I thought I'd share with you all my second go at raising chickens. Our first flock was comprised of 3 buff orpingtons
a little australorp
our rooster
and 4 ducks
Sadly our first flock was devastated by fox attacks. They first got one of our khaki campbells named Coffee, then our Pekin named Sugar and buff drake named Cream. I found Sugar in the field without a head and Cream's feathers strewn throughout the woods. After that our 4 hens went missing during the day and never returned. All that was left was our rooster name Rudy and his new buddy Mocha the Khaki Campbell . They stuck close together and were never far apart. One morning I came to let them out and both were missing! After freaking out, my mom and I found Rudy hiding on the front porch. We found Mochas feathers scattered in the woods. Rudy refused to go back in the coop and I finally convinced my mom we had to do something. My brothers helped us out and built a better coop while my mom and I worked on a fence. This was all in 2015.
So, after fixing up our coop and fence, we decided to give it another shot. One June 10th we called the post office and learned our chicks had arrived!! I was happy when we went to pick up our new chicks from the post office. You could hear them peeping up a storm in the back. They were so cute after we got them in their brooder.
Baby marshmallow looked so fluffy.
My favorite babies, who we only have one remaining.
Our photogenic one. Work it chickie!
They began to get too big for the house( and constantly flew out of their pin)and finally we put them in their new home.
They adjusted better to going outside then we did. Sadly, the first night out we lost one of the polish chicks. I was sad but we still had more chickens to take care of. After constantly being told to not let them free range, I restricted free range time to an hour before they went in.
They still found ways out of their run though. I'd feed them in the morning, then 30 minutes later about 7 of them would be out wandering the backyard.
Two days ago my favorite little chickie named Priscilla went missing after I pinned everyone up.
I searched all over our property but I couldn't find any trace of her. She will be missed greatly.
The new flock is doing great, we have 5 Easter Egger hens( the orange and black one is named Halloween, the white and gold is named Marshmellow)
, 4 Wyandotte hens
2 blue Cochin hens
2 Cochin roosters that were supposed to be blue but they're pretty so I don't care(we call the dark blue and white one cow)
a Polish rooster
and finally our remaining first flock member Rudy
The baby roosters are starting to crow since last week! So far I've only been able to see Presley (our polsih rooster) crow, but it's.so.adorable!! The girls are supposed to be laying within the next the next couple weeks so fingers crossed! I've heard quite a bit that you can tell what color eggs Easter Eggers are going to lay by what color their feet are. Most of ours are green and one or two look bluish-black. If anyone can tell if that's true or not that would be welcome. If anyone can help us think of names for the rest we would appreciate it.
Now that I've jabbered your ear off, thank you for reading and I'll try to add new pictures as they grow older. Hopefully as fall and winter set in they do good. Our last flock did pretty well even with the snow reaching to my upper thigh, which is a lot to a 5'1 shortie. If you guys have any tips, tricks and advice I'd be happy to here it! We've been learning as we go ever since last year and help is very welcome. Especially when they get old enough to start having babies. Thank you again for reading.
So, after fixing up our coop and fence, we decided to give it another shot. One June 10th we called the post office and learned our chicks had arrived!! I was happy when we went to pick up our new chicks from the post office. You could hear them peeping up a storm in the back. They were so cute after we got them in their brooder.
They began to get too big for the house( and constantly flew out of their pin)and finally we put them in their new home.
They adjusted better to going outside then we did. Sadly, the first night out we lost one of the polish chicks. I was sad but we still had more chickens to take care of. After constantly being told to not let them free range, I restricted free range time to an hour before they went in.
They still found ways out of their run though. I'd feed them in the morning, then 30 minutes later about 7 of them would be out wandering the backyard.
Two days ago my favorite little chickie named Priscilla went missing after I pinned everyone up.
The new flock is doing great, we have 5 Easter Egger hens( the orange and black one is named Halloween, the white and gold is named Marshmellow)
The baby roosters are starting to crow since last week! So far I've only been able to see Presley (our polsih rooster) crow, but it's.so.adorable!! The girls are supposed to be laying within the next the next couple weeks so fingers crossed! I've heard quite a bit that you can tell what color eggs Easter Eggers are going to lay by what color their feet are. Most of ours are green and one or two look bluish-black. If anyone can tell if that's true or not that would be welcome. If anyone can help us think of names for the rest we would appreciate it.
Now that I've jabbered your ear off, thank you for reading and I'll try to add new pictures as they grow older. Hopefully as fall and winter set in they do good. Our last flock did pretty well even with the snow reaching to my upper thigh, which is a lot to a 5'1 shortie. If you guys have any tips, tricks and advice I'd be happy to here it! We've been learning as we go ever since last year and help is very welcome. Especially when they get old enough to start having babies. Thank you again for reading.