A friend stopped by and complimented me on my chickens *PICS ;)

[MichiganWoods]

Just had to share this little story.

I have a friend whom I met through the parent club at my DD's school. A few weeks ago she said she had a huge roll of new fencing that they wanted to get rid of and asked if I was interested. Of course I was.

Even though she offered it for free, I've been giving her free eggs as sort of a payment. She loves our eggs, and said she was pleasantly surprised when she first opened the carton and saw all of the colors we have.

Anyway. She finally was able to drop off the fencing last Sunday and I walked her over to our run so she could see our chickens. I handed her the can of oatmeal and let her toss some in. She said she could not get over how beautiful our birds were. She said she's seen a lot of chickens (there are a lot in our area), but they always look so raggedy. And then she kept repeating "bee-eautiful". I was proud of my birdies.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Cass, it's obvious you take care of your birds and that they are happy. They do deserve compliments!

 

[fernandez0067]

whats your secret?? mine are looking quite raggedy these days... im embarrased to show them to people

 

[MichiganWoods]

Thank you, Buff Hooligans!

fernandez0067, I think the key has been having ample space for the birds, cleaning out their coop once a week and keeping my hen/rooster ratio in check. We've got 1 rooster and 13 hens in an 8x12 coop. I could fit 25 total in there and did have more, but removed the extra roosters a few months ago and have been slow to boost the numbers back up. I will probably keep no more than 18 in there at a time. I also make sure to let them out into their run every day so they don't get bored and pick at each other inside the coop. Other than that, I don't think we do anything special. We feed them regular layer pellets and treat them to oatmeal and fresh greens from the yard. And of course we give them fresh water every day.

 

[b.hromada]

Doesn't that make you feel great? I'm sure its all the hard work and love put into raising your girls, and it shows! I'm happy for you!

 

[skeeter9]

That's wonderful, Cass, but I can't believe you didn't post pics on this thread!!!! Shame on you!! If you're gonna brag on your birds, you are obligated to post pics. It's in the rules!!!

 

[MichiganWoods]

Thank you, b.hromada!


Pardon me, skeeter!

Here you go! Except none of them would really look at my camera since they'd gotten an expansion on their run today. They were far too busy rooting around in the dirt for morsels. -- I love Blondie's tail feathers. So pretty.

And while supervised, my youngest DD is helping the chickens find some greens.

 

[sparkles2307]

Fabulous birds! you SHOULD be proud of them!

 

[lockedhearts]

Very Pretty Birds! You should be proud!

 

[speckledhen]

Healthy, well-cared for chickens are beautiful! Wish everyone could see a flock like yours, then they'd change their opinion of chickens.