Hi, We are under construction
My name is Ann. My husband and I bought a small farm field, about 14 acres, a few years back with the plan of selling our small town home and building our own little farm. In the meantime we started collecting animals for our enjoyment. First we got our horses. They are young (currently 2 three and 1 two years old, but we got them as yearling or less) and we are learning to train them ourselves. At the time we didn't have the farm, so we had to board the first two. Once we purchased our property I informed my husband we were getting chickens. He said not until we have a house. Well we currently had a house just not on the farm, soooo the next Saturday I woke him up and said let's go get our chickens. Grudging he drove. I was a smiles. I grew up raising chickens. Meat birds not egg layers, so I had much to learn but learn I did. We brought home 10 very pretty barn yard blend. 6 hens and 4 roos. I got my first egg later that day. I kept them in my greenhouse as it was the middle of Jan and I wanted to contain them at first. Every after they all began to lay we got 2 green, 2 pink, 1 blue, and 1 brown egg. We named our first girls Amanda, Pricilla, Drucilla, Big Bertha, Ezmeralda, and Henny Penny. We kept the mildest roo and Named him Rudy the roo. My son fell in love! Well spring rolled around and my husband built a small coop for our girls. Then we got the 40 RIR chicks I had ordered from McMurray Hatchery. They also slipped in a little Lackenvelder roo we soon named Smokey. I promised my son he could keep the hens and Smokey for eggs and pets. Little did he know I ordered mostly boys. Alex was so thrilled when he ended up with 8 little ladies. He named them Helen the felon, Rosie the red with the flopsy head, Bobbie the bossy, Bernice who catches mice, Miss Julie, and Isabella you looks like a fella. Issy almost went to the freezer as I really did think she was a roo. She laid an egg and saved herself. Rosie is by far my sons favorite girl. He takes her for bike, 4 wheeler, or swing rides. She just goes with the flow. Alex would sleep with her if I would let him. Well my husband was less than thrilled about the new girls and wanted me to stew the old girls to make room. No way they are great layers and Ezzy is an awesome broody, so Alex and I tore apart tile crates and pallets to build a cute little coop for his girls. At first my husband would make comments on how I was doing everything wrong, but soon he realized I know a bit about building. Now he shows the coop off with pride. Soon we were getting 8 extra brown eggs a day and found ourselves with an over abundance, so we started selling them but the egg demand soon out paced the girls. I found some girls on CL that I made a deal to purchase certain birds from a guy. I sent my husband to get them and he sent me all different birds. We were supposed to get 3 black stars and 2 Copper Marans. He sent my husband home with 1 Speckled Sussex (Poke it Dot), 1 Black Star (Star), 1 White Rock (Snow Ball), 1 Delaware (Snert), and a mutt (Sydney). Star is the only good layer of the bunch and Sydney has never laid an egg. They were all older than the 6 months the guy had claimed, but my son wanted to keep them rather than eat them and so we did. Still the egg demand was getting to the point that we had no eggs for ourselves, so I put the word out that we were looking for "real" pullets and we were given 36 3 1/2 month old Red Stars and Wyadotts. We lost one while the man sat and yelled at me about his wife. I took them home and set them up in my green house til my husband got them a coop built. When those girls started to lay we thought we were going to be swimming in eggs.
My name is Ann. My husband and I bought a small farm field, about 14 acres, a few years back with the plan of selling our small town home and building our own little farm. In the meantime we started collecting animals for our enjoyment. First we got our horses. They are young (currently 2 three and 1 two years old, but we got them as yearling or less) and we are learning to train them ourselves. At the time we didn't have the farm, so we had to board the first two. Once we purchased our property I informed my husband we were getting chickens. He said not until we have a house. Well we currently had a house just not on the farm, soooo the next Saturday I woke him up and said let's go get our chickens. Grudging he drove. I was a smiles. I grew up raising chickens. Meat birds not egg layers, so I had much to learn but learn I did. We brought home 10 very pretty barn yard blend. 6 hens and 4 roos. I got my first egg later that day. I kept them in my greenhouse as it was the middle of Jan and I wanted to contain them at first. Every after they all began to lay we got 2 green, 2 pink, 1 blue, and 1 brown egg. We named our first girls Amanda, Pricilla, Drucilla, Big Bertha, Ezmeralda, and Henny Penny. We kept the mildest roo and Named him Rudy the roo. My son fell in love! Well spring rolled around and my husband built a small coop for our girls. Then we got the 40 RIR chicks I had ordered from McMurray Hatchery. They also slipped in a little Lackenvelder roo we soon named Smokey. I promised my son he could keep the hens and Smokey for eggs and pets. Little did he know I ordered mostly boys. Alex was so thrilled when he ended up with 8 little ladies. He named them Helen the felon, Rosie the red with the flopsy head, Bobbie the bossy, Bernice who catches mice, Miss Julie, and Isabella you looks like a fella. Issy almost went to the freezer as I really did think she was a roo. She laid an egg and saved herself. Rosie is by far my sons favorite girl. He takes her for bike, 4 wheeler, or swing rides. She just goes with the flow. Alex would sleep with her if I would let him. Well my husband was less than thrilled about the new girls and wanted me to stew the old girls to make room. No way they are great layers and Ezzy is an awesome broody, so Alex and I tore apart tile crates and pallets to build a cute little coop for his girls. At first my husband would make comments on how I was doing everything wrong, but soon he realized I know a bit about building. Now he shows the coop off with pride. Soon we were getting 8 extra brown eggs a day and found ourselves with an over abundance, so we started selling them but the egg demand soon out paced the girls. I found some girls on CL that I made a deal to purchase certain birds from a guy. I sent my husband to get them and he sent me all different birds. We were supposed to get 3 black stars and 2 Copper Marans. He sent my husband home with 1 Speckled Sussex (Poke it Dot), 1 Black Star (Star), 1 White Rock (Snow Ball), 1 Delaware (Snert), and a mutt (Sydney). Star is the only good layer of the bunch and Sydney has never laid an egg. They were all older than the 6 months the guy had claimed, but my son wanted to keep them rather than eat them and so we did. Still the egg demand was getting to the point that we had no eggs for ourselves, so I put the word out that we were looking for "real" pullets and we were given 36 3 1/2 month old Red Stars and Wyadotts. We lost one while the man sat and yelled at me about his wife. I took them home and set them up in my green house til my husband got them a coop built. When those girls started to lay we thought we were going to be swimming in eggs.