Hugz21
Chirping
So it's been 7 weeks since I became a chicken mama. The only other pets I've had were gold fish.
My Gran had chickens. My aunt has chickens. I always thought they'd be cool pets so when the "cat or dog" discussion came up with my husband and kids, I proposed "how about chooks?" I did a LOT of research. I contacted a local, well known and respected backyard breeder and found out when the next clutch was due to hatch. I built a brooder box from an old plastic tub and a few odds and ends. I purchased food, feeder, waterer and some wood shavings and set up an area in our garage for the chicks to live
And waited for the text to say the chicks have hatched. I got the message on Tuesday afternoon and organised to pick up the babies the very next day.
The breeder informed me that only 4 eggs had hatched (I was after 5 or 6 birds) so she sold me 4xday old fluff balls and a 2week old "girl" - a new Hampshire we named Magenta.
My whole family were instantly smitten with the cuties. Here is my 10yr old with Amethyst (Buff Orp)
The babies settled into their new home really well - eating and drinking and sleeping and GROWING!
My 8yr old quickly developed a connections with Lilac, a silver lacewing Wyandotte
And my 10yr old fell in love with our big "girl", Magenta
When the weather was nice, we took the chicks for some (closely supervised) outside time. They loved exploring in the grass and gobbling up unlucky insects.
Group fuzz-butt shot
As the babies grew, unfortunately we noticed Magenta starting to develop some characteristics that suggested she is actually a he
The fuzzy balls of cute were quickly outgrowing their plastic tub brooder, so I got to crafting.
Much better
Cage during the day
Tub over night
Magenta, in "her" "mini dino phase and looking more and more Roo by the day
Some more modifications we needed to the chooky living arrangements, including putting the tub in the cage and adding a door. Violet discover he could fly on top of brooder box and that's were he slept most nights
With the aim of getting the chickens out of the garage, and my dream of building a coop from scratch looking unreasonable, I went shopping. 4 hours of flat-pack hell and the coop was built
We transitioned the chooks - starting with being outside in the coop for a few hours during the day, then the whole day outside with some free-ranging time and overnight in the garage.
It's around this time that I joined BYC to ask the learned community about Lilac, the runt
And to confirm suspicions about 2 possible roosters.
Magenta and Violet were confirmed to be cockerels, so I contacted the lovely lady I purchased the chooks from and organised to surrender the boys.
The chookies spent their first night outside - all 5 in the same nest box!
Last night with the boys.
Getting Magenta ready for surrender
He was having none of it and hid under the coop
Violet went a little easier
So I dropped my boys off this morning. Down to 3 - Lilac, Indigo and Amethyst (Pic to come), with the promise of more chicks in spring.
And that's my chicken story
My Gran had chickens. My aunt has chickens. I always thought they'd be cool pets so when the "cat or dog" discussion came up with my husband and kids, I proposed "how about chooks?" I did a LOT of research. I contacted a local, well known and respected backyard breeder and found out when the next clutch was due to hatch. I built a brooder box from an old plastic tub and a few odds and ends. I purchased food, feeder, waterer and some wood shavings and set up an area in our garage for the chicks to live
And waited for the text to say the chicks have hatched. I got the message on Tuesday afternoon and organised to pick up the babies the very next day.
The breeder informed me that only 4 eggs had hatched (I was after 5 or 6 birds) so she sold me 4xday old fluff balls and a 2week old "girl" - a new Hampshire we named Magenta.
My whole family were instantly smitten with the cuties. Here is my 10yr old with Amethyst (Buff Orp)
The babies settled into their new home really well - eating and drinking and sleeping and GROWING!
My 8yr old quickly developed a connections with Lilac, a silver lacewing Wyandotte
And my 10yr old fell in love with our big "girl", Magenta
When the weather was nice, we took the chicks for some (closely supervised) outside time. They loved exploring in the grass and gobbling up unlucky insects.
Group fuzz-butt shot
As the babies grew, unfortunately we noticed Magenta starting to develop some characteristics that suggested she is actually a he
The fuzzy balls of cute were quickly outgrowing their plastic tub brooder, so I got to crafting.
Much better
Cage during the day
Tub over night
Magenta, in "her" "mini dino phase and looking more and more Roo by the day
Some more modifications we needed to the chooky living arrangements, including putting the tub in the cage and adding a door. Violet discover he could fly on top of brooder box and that's were he slept most nights
With the aim of getting the chickens out of the garage, and my dream of building a coop from scratch looking unreasonable, I went shopping. 4 hours of flat-pack hell and the coop was built
We transitioned the chooks - starting with being outside in the coop for a few hours during the day, then the whole day outside with some free-ranging time and overnight in the garage.
It's around this time that I joined BYC to ask the learned community about Lilac, the runt
And to confirm suspicions about 2 possible roosters.
Magenta and Violet were confirmed to be cockerels, so I contacted the lovely lady I purchased the chooks from and organised to surrender the boys.
The chookies spent their first night outside - all 5 in the same nest box!
Last night with the boys.
Getting Magenta ready for surrender
He was having none of it and hid under the coop
Violet went a little easier
So I dropped my boys off this morning. Down to 3 - Lilac, Indigo and Amethyst (Pic to come), with the promise of more chicks in spring.
And that's my chicken story
