My Year Raising Chickens

n3kms

Songster
9 Years
Jun 28, 2010
612
113
178
Middle Tennessee
Thought this might be a good place to tell some of my observations that might be of interest to others.
I started with my first chicks(10 barred rock pullets) almost exactly a year ago. Five weeks later I got 14 more chicks (2 BLRW, trio of CCL, 9 white leghorn X CCL) built a nice 9x9 coop with six nest boxes, dirt floor for deep litter. Went pretty well, fed fermented organic feed, everybody has been healthy. Butchered 3 mixed breed roosters. Lost three pullets to neighborhood dogs. After that I clipped wings so they could only be out of the run when I chose. We had all pullets except one BLRW turned out to be a cockerel and the one CCL cockerel I had planned. We got lots of eggs all winter. As spring rolled around chicken math reared it's head. Husband not a fan of chicken math. BLRW went broody in December and we broke her easily but not intentionally. So I decided I needed an incubator in case she broke mid way through when I really really wanted her to be broody. Once I got that little incubator I had to see if it worked. Gathered 9 eggs, that is all it would hold if you use the turner). Two were clear and seven hatched. So I decided I wanted some Black Javas. I ordered some eggs and put 15 in the incubator. Had to turn manually One week in my BLRW( Anastasia ) went broody again. Yay! Four were clear and 1 had a bad air cell and weird development but 10 hatched and went under my broody. She did great. One died in the nest for unknown reason. Other nine very healthy. I had bought a small coop/run from someone on Facebook that advertised it locally. It made a great broody coop. Then I built a grow-out coop/ run by myself for the 9 in the brooder that I had hatched from my own eggs. I had succumbed to chicken math again and bought another trio of CCLs locally. They were about 3 weeks younger than the 9 I hatched so things were getting interesting with so many ages. I had also hatched the two eggs that Anastasia had been sitting on before I gave her the babies from the incubator. They hatched 5 days after the Javas. At that point I had 2 chicks in bedroom, 9 in garage brooder, 9 with broody in broody coop, 17 in main coop. That is why I got busy and built the grow-out coop. One of bedroom chicks died the first night in brooder. With only the one chick by itself I decided to try what I was afraid would not work and put the one with the broody. It made it through the night and seemed okay the next morning but I found it dead in the afternoon. We had moved the nine to the grow-out, they were six weeks old and the 3 CCL to the garage. Things were going well when one of the original CCLs went broody. Hubby says we don't need more chickens so I said lets just give her two then and make her happy. So now I need to move her to the broody coop. So either the 7 week olds have to go to the big coop and the broody + 9 to the grow-out or the broody go to the big coop. I was afraid for the 7 week olds against the 16 grown chickens so I put broody and babies in the big coop. Anastasia is a pretty ferocious girl. All went well till 5 of the chicks found a way under the fence into where the dogs are. Very very distressing. Now mom and 4 babies are in the grow out coop and the now 8 week olds are doing just great in the big coop. It's kind of funny. The original BRs kind of picked on the others that were 5 weeks younger. Not bad just bossy. Now those younger are the ones who boss the 8 week olds. The BRs don't pay them much attention. Well I was tired of chicks in the garage and trying to remember who I have fed and who I haven't so I took the now 5 week old CCL trio and put them in the big coop as well. That has taught me that 5 weeks is probably a little too young. They are not really picked on but they are still a bit too timid. All the 8 week olds were on the roost by the 3 rd night and surprisingly one of the CCLs got up there one night but the three mostly sleep in the corner and of course, who bosses them? The 8 week olds! I give them food in the coop but they do get thrown out into the run with all the others on occasion. Those three always ran from me in the brooder but now they come running to me whenever I'm out there. So funny. Needless to say since I have this new broody in the broody coop and I'm tearful over the loss of my BJs my husband consented and I'm getting another dozen Black Java eggs this week.
This turned out longer than I planned but I read a lot of folks questions and I know they, like me, want to do what's best for there chickens and most are quickly learning about chickens math. So if you're brand new to chickens like I was a year ago, you can see that you can learn a lot in a year and you can get so much good info on Backyardchickens.com. Most folks here are very kind and patient and helpful.
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Big coop
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Broody coop
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Grow-out coop
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My grown chickens.
 

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