[FONT=book antiqua,palatino] 2009-09-14 12:02:38 Hi all, we've had one heck of a time getting started here. If it wasn't for the great staff at BYC we'd have never made it. We're in upstate NY about an hour north of Albany. We have 5 New Hampshire red girls and 1 Rhode Island Red Rooster. All from Tractor Supply and their mix up. We spend time with them all everyday, so their very domesticated now. The girls just started laying about the begining of August. One was grabbed by our boxer dog and she just started laying a month after the others. She is fine now but without the help of you all and your expertise and suggestions we could have lost her. Thank you all for all the great ideas we've recieved on BYC. We are getting 3 eggs and 2 eggs now every other day alternating right now. I'm going to try to get some pictures on here soon. They have plenty of room to run about 400 sq. ft.. However I have to get some taller fence or some bird netting to keep them in so the dog doesn't eat chicken.
Nothing makes you feel like crap like the dog getting a hold of one of the chickens after she flew the coop and she was hiding next to the house. The first time she was lucky, I was in the garage all the way around the house out front, when I heard one getting louder and louder, all of a sudden she came running right up to me and literally jumped in my arms. She was all upset that she couldn't get back in the run. She jumped right up on me like a pet would. We go in there every day several times to keep them friendly. That was your suggestion and it is working great. Almost anyone can go in there and they will run right up to you and expect to be held, or petted at the least. So far we've seen three soft eggs in the begining. I never knew there was such a thing. Sure enough I checked here and learned about it. Well thanks again for all the help and hopefully we can keep helping each other in our evergrowing community. Rich & Tina[/FONT]
9-21-09 This just in Bert our rooster who has never crowed lays eggs, yeah she's Berta now. we just found out who the culprit was laying two eggs, none of them, they ALL lay eggs now. We are extremely new to this however you'd think Tractor supply people should know a little something about the different birds they sell. They sold us 5 RIR hens and 1 RIR rooster. what we really got was one RIR hen and 5 NHR hens. It's all good though, the more we thought about it we'd like to NOT have the neighbors mad at us for a rooster alarm clock. Winter is here and we have to get ready for it, gotta go, bye.
9-21-09 This just in Bert our rooster who has never crowed lays eggs, yeah she's Berta now. we just found out who the culprit was laying two eggs, none of them, they ALL lay eggs now. We are extremely new to this however you'd think Tractor supply people should know a little something about the different birds they sell. They sold us 5 RIR hens and 1 RIR rooster. what we really got was one RIR hen and 5 NHR hens. It's all good though, the more we thought about it we'd like to NOT have the neighbors mad at us for a rooster alarm clock. Winter is here and we have to get ready for it, gotta go, bye.