Herny and the Chicks.
This page is about a NON-poultry genious, entering into the world of Poultry.
I was raised in a small town, went to grandparent's Farm on the weekend, they had what seemed to be about 100 of big white chickens. Of course we ate eggs, we gathered eggs, and the dog would catch what ever chicken grandma wanted to cook for dinner. I helped( thought i was anyway) her gather eggs. she would have a brooding hen she would tell us to leave alone, had a mean ol rooster, that would chase us kids. Cows, hay, ponds, snapping turtles, and lots of family. Those were the days.
We moved when I was a kid to the city! (about 10,000 people). grew up went to college, and Married childhood sweetheart. had kids , they are grown , worked, worked, worked. Raised my kids in the city.
We moved to the new house , when my daughter was born, and the neighbors son had a rooster. it would crow every morning, and my wife would always say why does someone have a rooster in town?
I was amused by the fact this seemed to get to the city girl I had married. But it brought back memories that I had long forgotten. Roosters crowing in the morn. egg gathering, family get togethers. and grandparents who are gone now. I longed for the Good ol times!!!!
I had a chance to move 10 miles from town on a couple of acres, surrounded by cattle farm, so i moved to the country. Decide that i was gonna get me some Chickens!!!! Of course , my wife said NO WAY!!
So I proceeded to be the mindful husband that i am suppose to be! and started building my first feeble attempt at building a chicken coop. Mind you i went to every website, I could to look at designs, Ideas, ect... So me being the NON-Carpenter I am started building the chicken tractor type of coop that i could pull around the two acre massive estate that we had moved to. My wife was asking me what are you building. I would just tell her That i was building me a tool shed, (I was bringing home pallets from work tearing them apart pulling nails and saving what ever money i could). She bought that for a few days , untill i made the flip up sides for air curlation that had chicken wire on them. I sure that was a dead give away. LOL
Well I had the chicken coop done. hooked it behind the truck, pulled it around the yard. Success!!!!!!!! it stayed together, still full of tools. yeeeeeeeehaaaaaawwwwwwww, I'm ready for chickens.
I pull it around some more. and go back to unhook it from the truck, another test trial, and turn around and walk straight into the new metal roof while looking at my feet so i don't trip over the chain.
WELL my daughter was in for the weekend from college, She took me to the emergency room. I asked her for a towel and duct tape - she took me to get the 12 stitches I needed to sew me back together.I have learned three things from this .
1. build your chicken coop tall enough to walk under.
2. put a childproof protective edge on your metal roof. and
3. when you go to the emergency room , and they say "Rodney, whats is he here for this time? maybe we can keep this out of the papers!" Maybe you should take a look at some of the things you do!!! and some people should never move to far from an Emergency Room!!! LOL
Chickens at last!!!
well although i am a little discourages by the emergency room bill, My wife telling me see!!!!! you don't need any chickens. and everyone at work laughing at me wit 12 stiches in my bald head.
I am still determed to get me some chickens! I load up my wifes cat carrier, and go to the local farm type flea market, and look at the chickens. I walk through and look and look and look. YEEESSSSS!
all kinds of chickens, I suddenly Realise I don't know much about Chickens, Breeds, ect.... So i run across two older gents, who talk a good game, they have 8 chickens in 1 cage and i ask them how much? he tells me they are young chcikens, all but the BB Banty he is 1/2 grown wont get much bigger! any roosters in there? Proabibly!!! Any white egg layers (wife ain't gonna eat a brown egg) no,
but i say ! ok I'll take them. Knowing good and well i stilll gotta get me some white egg layers for the wife to accept the eggs. I go onto the next booth and ask the lady if she ha dany white egg layers and she says just those three in the house, there. (man she has gotta be a professional she has a permanant house built here For selling chicks). So i say I'll take them.
Man have i got it made!. got me a banty rooster (Named him Henry, and 10 chicks, three of them are white egg layers).
Head back to the house, got me a new coop, I even build me a screen door so the chcikens will have plenty of daylight and fresh air.
I get home, load all the rest of the tools and lumber i have left on the truck . spread the straw acroww the coop floor, and turn those babys loose in thier new home, shut the screen door and go unload the truck.
Well I am unloading the truck, happy I am home, got my chickens! and i look at the coop, and see my sons. lab carrying off one of the white chickens, I holler at her, she drops it, it tries to fly and
she nabs it in mid air. so I run over to her take my chicken and try to convince her that chickens are not for bird dogs, luckily she didn't hurt it, I return it to the coop. realizing that the dog had destroyed the screen door i had built, but at least I had my chickens. Henry and the chicks are safe at last....
Growing chickens for the first time.
Well it has been a couple of days and My wife has just found out that we have chickens. Been kind of quiet around here today, But as my grand ma used to say She will get glad in the same pant's she got mad in" lol. Chickens are doing fine. Henry still hasn't crowed! But they are all young. When do you get an egg????? time for research...
Im trying to figure what kind of chickens i have now, more research. have some black chickens, some red chickens, multicolered and those 3 white ones. discovered today Rhode Island reds, sumatra, or sexlink? Henry still hasnt crowed. BUt those 3 white ones ???? no luck. the others are growing fast butthe three white ones are not growing, and the others are starting to pick on them. I have seperated them and give them more food and water. but still no luck on breed of chicken.... I'm callin in help!!!! Dennis and Carla "My new chicken owner friends".
Diagnosis ' why arn't my white chickens growing like the others????
Well I finaly got Dennis, Carla, and the kids to come by. He walked out there looked at my white chickens and said the three magic words. that answered all of my questions.
THOSE ARE QUAIL!!!!!
Did I ever feel like a dummy!! but I guess that is why a bird dog, liked chickens, why they didnt grow like the others. and actually I asked for white egg layers, Not white egg laying chickens....
DUHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
EGS AT LAST!!!
Finally starting to get eggs, quail are gone. Henry hasn't crowed, but two roosters have emerged in the pack, BIG Red my multicoloerd legorn, and Bubba the Rhose island red . they pick on each other and tolerate each other. starting to get a few eggs , had my first omlet and one of these eggs is smaller than the others.... pullet eggs??? Like i have stated before not a poultry genious here.
What is wrong with Henry????
Henry has never tried to crow. he is a lot smaller than the others !!! suppose to be , he is a banty, I talk to him while im in the coop, i let him sit on my finger, he sits on my shoulder, he even eats from my hand. again DUHHHHHHHHHHHH! Henry is the one laying the smaller eggs Henry is Henryetta!!!!!!!!
Danged dogs!
I was working on the man cave, and looked out the door to see my dogs (Lab , and German Shepard) each had a chicken in thier posession, lab had killed one of my black chickens and the shepard had pulled a big chunk of skin off of one of my rhode island reds. Lets just say they won't bother chickens again, we had us a sunday go to meeting understanding class out there in the yard about killing chickens. shepard wont even go near a chicken now, but the lab still wants to folllow them and chase them i am really going to have to watch her. had to kill the RIR , no saving her. keeping the dogs in the kennel alot more now unless i can watch them closely.
This page is about a NON-poultry genious, entering into the world of Poultry.
I was raised in a small town, went to grandparent's Farm on the weekend, they had what seemed to be about 100 of big white chickens. Of course we ate eggs, we gathered eggs, and the dog would catch what ever chicken grandma wanted to cook for dinner. I helped( thought i was anyway) her gather eggs. she would have a brooding hen she would tell us to leave alone, had a mean ol rooster, that would chase us kids. Cows, hay, ponds, snapping turtles, and lots of family. Those were the days.
We moved when I was a kid to the city! (about 10,000 people). grew up went to college, and Married childhood sweetheart. had kids , they are grown , worked, worked, worked. Raised my kids in the city.
We moved to the new house , when my daughter was born, and the neighbors son had a rooster. it would crow every morning, and my wife would always say why does someone have a rooster in town?
I was amused by the fact this seemed to get to the city girl I had married. But it brought back memories that I had long forgotten. Roosters crowing in the morn. egg gathering, family get togethers. and grandparents who are gone now. I longed for the Good ol times!!!!
I had a chance to move 10 miles from town on a couple of acres, surrounded by cattle farm, so i moved to the country. Decide that i was gonna get me some Chickens!!!! Of course , my wife said NO WAY!!
So I proceeded to be the mindful husband that i am suppose to be! and started building my first feeble attempt at building a chicken coop. Mind you i went to every website, I could to look at designs, Ideas, ect... So me being the NON-Carpenter I am started building the chicken tractor type of coop that i could pull around the two acre massive estate that we had moved to. My wife was asking me what are you building. I would just tell her That i was building me a tool shed, (I was bringing home pallets from work tearing them apart pulling nails and saving what ever money i could). She bought that for a few days , untill i made the flip up sides for air curlation that had chicken wire on them. I sure that was a dead give away. LOL
Well I had the chicken coop done. hooked it behind the truck, pulled it around the yard. Success!!!!!!!! it stayed together, still full of tools. yeeeeeeeehaaaaaawwwwwwww, I'm ready for chickens.
I pull it around some more. and go back to unhook it from the truck, another test trial, and turn around and walk straight into the new metal roof while looking at my feet so i don't trip over the chain.
WELL my daughter was in for the weekend from college, She took me to the emergency room. I asked her for a towel and duct tape - she took me to get the 12 stitches I needed to sew me back together.I have learned three things from this .
1. build your chicken coop tall enough to walk under.
2. put a childproof protective edge on your metal roof. and
3. when you go to the emergency room , and they say "Rodney, whats is he here for this time? maybe we can keep this out of the papers!" Maybe you should take a look at some of the things you do!!! and some people should never move to far from an Emergency Room!!! LOL
Chickens at last!!!
well although i am a little discourages by the emergency room bill, My wife telling me see!!!!! you don't need any chickens. and everyone at work laughing at me wit 12 stiches in my bald head.
I am still determed to get me some chickens! I load up my wifes cat carrier, and go to the local farm type flea market, and look at the chickens. I walk through and look and look and look. YEEESSSSS!
all kinds of chickens, I suddenly Realise I don't know much about Chickens, Breeds, ect.... So i run across two older gents, who talk a good game, they have 8 chickens in 1 cage and i ask them how much? he tells me they are young chcikens, all but the BB Banty he is 1/2 grown wont get much bigger! any roosters in there? Proabibly!!! Any white egg layers (wife ain't gonna eat a brown egg) no,
but i say ! ok I'll take them. Knowing good and well i stilll gotta get me some white egg layers for the wife to accept the eggs. I go onto the next booth and ask the lady if she ha dany white egg layers and she says just those three in the house, there. (man she has gotta be a professional she has a permanant house built here For selling chicks). So i say I'll take them.
Man have i got it made!. got me a banty rooster (Named him Henry, and 10 chicks, three of them are white egg layers).
Head back to the house, got me a new coop, I even build me a screen door so the chcikens will have plenty of daylight and fresh air.
I get home, load all the rest of the tools and lumber i have left on the truck . spread the straw acroww the coop floor, and turn those babys loose in thier new home, shut the screen door and go unload the truck.
Well I am unloading the truck, happy I am home, got my chickens! and i look at the coop, and see my sons. lab carrying off one of the white chickens, I holler at her, she drops it, it tries to fly and
she nabs it in mid air. so I run over to her take my chicken and try to convince her that chickens are not for bird dogs, luckily she didn't hurt it, I return it to the coop. realizing that the dog had destroyed the screen door i had built, but at least I had my chickens. Henry and the chicks are safe at last....
Growing chickens for the first time.
Well it has been a couple of days and My wife has just found out that we have chickens. Been kind of quiet around here today, But as my grand ma used to say She will get glad in the same pant's she got mad in" lol. Chickens are doing fine. Henry still hasn't crowed! But they are all young. When do you get an egg????? time for research...
Im trying to figure what kind of chickens i have now, more research. have some black chickens, some red chickens, multicolered and those 3 white ones. discovered today Rhode Island reds, sumatra, or sexlink? Henry still hasnt crowed. BUt those 3 white ones ???? no luck. the others are growing fast butthe three white ones are not growing, and the others are starting to pick on them. I have seperated them and give them more food and water. but still no luck on breed of chicken.... I'm callin in help!!!! Dennis and Carla "My new chicken owner friends".
Diagnosis ' why arn't my white chickens growing like the others????
Well I finaly got Dennis, Carla, and the kids to come by. He walked out there looked at my white chickens and said the three magic words. that answered all of my questions.
THOSE ARE QUAIL!!!!!
Did I ever feel like a dummy!! but I guess that is why a bird dog, liked chickens, why they didnt grow like the others. and actually I asked for white egg layers, Not white egg laying chickens....
DUHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
EGS AT LAST!!!
Finally starting to get eggs, quail are gone. Henry hasn't crowed, but two roosters have emerged in the pack, BIG Red my multicoloerd legorn, and Bubba the Rhose island red . they pick on each other and tolerate each other. starting to get a few eggs , had my first omlet and one of these eggs is smaller than the others.... pullet eggs??? Like i have stated before not a poultry genious here.
What is wrong with Henry????
Henry has never tried to crow. he is a lot smaller than the others !!! suppose to be , he is a banty, I talk to him while im in the coop, i let him sit on my finger, he sits on my shoulder, he even eats from my hand. again DUHHHHHHHHHHHH! Henry is the one laying the smaller eggs Henry is Henryetta!!!!!!!!
Danged dogs!
I was working on the man cave, and looked out the door to see my dogs (Lab , and German Shepard) each had a chicken in thier posession, lab had killed one of my black chickens and the shepard had pulled a big chunk of skin off of one of my rhode island reds. Lets just say they won't bother chickens again, we had us a sunday go to meeting understanding class out there in the yard about killing chickens. shepard wont even go near a chicken now, but the lab still wants to folllow them and chase them i am really going to have to watch her. had to kill the RIR , no saving her. keeping the dogs in the kennel alot more now unless i can watch them closely.