We have had chickens on and off over the years, but none in the last few years. This Christmas a friend gave my husband 5 hens and a rooster. That got the old love of chickens going. I have ordered 25 day old chicks and we are anxious for them to arrive. My big plan is to have several varieties of chickens.
My retired husband is the biggest caretaker for his birds. He is the coop builder and tries to comply with whatever I come up with.
Well that was in February, now it is May and we have lost 1 laying hen to a fox or bobcat. Our ordered chicks are almost grown and we have 25 of them, received 27 and lost 1 the day after delivery. Lost the other one to a predator (snake tried to swallow her and didn't make it). We hatched out 20 of 30 eggs a friend brought to us. Lost one of those, don't know why. One hen went broody and sat on 10 eggs, She has 7 new babies ( May 29). Same day I put more eggs in the bator.
We now have 4 pens with coops. Every day each pen gets a visit outside in portable fenced areas.
I am trying out the pennies in bag idea for flies. With our recent rains came the flies.
Trying to keep everything passably clean, it is amazing how fast the smell showed up.
Pennies work! Ya'll that is a neat cheap trick.
July- I have joined the golden feathers!
We have started letting the chickens free range during the day and so far the eggs are showing up in the nest boxes. In the past we have had to have Easter egg hunts to find where they are hiding the eggs. One problem is that they like to stay out later than I want them to and it is getting a little harder to get them to go back into the pens.
I did a bad thing last evening. I left the lid off the feed bin and it stormed last night. I had a big mess this morning. At least all the feed had not been put in there yet, but I will be getting more laying mash and scratch. By the way, my hens do not like the mash from purina. gotta get to TSC.
Feb 2010 - When I read about the fellow who mixed his feed and had more eggs and really healthy chickens, I told my hubby about it and he thought he could do something like that. He mixes 1 part grower finisher, 1 part scratch and 1/4 to 1/2 part laying mash. We went from under a dozen eggs to 2 dozen eggs and that is in the middle of the winter that won't go away. This is Florida and we need sunshine, warm sunshine!
My retired husband is the biggest caretaker for his birds. He is the coop builder and tries to comply with whatever I come up with.
Well that was in February, now it is May and we have lost 1 laying hen to a fox or bobcat. Our ordered chicks are almost grown and we have 25 of them, received 27 and lost 1 the day after delivery. Lost the other one to a predator (snake tried to swallow her and didn't make it). We hatched out 20 of 30 eggs a friend brought to us. Lost one of those, don't know why. One hen went broody and sat on 10 eggs, She has 7 new babies ( May 29). Same day I put more eggs in the bator.
We now have 4 pens with coops. Every day each pen gets a visit outside in portable fenced areas.
I am trying out the pennies in bag idea for flies. With our recent rains came the flies.
Pennies work! Ya'll that is a neat cheap trick.
July- I have joined the golden feathers!
We have started letting the chickens free range during the day and so far the eggs are showing up in the nest boxes. In the past we have had to have Easter egg hunts to find where they are hiding the eggs. One problem is that they like to stay out later than I want them to and it is getting a little harder to get them to go back into the pens.
I did a bad thing last evening. I left the lid off the feed bin and it stormed last night. I had a big mess this morning. At least all the feed had not been put in there yet, but I will be getting more laying mash and scratch. By the way, my hens do not like the mash from purina. gotta get to TSC.
Feb 2010 - When I read about the fellow who mixed his feed and had more eggs and really healthy chickens, I told my hubby about it and he thought he could do something like that. He mixes 1 part grower finisher, 1 part scratch and 1/4 to 1/2 part laying mash. We went from under a dozen eggs to 2 dozen eggs and that is in the middle of the winter that won't go away. This is Florida and we need sunshine, warm sunshine!
