Hi from CA!

[mama2molly]

Hi there! My name is April and I live in sunny (and HOT

) central CA. My fiance and I have a beautiful 18 month old, Molly. My Dad is a vet, so I had the joy of growing up around all kinds of animals. I am a horse and dog person first and far most. However, for whatever reason we never kept chickens. Back in April we had to go get some hay and I just couldn't resist adding some chicks to our animal family. Why didn't we do this sooner? We are having so much fun with them and Molly LOVES her chicky-chickies.

So my first batch was 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Rhode Island Reds, and 2 Black Sex links. All guaranteed pullets, and thankfully all are. One of our Black girls, we named Hilda, is so much bigger than the other girls. When you pick her up she is like twice the weight of the others. ???

As much as I've been enjoying them, I got the bug again when we went to our local feed store about 4 weeks ago. They were selling them as Ameruacana's, but after all I've read online determined they were just Easter Egger's. Fine with me! I just wanted to add some colorful eggs to our flock. So I bought 6 of them!

However, they weren't guaranteed and they said 90% were supposed to be pullets. So I'm thinking I might have one, or two, roosters.

We don't want any roosters right now, so would have to rehome them.... Finger's crossed!

Some pictures! (Though it is crazy hard to get any good ones!)

(No worries, Molly gets a thorough cleaning after every chicky visit!)

Anyways, I'm looking forward to reading the wealth of information on here! Everyone seems nice and welcoming, so that definitely attracted me to joining. So many times people get so opinionated and nasty on message boards, it's refreshing to see so many helpful and friendly posts.

Oh, and I shouldn't be allowed to look up hatcheries because I end up wanting one of every breed. I'm sure I'll have to be held back next year! Haha!

-April

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

Sounds like you are thoroughly addicted to chickens! Yes, we all have it....OCD....Obsessive Chicken Disorder!

You have a very beautiful flock! If you have some suspected cockerels in your bunch, you can post pics in our What Gender section of the forums for help with determining sex...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/15/what-breed-or-gender-is-this

Enjoy your wonderful birds and welcome our flock!

 

[3riverschick]

Hi April Molly and family and

,
We have special discussion threads for each of your breeds! Oh, you forgot the Marans for those dark chocolate eggs.!
Plus, if you breed your Marans hens to a blue egg siring rooster, you will get hens which lay green eggs! Wow! The darker
the brown egg bird you breed to your blue egg bird, the darker green egg the daughters will lay. this is a fun project and
there are some really nice Marans breeders in your area. Light brown ex blue= green eggs ; dark brown ex blue= olive eggs.
Best Success,
Karen in western PA

 

[mama2molly]

Hi Karen! Yep, I've definitely been eyeing the Marans. Probably next year, if I can control myself!

 

[gander007]

Alright April,

great to have you joining the BYC flock

BYC has a very useful learning center

Like you said there are plenty of people here to help you with any questions .....

and some of them are even helpful at times if they have the time

The poultry bug is addictive so a hint have a healthy brooder on hand at all times

Plenty of birds were brooded in this box

Even webbed footed creatures

But don't forget to inspect your brooder for cleanness

And we even allow mixing of the feathers in the brooder

This weeks newest hatch of EE chicks ......

But our flock is not as big as yours

I even found a way to use them to get long staying guest to leave ....

Now this is an item you need to stay away from ...

And after this happens you would be hooked

And her with futile egg's

Really enjoy your poultry they can be fun

gander007

 

[mama2molly]

Wow, Gander! What beautiful birds you have! I'd love to get a few ducks some day....

Thanks for the welcome everybody

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Pretty flock!

 

[drumstick diva]

Your daughter seems perfectly at home with the flock, and they seem to like her too. Maybe she is destined to be a chicken whisperer.

 

[mama2molly]

They love her! They'll follow her around the pen. She adores them and tries to "hold" them all the time. I'm really happy she is getting to grow up this way.

 

[mama2molly]

Well, then there were 11. I lost one of my Barred Rock girls today. I thought out of all of them, the RIRs would be the ones to try to escape, so it was a surprise. She flew out somehow and one of our dogs got her. I just hope her death was swift. I feel bad for her "twin sister," she seems a little lost almost. It's probably in my head, though....