay maybe I laugh for a second. But then I realize he's kind of right. My dad has been saying we need to raise a couple of pigs. My brother wants a goat and mom was just saying the other day we should raise a cow. I have come to the conclusion that chickens are a gateway animal for a farm.
The sad part is, even though I know I'll do most of the work, I am doing research on goats. I love my brother to death, but I know if we get a couple it will be me taking care of them. Scary enough, I'm okay with that, they are actually kind of cute. Does anybody else want to get more farm animals now that they have had chickens?