I never gave much thought to raising chickens until a friend of ours had to leave for 9 months and asked us to find homes for her chickens. We, when I say we I mean I, decided to take the bantams and our neighbor would take the ones he wanted and our friend Jonathan and his family would have the remainder.Thankfully my husband always has my back and help me build a coop for the new chickens. It ended up being at least twice the size we had originally planned. We included a pretty good size run since we have three dogs that are vey excited about the chickens as well. So the coop is built the chikens will be safe I go to get my chickens and they are in my neighbor's coop. Hummm, what is going on?
Now, I'm not sure exactly how this happened but our neighbor ended up with most of the bantams we were supposed to have and we ended up with an interesting mix matched group which I love dearly. So now I have 2 silkie bantams, 1 rooster (Rico), 1 hen (Gizmo); 1 black bantam (Moppet); 3 gray hens, 1 gray rooster that all match, I call this group "the grays" they have their own little click and I have no idea what breed they are, and then there is Red she may be a Rhode Island Red but I have no idea. She is the biggest chicken (including roosters) in the coop and she is a complete outcast from the rest of the group. We thought at first she was a bantam but come to find out she was a young hen when we adopted her. She has quite an attitude and makes me laugh everytime I go out to the coop.
We have had them since March and they kept us and all my friends at work with plenty of eggs. Six eggs a day is a lot of eggs for two people. My husband decided we should stop collecting eggs and let them sit on some, this week Gizmo and Moppet hatched 4 new babies, they teamed up to hatch the chicks. They are super cute but good luck getting near them. I found a chick outside the run of course I picked it up to return it to the "moms" and was attacked, lol. It was so funny. My mom who lives 2000 miles away wanted me to send her some pictures, sounds simple, no it's not, those little chicks move too quickly and the "moms" won't let me even close to them, I did get one good shot, all of the rest were blurry.
Today I was out feeding the chickens with Tripp my yellow lab who likes to run up to the fence toward the chickens to get the typical chicken reaction. I swear he's laughing everytime. Well somehow he slipped by me as I entered the coop. He playfully pounced towards Moppet and Gizmo, the new moms who completely ignored him, then just strolled around like he belonged in there. All the chickens just quickly got out of his way but neither the chickens nor Tripp seems too concerned. I was quite surprised he didn't even try to grab one. I think I was more nervous about the encounter than the animals. Luckily I've been around animals enough to know that it's always best to remain calm.
I can't believe how these chickens have enriched my life. I have many more stories about these crazy birds that just happened into my life and I'm sure I will have many more through the years. Needless to say they have become part of my family and I will never regret adopting them.
Now, I'm not sure exactly how this happened but our neighbor ended up with most of the bantams we were supposed to have and we ended up with an interesting mix matched group which I love dearly. So now I have 2 silkie bantams, 1 rooster (Rico), 1 hen (Gizmo); 1 black bantam (Moppet); 3 gray hens, 1 gray rooster that all match, I call this group "the grays" they have their own little click and I have no idea what breed they are, and then there is Red she may be a Rhode Island Red but I have no idea. She is the biggest chicken (including roosters) in the coop and she is a complete outcast from the rest of the group. We thought at first she was a bantam but come to find out she was a young hen when we adopted her. She has quite an attitude and makes me laugh everytime I go out to the coop.
We have had them since March and they kept us and all my friends at work with plenty of eggs. Six eggs a day is a lot of eggs for two people. My husband decided we should stop collecting eggs and let them sit on some, this week Gizmo and Moppet hatched 4 new babies, they teamed up to hatch the chicks. They are super cute but good luck getting near them. I found a chick outside the run of course I picked it up to return it to the "moms" and was attacked, lol. It was so funny. My mom who lives 2000 miles away wanted me to send her some pictures, sounds simple, no it's not, those little chicks move too quickly and the "moms" won't let me even close to them, I did get one good shot, all of the rest were blurry.
Today I was out feeding the chickens with Tripp my yellow lab who likes to run up to the fence toward the chickens to get the typical chicken reaction. I swear he's laughing everytime. Well somehow he slipped by me as I entered the coop. He playfully pounced towards Moppet and Gizmo, the new moms who completely ignored him, then just strolled around like he belonged in there. All the chickens just quickly got out of his way but neither the chickens nor Tripp seems too concerned. I was quite surprised he didn't even try to grab one. I think I was more nervous about the encounter than the animals. Luckily I've been around animals enough to know that it's always best to remain calm.
I can't believe how these chickens have enriched my life. I have many more stories about these crazy birds that just happened into my life and I'm sure I will have many more through the years. Needless to say they have become part of my family and I will never regret adopting them.