- Jul 11, 2013
- 27
- 2
- 79
I have always grown up/lived in the country and had an appreciation for the country/farm life. Now married to a farmer I appreciate it so much more and have evolved into wanting to raise my own food so I know my children are eating healthy! We raise our own steers for beef, buy from a local farmer for our pork & chicken, & my grandparents have a huge garden for the family to can/freeze many fruits and vegetables from!! I've always wondered about chickens because I would animal sit for my uncle once in a while when they went on vacation and always had fun sitting in the coop/run with his chickens and collecting the eggs in the morning. I have a wonderful friend who has a calling in life to raise and rescue abused animals on her mini-farm that introduced me to the idea of me actually raising my own hens so we could have fresh eggs in our house! We go through about 2 dozen a week and that's scaled back because the price of eggs shot up over the past year in our area. So this winter and spring I researched and took notes and read wonderful websites like BYC about how to raise and care for chicks, what supplies I would need, how to build a coop...!!! I'm a list person and have to study things so I can weigh the pros and cons of a decision so I carefully selected my breeds based on egg production and temperament. I have an 8 & 2 year old and the 2 year old is a huge animal lover to the point she wants to squeeze them to death so the hens had to be friendly and resilient to a toddler! So I now have 14 sweet as pie 5 week old babies I purchased as new hatches from my local hatchery - 2 Barred Rocks, 2 Golden Buffs, 3 Easter Eggers, 3 White Leghorns, and 4 mystery chicks I picked up because the hatchery was having a $1 chick sale, what I think are a Buff Orpington, Partridge Silkie, Black Jersey Giant and the last we have no clue because her feathers haven't come in yet. I thought I'd find it fun to share this experience with my family but I am finding I am a closet chicken obsessed lover!!! So my question to you is how did you get introduced to the love of your chickens?? I may not be as secretive as I thought about my obsession since my husband is building my coop to house 30, I think he is well aware more will come our way each spring!!!
Here are my girls at almost 5 weeks old!
This picture is at almost 3 weeks old
Here are my girls at almost 5 weeks old!
This picture is at almost 3 weeks old
