Hey Y'all,
My name is Brian, I'm a 34 year old truck driver from South Arkansas. Due to high fuel prices last year and scary economy we decided this spring to plant our first garden and raise chickens for eggs and possibly meat. I love and named my first chicks so they will not be food. I've also hunted and fished all my life to provide food. I rescue dogs when I can and also foster them till I find them good homes. I've even had 7 of them transported to Rhode Island to loving homes. I have two I'm keeping to watch over the birds. I picked up 48 at Tractor Supply in March not knowing what I was doing. We raised them in the house for the first month in Extra Large Rubber-made containers. It worked out perfectly. Then at about 4 weeks they were moved outside into an old 8x16 portable building that I bought for $100. What a steal. It has windows and everything. I'm about to add nest boxes all around. Inside I set up a series of ramps and roosts that they love. I change it up sometimes and watch them try to figure of the new maze. They love to explore. I started letting them outside at about 8 weeks old and they love it. Luckily I didn't have any missing due to hawks and predators. But I decided to get the guard dogs just to be safe. Out of the 48 chicks I lost about 10 due to sickness and 2 drowned in the waterers. Out of the 40 or so left most were NHR's and most of those were Roosters. And they grew twice as fast as the other birds. I read up on New Hampshire Reds and saw they they are a great dual purpose bird and also a broody breed. This was all great since I plan on hatching my own chicks in the future. So instead of getting rid of or eating the extra roosters I ordered 50 pullets and 51 arrived. They are 4 weeks old and have just been moved from their brooder (a large kiddie pool this time) to their outside safe house. None of these have been lost. Knock on wood. Some of the older birds are circling the pen trying to get inside with them. I'm hoping within the next month they'll get used to them and joining them together will go smoothly. I'm up for any suggestions an advice on this subject. I will also be making the building alot larger to support all of the birds. Some I will be selling to thin them out. My Little Brother lives with me and he takes care of the birds and dogs when I'm not there for his rent. He's done a great job. He even built the pen for the young birds. That's about all for now. We live on a small family farm hidden back in the woods with only family as neighbors with a pine tree buffer to keep all the crowing from bothering anyone, not that anyone would complain. We don't complain about their cows having a fit when the mothers are sepparated from their calves. Or when it's feeding time at the pig farm. Then one neighbor put in 5 or 6 chicken houses for Pilgrems Pride. Luckily he's far enough away that we don't get to enjoy that smell. I'm probably going to buy a pig from the other neighbor when they're eating size. I may raise my own next year. But I saw the price of pig feed one day at the feed store. So I may just keep getting them from him. He only feeds them corn for the last weeks to kind of flush them out from the way he described it. Anyway I'm loving my birds. I even go to the bait shop and buy them crickets. If you want pet chickens do this once a week. They come running now. They eat out of your hand. I even have a few that will climb up on my knee while I'm setting in a lawn chair. They like the worms too. But not as much as the crickets.
My name is Brian, I'm a 34 year old truck driver from South Arkansas. Due to high fuel prices last year and scary economy we decided this spring to plant our first garden and raise chickens for eggs and possibly meat. I love and named my first chicks so they will not be food. I've also hunted and fished all my life to provide food. I rescue dogs when I can and also foster them till I find them good homes. I've even had 7 of them transported to Rhode Island to loving homes. I have two I'm keeping to watch over the birds. I picked up 48 at Tractor Supply in March not knowing what I was doing. We raised them in the house for the first month in Extra Large Rubber-made containers. It worked out perfectly. Then at about 4 weeks they were moved outside into an old 8x16 portable building that I bought for $100. What a steal. It has windows and everything. I'm about to add nest boxes all around. Inside I set up a series of ramps and roosts that they love. I change it up sometimes and watch them try to figure of the new maze. They love to explore. I started letting them outside at about 8 weeks old and they love it. Luckily I didn't have any missing due to hawks and predators. But I decided to get the guard dogs just to be safe. Out of the 48 chicks I lost about 10 due to sickness and 2 drowned in the waterers. Out of the 40 or so left most were NHR's and most of those were Roosters. And they grew twice as fast as the other birds. I read up on New Hampshire Reds and saw they they are a great dual purpose bird and also a broody breed. This was all great since I plan on hatching my own chicks in the future. So instead of getting rid of or eating the extra roosters I ordered 50 pullets and 51 arrived. They are 4 weeks old and have just been moved from their brooder (a large kiddie pool this time) to their outside safe house. None of these have been lost. Knock on wood. Some of the older birds are circling the pen trying to get inside with them. I'm hoping within the next month they'll get used to them and joining them together will go smoothly. I'm up for any suggestions an advice on this subject. I will also be making the building alot larger to support all of the birds. Some I will be selling to thin them out. My Little Brother lives with me and he takes care of the birds and dogs when I'm not there for his rent. He's done a great job. He even built the pen for the young birds. That's about all for now. We live on a small family farm hidden back in the woods with only family as neighbors with a pine tree buffer to keep all the crowing from bothering anyone, not that anyone would complain. We don't complain about their cows having a fit when the mothers are sepparated from their calves. Or when it's feeding time at the pig farm. Then one neighbor put in 5 or 6 chicken houses for Pilgrems Pride. Luckily he's far enough away that we don't get to enjoy that smell. I'm probably going to buy a pig from the other neighbor when they're eating size. I may raise my own next year. But I saw the price of pig feed one day at the feed store. So I may just keep getting them from him. He only feeds them corn for the last weeks to kind of flush them out from the way he described it. Anyway I'm loving my birds. I even go to the bait shop and buy them crickets. If you want pet chickens do this once a week. They come running now. They eat out of your hand. I even have a few that will climb up on my knee while I'm setting in a lawn chair. They like the worms too. But not as much as the crickets.
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