Steph n Kel
In the Brooder
Hello BYC!
My husband and I have been lurking for almost 7 weeks now, which not coincidentally, is how long we have had chickens.
The story starts with my husband's desire to have "a couple of chickens" at our new home - this desire quickly morphed into "4 or 5 hens and a couple of ducks" but that is not really pertinent.. After settling in after the move, and refurbishing an eyesore of a shed into an appropriate coop and run, he advised that his brother wanted to rehome a few of his laying hens as they were no longer as productive as they had been in the past. We only want eggs for personal consumption, so this seemed reasonable. About this time, we visited a local garden centre and saw a pair of Silkies and I fell in love with their fluffy, unique appearance as well as their friendly demeanor. This is about where the idea of the older hens went out (his brother culling them early was also a factor!) and the idea of the new Silkie chicks came in.
Currently we have 3 very healthy Silkie chicks that we adopted as hatchlings. They are approaching 8 weeks old, and we adopted 4 older birds (also born this year) that needed rehoming. 2 of these seem like they are fully grown, if not sexually mature. 1 that looked to be an older adolescent and 1 that seemed to be a young adolescent. The 2 groups have been together for 3 weeks now and they are getting along very well. All but one bird seems to be thriving (more on that another time) but we we are hoping to nurse her back to full health with all the advice that we have gleaned from BYC. In hindsight there were warning signs that I wish we had recognized when adopting the newer/older birds but we are learning and nurturing them all.
I wish we had done more research before adopting our new pets (that's really all we expect from them.), The learning curve has been steep, the varying opinions on almost every subject difficult to navigate at times, but BYC has been, and continues to be godsend! Thank you to everyone who contributes, especially the moderators. We are already in love with chicken-keeping and all of our new flock. I know we will be back frequently!
Stephanie and Kelly, in the Kawarthas
My husband and I have been lurking for almost 7 weeks now, which not coincidentally, is how long we have had chickens.
The story starts with my husband's desire to have "a couple of chickens" at our new home - this desire quickly morphed into "4 or 5 hens and a couple of ducks" but that is not really pertinent.. After settling in after the move, and refurbishing an eyesore of a shed into an appropriate coop and run, he advised that his brother wanted to rehome a few of his laying hens as they were no longer as productive as they had been in the past. We only want eggs for personal consumption, so this seemed reasonable. About this time, we visited a local garden centre and saw a pair of Silkies and I fell in love with their fluffy, unique appearance as well as their friendly demeanor. This is about where the idea of the older hens went out (his brother culling them early was also a factor!) and the idea of the new Silkie chicks came in.
Currently we have 3 very healthy Silkie chicks that we adopted as hatchlings. They are approaching 8 weeks old, and we adopted 4 older birds (also born this year) that needed rehoming. 2 of these seem like they are fully grown, if not sexually mature. 1 that looked to be an older adolescent and 1 that seemed to be a young adolescent. The 2 groups have been together for 3 weeks now and they are getting along very well. All but one bird seems to be thriving (more on that another time) but we we are hoping to nurse her back to full health with all the advice that we have gleaned from BYC. In hindsight there were warning signs that I wish we had recognized when adopting the newer/older birds but we are learning and nurturing them all.
I wish we had done more research before adopting our new pets (that's really all we expect from them.), The learning curve has been steep, the varying opinions on almost every subject difficult to navigate at times, but BYC has been, and continues to be godsend! Thank you to everyone who contributes, especially the moderators. We are already in love with chicken-keeping and all of our new flock. I know we will be back frequently!
Stephanie and Kelly, in the Kawarthas
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