It all started with 9 chicks picked up from a friend. 3 Splash Cochin's, 3 Silver Laced Wyandotte, and 3 New Hampshire Red....oh and 2 turkeys but I imagine they'll get their own page.


These chicks were so easy I decided to order 25 from McMurray.




And I had read about Chicken Math but that didn't make sense. You know most people are rational adults and surely nobody needs more than 25 chickens right!?

Of course I wasn't fully prepared for the effects of chick cuteness....careful stop reading now or you too may be infected.







Of course, it was easy to convince hubby we were gonna need a coop.






Those all grew up. Between selling off roosters and a few hens and finding out a friends dog eats chickens (he'd been loose with them all fine for 3 or 4 visits) the flock was reduced to just 7 chickens....well, that wasn't going to work out. Browsing the McMurray website and couldn't get JUST 25 I mean, 50 was a much better bargain right (told hubby we'll just SELL the extras :D )!


I'm really fortunate my own dogs, Australian Shepherds, have never had a problem with ANY of the chickens.



I just love all the colors....its like a kaleidoscope of chicks



So I thought heck, with all the info on BYC and 5 full grown hens who NEVER go broody lets try hatching!



And out of 6 eggs to start (and more to come as you can see there in the incubator!) I got these three precious little ones...my first grand chicks!



Of course just as the hatching got started...my only cochin hen decided she wanted to be a broody:



Luckily I was able to change her mind after a couple weeks but boy was she determined! Got my avatar pic of her though!



As for the next chapter. Just added a couple of silkie roos, and 8 more easter eggers including 5 hens already laying...gonna add some color to that incubator!