I started out with my daughter and her boyfriend wanting to raise chickens, BUT, they were not allowed to have chickens were they live. SOOO, it was Dad can we put a coop in the back yard and raise a FEW (17) chickens for egg. "We'll take care of them, we'll come up every day and feed them". I SHOULD HAVE KNOW BETTER!!! The next thing I know it's "Dad could you feed the chickens today." "Today" changed into very day, or almost every day. That was March of 2014.
Now Dad feeds his girls (and boy) every day and loves it. I get upset if someone else tries to take care of them. I really fell in love with the two Bantams we have. They are my grand daughters, yea right. They are Old English Game Hens one black and the other wheaten. A friend of your is a Pre-K teacher and every year she hatches eggs in a incubator in her classroom. So I asked her to use our eggs this year. Well, I gave her 6 of our eggs and I bought 8 bantam eggs and 9 Americans eggs. Thinking we would maybe get 10 chicks. WELL, my daughter thought isn't the kool. Lets hatch some eggs at our house (when I say "our house" I mean my house). So, she bought 18 eggs from a farmer and we but 4 our our egg in the incubator..........
According to my math (thinking not all the eggs would hatch) we should have the most of 30 chicks. But, according the chicken math we actually have 43.
Then my wheaten went broody again (fourth time) and soft heart Papa let her have 2 eggs. I did know the other chickens would help her out and add more eggs. So, she had 4 eggs to hatch. I figured out to mark them so I didn't end up with more.
Now we have 46 new chicks and 2 bantams, 14 hens, and one rooster.
I'm building a new coop. AND I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!!