- Sep 25, 2010
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My twelve year old son and I got our first set of chickens this April, from a woman in Bellingham. She gave them all to me for free! She lives in the city limits, and gets people dropping off chickens frequently. She gave us for free, 3 sebrights, 3 rosecombs, a polish crested ( we named Einstein), and a rhode island red bantam named Weasel! All the chickens were about 4 months old. She has been a blessing to us, and very helpful with information about raising chickens.
About a month later she had 6 rhode island red chicks about 3 weeks old. She asked us if we wanted to raise these, and if we had a brooder light. I was a bit afraid to take them, since they were so young, and knew nothing about their care. But she explained to me it was easy, and I made the trip into bellingham to pick them up. She even gave us the booder light for the 6 small chicks! We kept them inside, and my boy volunteered to keep them in his room. We quickly learned how to care for chicks, and became hooked. Now I wanted eggs, so I poured over craigslist, and found a silkie bantam rooster for free!
So after another trip into town, ( we live an hour away) we got our free silkie roo. She asked me if I wanted 2 roos, but I said I really wanted a hen for eggs while waiting for my rhode island red chicks to lay. She needed up giving us 2 of her roos for free, and I bought the silkie hen for 20.00.
The hen laid an egg the very next day, and I had to call the woman back to ask her what do I do! lol She told me to eat it of course, hehehe! Now we have seventeen chickens, and started to expand the coop. We made nesting boxes, and the little silkie hen laid a egg every other day! That went on for a few weeks, as the rhode island red grew up and left the indoor container, and out into the coop to slowly meet the rest of the gang. We decided instead of eating the silkie's eggs, lets try our hand at getting her to go broody and hatch out a few of our own chicks! We both had really enjoyed raising the 6 rhode island red chicks, and wanted to try our luck at having the silkie hen do it all.
We learned this was easier said than done, as I read this site for tips, and scoured over the web about how to get a hen to go broody!
I even asked my Ukrainian friends about this, and even though they all knew about raising chickens, they said you just have to wait for the hen to want to sit! We decided to experiment, and stopped collecting her eggs.
After she laid about 10 eggs, she finally started sitting on the clutch. But she didn't sit long, because after a few days, she wouldn't get back on her eggs. She started laying eggs again, and soon she had about 15 eggs! I was worried about the viability of these eggs, but in May the weather was cool enough still to keep them okay, I hoped. I again read this site, and asked my Ukrainian friends. They told me the eggs aren't any good now, because the hen sat on them for a few days, then abandoned the next, and to through them all away!
I didn't have an incubator to try to save the eggs, and didn't know how to candle the eggs yet. I didn't want to just throw them away either, so I waited to see what the hen would do. After another week, she started sitting on her nest again, and stayed there until they hatched on June 30th! So now we have purebred silkie bantams chicks in our small flock of 27! 10 out of 15 eggs all hatched, we were thrilled at our beginners luck, and my friends out here in the country said, "you must be Russian, you farmer now" lol
Here is one of her chicks at almost 3 months
you can see all our the rest of our chickens, sheep and other pets here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=553&id=100000161408590&l=f98ce0a5dc
Last month the 3 rosecombs, 2 sebrights went broody. So far they hatched out 17 chicks! Now we have a nice flock! I will keep some, and sell the rest. Still waiting for the rhode island reds to hatch some eggs. They are laying nice big brown eggs, but not going broody yet. We tried to put several rhode island red eggs under the rosecombs and sebrights, but turned out not to be fertilized after candling them. I like to keep all the first set of chickens we got for free, and the silkie roosters, and hen with a few of her pullets. After I sell or give away the new chicks, I will concentrate on the rhode island reds, because I like the size of the eggs, and then start with a few good meat chickens. Our goal is to have eggs, and meat, but keep a few of the show chickens because we really love them!
They are so pretty, and fun to watch, but eggs are to small, and to small to eat. If your reading this, can you suggest a few good meat and egg chicken, that won't be aggressive towards my rosecombs, sebrights, silkies, Einstein and Weasel?
Thanks for reading our story about How we got started & hooked on Chickens
About a month later she had 6 rhode island red chicks about 3 weeks old. She asked us if we wanted to raise these, and if we had a brooder light. I was a bit afraid to take them, since they were so young, and knew nothing about their care. But she explained to me it was easy, and I made the trip into bellingham to pick them up. She even gave us the booder light for the 6 small chicks! We kept them inside, and my boy volunteered to keep them in his room. We quickly learned how to care for chicks, and became hooked. Now I wanted eggs, so I poured over craigslist, and found a silkie bantam rooster for free!
So after another trip into town, ( we live an hour away) we got our free silkie roo. She asked me if I wanted 2 roos, but I said I really wanted a hen for eggs while waiting for my rhode island red chicks to lay. She needed up giving us 2 of her roos for free, and I bought the silkie hen for 20.00.
The hen laid an egg the very next day, and I had to call the woman back to ask her what do I do! lol She told me to eat it of course, hehehe! Now we have seventeen chickens, and started to expand the coop. We made nesting boxes, and the little silkie hen laid a egg every other day! That went on for a few weeks, as the rhode island red grew up and left the indoor container, and out into the coop to slowly meet the rest of the gang. We decided instead of eating the silkie's eggs, lets try our hand at getting her to go broody and hatch out a few of our own chicks! We both had really enjoyed raising the 6 rhode island red chicks, and wanted to try our luck at having the silkie hen do it all.
We learned this was easier said than done, as I read this site for tips, and scoured over the web about how to get a hen to go broody!
I even asked my Ukrainian friends about this, and even though they all knew about raising chickens, they said you just have to wait for the hen to want to sit! We decided to experiment, and stopped collecting her eggs.
After she laid about 10 eggs, she finally started sitting on the clutch. But she didn't sit long, because after a few days, she wouldn't get back on her eggs. She started laying eggs again, and soon she had about 15 eggs! I was worried about the viability of these eggs, but in May the weather was cool enough still to keep them okay, I hoped. I again read this site, and asked my Ukrainian friends. They told me the eggs aren't any good now, because the hen sat on them for a few days, then abandoned the next, and to through them all away!
I didn't have an incubator to try to save the eggs, and didn't know how to candle the eggs yet. I didn't want to just throw them away either, so I waited to see what the hen would do. After another week, she started sitting on her nest again, and stayed there until they hatched on June 30th! So now we have purebred silkie bantams chicks in our small flock of 27! 10 out of 15 eggs all hatched, we were thrilled at our beginners luck, and my friends out here in the country said, "you must be Russian, you farmer now" lol
Here is one of her chicks at almost 3 months
you can see all our the rest of our chickens, sheep and other pets here
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=553&id=100000161408590&l=f98ce0a5dc
Last month the 3 rosecombs, 2 sebrights went broody. So far they hatched out 17 chicks! Now we have a nice flock! I will keep some, and sell the rest. Still waiting for the rhode island reds to hatch some eggs. They are laying nice big brown eggs, but not going broody yet. We tried to put several rhode island red eggs under the rosecombs and sebrights, but turned out not to be fertilized after candling them. I like to keep all the first set of chickens we got for free, and the silkie roosters, and hen with a few of her pullets. After I sell or give away the new chicks, I will concentrate on the rhode island reds, because I like the size of the eggs, and then start with a few good meat chickens. Our goal is to have eggs, and meat, but keep a few of the show chickens because we really love them!
They are so pretty, and fun to watch, but eggs are to small, and to small to eat. If your reading this, can you suggest a few good meat and egg chicken, that won't be aggressive towards my rosecombs, sebrights, silkies, Einstein and Weasel?
Thanks for reading our story about How we got started & hooked on Chickens
