[FONT=comic sans ms,sand]Im a new girl to chickens, But so far loooove them. My family and I started out with 8 "RIR" chicks (They arent realy I think theyre mixed breeds) and 1 buff orpington chick a week after Easter. We decided to free range them since we live on a 7 acre property in the country with a marsh where they loved to eat all the bugs and occasionaly a frog or two. We built them a little red coop but they decided to live on our 2nd floor porch instead 
. After some of them started "disapearing" we decided to fence them in, sadly. By then we only had 2 mixies and the orpington. Occasionaly we do let them out though to scratch around and to keep their eggs tasting delicious. In September we ordered 6 more chicks including a rooster to keep the eggs flowing. Sadly 2 of the chicks I ordered died in the mail 
, but the 4 others were thriving 
! once they got to the age that I thought they could go out for a while I let them out to meet the bigger gals. They didn't take too well to each other but soon the chicks figured out they should stay away from each other. Soon they got to live outside! a few days after our little australorp chick that we just got slipped through a whole in the fence (most likely), and we haven't seen her since . Today September 6 I went outside to give all of them there morning feed and didn't see our little golden pheanix roo most likely same thing happened to him because he is much smaller than the two other chicks. So now in total we have three wonderful.....well the mixies are wonderful the orp. is a lil skittish...hens, and two playful, happy, friendly chicks, a white rock and a barred rock. Soon I will hopefully buy a rooster! Dad says yes, mom says no. on the next page there are some pictures of our girlys
February 12th: We got 2 older roosters from one of my dads co-workers he had little space and too many chickens and ducks and when he heard we where looking for a rooster he was more than happy to give us his two boys they are VERY friendly! He said one of them was a older hen that no longer produced, but when i saw them for the first time i saw that both of them had spurs. Only one of them crows though which is very odd. they are White Rocks and i love them<3 and oh yah. i forgot to mention): All the hens except for the barred Rock where murdered right in the open and in day light. i cried like crazy): i hope nothing happens to my remaining little girl. We're going to be looking for more chicks this Summer and this time im going to make sure NOTHING happens to them. we put a fence up now so ther are no more casualties.[/FONT]
. After some of them started "disapearing" we decided to fence them in, sadly. By then we only had 2 mixies and the orpington. Occasionaly we do let them out though to scratch around and to keep their eggs tasting delicious. In September we ordered 6 more chicks including a rooster to keep the eggs flowing. Sadly 2 of the chicks I ordered died in the mail , but the 4 others were thriving ! once they got to the age that I thought they could go out for a while I let them out to meet the bigger gals. They didn't take too well to each other but soon the chicks figured out they should stay away from each other. Soon they got to live outside! a few days after our little australorp chick that we just got slipped through a whole in the fence (most likely), and we haven't seen her since . Today September 6 I went outside to give all of them there morning feed and didn't see our little golden pheanix roo most likely same thing happened to him because he is much smaller than the two other chicks. So now in total we have three wonderful.....well the mixies are wonderful the orp. is a lil skittish...hens, and two playful, happy, friendly chicks, a white rock and a barred rock. Soon I will hopefully buy a rooster! Dad says yes, mom says no. on the next page there are some pictures of our girlysFebruary 12th: We got 2 older roosters from one of my dads co-workers
he had little space and too many chickens and ducks and when he heard we where looking for a rooster he was more than happy to give us his two boys they are VERY friendly! He said one of them was a older hen that no longer produced, but when i saw them for the first time i saw that both of them had spurs. Only one of them crows though which is very odd. they are White Rocks and i love them<3 and oh yah. i forgot to mention): All the hens except for the barred Rock where murdered right in the open and in day light. i cried like crazy): i hope nothing happens to my remaining little girl. We're going to be looking for more chicks this Summer and this time im going to make sure NOTHING happens to them. we put a fence up now so ther are no more casualties.[/FONT]