Chickens: Once You Got Them, You Won't Pot Them! (or atleast this is my case)

[DustyDawgy]

Hello, fellow chicken owners (or lovers)! In my experience, chickens are very loving, and lovable, pets. I got my three-day-old chicks at a local store. I picked out the chicks, and I named one of them.
The breeds and their names: Amber, Rhode Island Red
Patch, Black Star
Phoebe, Barred Plymouth Rock
Chatty, Ameraucana

Now, we took home our little chirpers, and put them in a 4ft x 6ft bin in my room, filled with shavings. We added a chicken wire and plywood lid, and attached a heat lamp. Waterers and feeders were filled and added to our roomy chick habitat. My 17-year-old brother even took a liking to the little girls. All of the chicks were 90% assured to be pullets, but I was still wary. weeks went by, and I got worried that Amber was a cockerel. I was sad, and I tried to sever my feelings of attachment to my baby. That day, I did some more research to try to make sure my accusations were correct. Luckily, I was wrong, but overjoyed. At one point, I discovered that cheese was ok for chickens to eat as a treat, and I gave them a taste of dairy. My chicks loved it so much, that Chatty jumped to my friends arms from mine, a distance of two feet, for string cheese. It was hilarious.

Eventually, the chicks feathered out, and it was time to build a henhouse! I worked on it with my mom's friend, and in a day, the 4ft x 4ft henhouse was done. We attached a feeder and a waterer, and the next day we moved them out. A few weeks later, I was getting tired of letting the chickens out for their evening run, and it was time to build a chicken run! Our first attempt was futile, with a horrible, shaky, structure. After our failed attempt, my mom decided to hire someone to convert a fence, one side of a barn, and some open space into a chicken run. It turned out to be monstrous, with the same dimensions of a school bus (If you take out the wheels and driver's seat)! I loved it, and so did the pullets. After affixing a nesting box and roost to the inside of the henhouse, our chicken coop was finished! One week later, Patch layed the first egg!

A few weeks ago, it got cold out. I checked out where I should put a heat lamp, and BYC was super helpful! Eventually, I got my dad to help put up a heat lamp, and I had a toasty warm henhouse. Now my chickens are happy and healthy, with no fatalities. I taught them a food call as chicks, so at ay hint of danger I will utter my shrill call, and lead my hens into the coop. I hope that you have (or had) as much fun raising chickens as me!

Thanks for your tolerance, Sincerely,
A very Dusty Dawg

 

[Bulletproof Roo]

Great story. I've also had a lot of fun keeping chickens. They're pets with the benefit of giving you eggs too.

I have two ten week old chickens that I really enjoy. They've been free ranging during the day with my flock for several weeks now. At dusk, I go out there and sit in a recliner. When all the adults have put themselves to roost inside the hen house, the two little ones get nervous and gravitate towards me. Eventually, they both fly on top of me and sit on my legs and/or arms and let me pet them. They're asking me to find them a good and safe roosting spot, like I used to always do for them, since when they go inside on their own, the adult chickens are mean to them. It's like the kid that no one lets find a seat on the school bus. If I do nothing, they will eventually give up on me and go in to try to find a spot on their own. Sometimes they manage to do so, and sometimes the other chickens are just too mean to allow it, so I have to intervene and find a good spot where they won't get picked on, before locking up for the night. I look forward to the day when they're big enough that the other chickens won't seem so terrifying to them when they're trying to find a roosting spot.

These are them.

 

[DustyDawgy]

Awwww, that's cute. I hope that your chickens will grow fast!