Clucking Around with the Chickens

[ShellyBlanco]

Just so I can keep up with my antics with my chickens, I'm going to document all of the fun, crazy, frantic, tear jerking and sometimes embarrassing things (other than trying to spell embarrassing correctly) that happen as I am trying to establish a flock of laying hens, grow some "chicken soup" and curb my need to "save" every chicken I see at the local TSC to the point this whole thing is a bust for me and the chickens.

2018-08-21 052

• ShellyBlanco
• Aug 24, 2018

You know what's about to happen here, right?

 

[Perris]

have fun! looks like you're well on the way

 

[ShellyBlanco]

OMG! I think the Universe is clucking with me! I go out to feed the chickens and I'm head to the ground feeding our "chicken soups" and I hear, "cockle-doodle-do" (well you know what I mean...you just can't spell that sound they make). And I just freeze because strange things have already been happening to me today and it's only 7:30 in the morning. So my mind wanders back to when I went to bed last night, knowing I turned off the tv in the living room and didn't turn on the bedroom tv when I went in there, yet I woke up to the tv on in the middle of the night. I'm here alone because hubby is on a mission in Florida trying to get our house on the market for sale. So, in my sleepy haze, I just figure the power must have went out and come back on and go back to sleep after turning the tv off. So i wake up to some noise and go out of the bedroom and the living room tv is on...I think, "oh well, must have been the power outage", turn the tv off and go back to bed. I look at the time on my phone because I'm sure the microwave clock is wrong since the power went out...it wasn't, it was right on the minute. I know the power didn't go off at midnight, I was still up. So it's a mystery. Now all of this runs through my mind as I straighten up from the "chicken soups" and look over at the coop to see where this noise is coming from since ALL OF MY CHICKENS ARE HENS OR PULLETS, (right?). Here is Dumb (the bigger white Silkie) heaving his little chest, making the crowing noise. I shook my head and thought, now why would a pullet do that. So here is a picture of Dumb, is it a pullet or a cockeral? (Dumb is on the left, head held high). He was a few days old 4/2, which makes him 17.5 weeks.

 

[ShellyBlanco]

When we first bought some chickens, it was March 10, 2018. All I remember about chickens growing up was my Granny had big white chickens and a few mean Roos. One tried to flog me (I was about five years old). I remember walking up the hill from my Uncle Tom's to Granny's. First there was a dead chicken snake next to the path and that Roo was busy eating it. Well, he came after me like I was going to take his dinner and Granny was in the yard hoeing something or other. Next thing I new, that Roosters head was laying on the ground and Granny picked him up. She said, "Looks like we are going to have a nice dinner". That was the end of that.
There was a few chickens on my Uncle's farm, but he didn't feed them or anything. They were on their own. I don't think anybody gathered their eggs. We'd find nests in the barn with shells remaining. Sometimes you would see baby chicks, but not for very long. I tried raising a hatchling from a cracked open egg, the momma was nowhere to be found. Was a sad experience for me, I was about nine...it died to put it simply.
I think I've turned the curve, nothing dead unintentionally yet!
First "brooder", made from a cardboard box that we kept adding too as the chicks grew. After they were in the house for five weeks or more, I vowed never to have a "brooder" in the house again. Dust and feathers were all over everything in that room. But I did it again, only for a week this time since the chickens were born in early August, we were able to raise them outside in a portable coop.

 

[Perris]

How many have you got? All silkies?

 

[drumstick diva]

waiting for more

 

[ShellyBlanco]

How many have you got? All silkies?

Actually that is picture of our first purchase 3/10/18- 10 RIRs and 2 Cornish Cross (they were labeled Wyandotte at TSC -NOT)
We then bought 4/10/18 (2) Silkies (that were mixed in a pen of some fat Cornish Cross at TSC) felt like they needed rescuin' and (2) Brown Leghorn's
8/4/18 we bought 22 Cornish Cross to butcher in October, man those first 2 were good eatin' and we bought (2) Silver Cuckoo Maran and (1) Black Australorpe

 

[ShellyBlanco]

After buying the first flock of chickens on 3/10 we purchased 4 more on a whim on 4/10. Since they were so little compared to all the others in their "brooder" we put the new 4 in a "brooder" (cardboard condo) right next to them. The person at TSC didn't know what kind two of them were. They were in a bin with a bunch of Cornish Cross about 3x as big as they were. There were only two little guys sticking out like a sore thumb in there and when she said "oh, they are all the same", I had to have them just to keep them from getting squashed. Turned out to be a pullet and roo (just found that out a few days ago) Silkie. I have done my homework, they are White Bearded Silkies. With those two, we bought 2 Brown Leghorns both turned out to be Pullets. They are their own "subflock" the RIRs just won't let them in. I lovingly call them as a group "The Outcasts". So they sleep on a lower loft area at night while the RIRs take the top. Everynight is a display of dominence, the Outcasts are not allowed to go in until all the RIRs are in the upper loft, the RIRs say so! Pictures of the interior coop for perspective.

 

[ShellyBlanco]

Now to the present.... thanks to all of the great posts out here, I am officially chicken collecting. I just brought home two Buff Orpington Pullets, two Golden Lace Wyandotte - hope they are pullets and two Ameraucanas - hope they are pullets. I am not sure the color of them, I picked out the lightest, silvery look. I'll post pictures later.

 

[Perris]

you seem to be completely lovestruck!