How I Found and Created My Chicken Flock and Coop.

Me and my aid/special needs assistant started our chicken flock 3 weeks before building and buying the chicken coop and run. We went to tractor supply after eating lunch and looked at the list of live baby chicken chicks in large grey tubs with heaters and feeders and waterers. We each picked out our own chicken chicks. We had to only buy pullets because my aid is not aloud to have cockerels in her medium sized backyard because her neighbors are very close by and don’t want to hear male chickens crowing all the time. We also wanted female chickens because they lay eggs and are much more quieter than males are. There was a limited variety of chickens at tractor supply and most of them in the big grey tubs were straight runs. Only a few were pullets. I picked out my first two bigger and older chicks. A female light Brahma and a female Cuckoo Maran. Then my aid picked out four smaller chicks, some Rhode Island Reds. We paid for them and took them back to her house and put them all together in the basement with a feeder and waterer. They were in the basement for a few weeks growing stronger every day. Then my mom literally spent 586 dollars on a chicken coop and run for my aid’s backyard. When I first bought my two chickens, I named the light Brahma Cindy Lou and I named my Cuckoo Maran Coco Beans. They finally got to be released into the chicken coop and run later on and the next day they were so happy to be out in the run.

Well, after Fidget was there at my aid’s house for a week, she/he died right after we went to Ruel King to buy smaller four more chicken chicks. We bought two female Salmon Faverolles chicks and another female Cuckoo Maran chick and a female Asian Sex Link chick. They stayed in the basement with a warm heater, a feeder and waterer in a grey tub for less than a week, then they too were introduced to the chicken coop and run. But they are still so small that Cindy always chases them in the run and hurts them and pecks at them to try and establish a pecking order. Cindy is the oldest and the biggest out of all the other chickens so she’s obviously trying to be the boss. She mounts the Rhode Island Reds occasionally from time to time to tell them whose the boss. Even the older chicks are still chirping but they are starting to cluck here shortly. By the older chicks I mean, Cindy the Brahma, Coco the Cuckoo Maran and the four Rhode Island Reds.

We are still looking everywhere for a female white silkie chick too. Almost every day or every other day, I go over to my aid’s house to spend time with the chickens in the chicken run. I literally sit in the run with the chickens for a few hours with them. I do this because I am trying to get these chickens to not be afraid of people and I’m trying to get them to be very friendly which is why I always put chicken feed in my hands and hand feed them. They recently have all been coming up to me and my aid more frequently when we walk by or near the run. This Easter Sunday of 2019, I went over to visit them and they have gotten so friendly that all the Rhode Island Reds and Cindy have been sitting on my lap now and letting me pet them. On that day, Cindy literally trusts me so much that she flew up and sat on my head a few times but I got her off because I didn’t want her pooping on my head. I also raised up my left arm and a Rhode Island Red and Cindy flew up and roosted on my arm for a few minutes. They are becoming friendlier as the days pass on. In total right now, my aid and I have only ten chickens in the chicken coop and run. Here are some pictures of my time with my flock.