My fiance and I moved in to this rental in April. When we came to look at the property, one of the first things we noticed was a mother hen and eight little chicks. We immediately fell in love. Once we moved in, we started to notice several other chickens roaming the yard. We were delighted and started feeding them whenever they came around. To date we have ten hens, one rooster and six chicks that we are looking after.
A little while after we moved in we started noticing that some of the babies were coming up missing. By the second week here, the mother hen "Henrietta" had lost all but one of her chicks. One day, while we were outside working on my brakes, we had the unfortunate experience of witnessing the last baby get taken off by a chicken hawk. We were so very upset and for days we watched Henrietta walk around the yard, lost without her little ones. It broke our hearts. Henrietta has since hatched a new brood and we have been doing our best to help keep them safe but there's only so much that we've been able to do and she's already lost three of the eight she had. Two of them disappeared overnight and one of them died yesterday from unknown causes.
I have no experience with chickens but I have a deep love for all animals so I decided to try to build them something to help keep them safe. So, I woke up this morning and began searching for materials around the house that I could use to build a make-shift coop. It's not much but I think they'll like it. I built it under the protection of our back porch where they like to come and rest during the hot days. I'd like to build them a run but I'm pretty sure they've been free for so long that putting limits on their mobility would lead to their unhappiness.
I've had so much fun getting to know my chicken neighbors and am looking forward to continuing the relationships
Here are some photos of our feathered friends. I hope you enjoy them, I sure do!
"Barbara" is the black one and "Henrietta" is the white one.
"Henry" the rooster that came from nowhere.
"Pearl"
One of the five black sisters.
One of the "red twins".
Henrietta and her first babies. R.I.P little ones.
And here she is with her new babies!
And here's the little "coop" I made today
A little while after we moved in we started noticing that some of the babies were coming up missing. By the second week here, the mother hen "Henrietta" had lost all but one of her chicks. One day, while we were outside working on my brakes, we had the unfortunate experience of witnessing the last baby get taken off by a chicken hawk. We were so very upset and for days we watched Henrietta walk around the yard, lost without her little ones. It broke our hearts. Henrietta has since hatched a new brood and we have been doing our best to help keep them safe but there's only so much that we've been able to do and she's already lost three of the eight she had. Two of them disappeared overnight and one of them died yesterday from unknown causes.
I have no experience with chickens but I have a deep love for all animals so I decided to try to build them something to help keep them safe. So, I woke up this morning and began searching for materials around the house that I could use to build a make-shift coop. It's not much but I think they'll like it. I built it under the protection of our back porch where they like to come and rest during the hot days. I'd like to build them a run but I'm pretty sure they've been free for so long that putting limits on their mobility would lead to their unhappiness.
I've had so much fun getting to know my chicken neighbors and am looking forward to continuing the relationships
Here are some photos of our feathered friends. I hope you enjoy them, I sure do!
"Barbara" is the black one and "Henrietta" is the white one.
"Henry" the rooster that came from nowhere.
"Pearl"
One of the five black sisters.
One of the "red twins".
Henrietta and her first babies. R.I.P little ones.
And here she is with her new babies!
And here's the little "coop" I made today