My kids have begged me for the past couple years to get chickens, and I resisted. I'm not sure what changed this year, but I found myself really wanting to try raising chickens. First, let me introduce myself and the human members of my family...
I am Sandra. My husband Mark died suddenly 2 years ago, leaving our family reeling... We were both in our 40's. I have 3 kids, a 16 year old son (Christian), a 12 year old daughter (Angelia), and a 10 year old son (Arthur). We live on 25 acres in a rural area, which we have named TMNfarm (our last name is Tuominen). Days before my husband passed away, he designed a logo for TMNfarm. I want to have it painted on the side of my new barn, but I want to have a real "farm" first... Maybe that is what sparked my interest in chickens...
We have 6 dogs... A 4 year old Aussie/Border Collie cross (Paws), a 4 year old 3 legged Jack Russel Terrier (Jack), a 3 year old Golden Retriever (Shmi), a 10 month old Mini Aussie (Breezy), and a 7 month old Aussie (Gus). We are active in our local dog training club and compete with our dogs in agility.
We also have 8 horses... 2 mini's (Gunner and Pal), a pony (Riley), a 29 year old Quarter horse (Amigo), a 19 year old Quarter Pony (Tootsie Roll), a 14 year old Quarter horse (Fire), a 10 year old QH (Cash), and a 9 year old Paint (Smoke). We are crazy barrel racers and compete in local gaming shows and have even tried our hand at team penning. Even the old horse still loves to compete.
We also have 5 cats (Scrappy, Vader, Dennis, Deisel, and MG) and 2 rabbits (Bean and Chili Pepper).
Quite the menagerie anready, but we needed more... So we added the chickens!!! We bought 24 chicks from our local L&M supply store. They came out of the Hoover hatchery. We have 12 Cornish crosses, which we are raising as broilers... We'll see how that goes when the time comes... and 12 layers that are more like our pets... 6 Buff Orpingtons (Bertha, Tiny, and the Quads), 4 Production Reds (Honey, Scorpion, Peep, and Gertrude), and 2 Black Australorps (Cuddley and Sisu). They are 3 weeks old now and we are having SO much fun!!! They are growing so fast! We moved the layers out to their new coop yesterday, with a heat lamp. We had to move their feed and water closer to the lamp last night. They haven't ventured too far away from it yet. My brother-in-law is working on building a chicken tractor for the broilers, so we can get them out of their quickly shrinking brooder, hopefully today...
And since the chickens were so much fun, I went and got 2 turkeys the other day!!! They are only a few days old, so they are in a makeshift brooder right now (a small old rubber feed trough my horses don't use any more), but I plan to move them to one of the brooders we had set up for the other chickens as soon as I can get them cleaned out. We're calling this "The Great Chicken Experiment". If it continues to work out for us, I'm considering getting a rooster (if none of my chicks are...) and maybe trying to hatch my own chicks next year! My kids are active 4H members, so this opens up a whole new project area for them...
I have learned so much on BYC already, and it has quickly become my favorite website... Thanks so much for all of the articles and info!!! I'll be visiting often, and hopefully posting pics of my growing flock!
I'll try to post some pics, but they won't load right now!
I am Sandra. My husband Mark died suddenly 2 years ago, leaving our family reeling... We were both in our 40's. I have 3 kids, a 16 year old son (Christian), a 12 year old daughter (Angelia), and a 10 year old son (Arthur). We live on 25 acres in a rural area, which we have named TMNfarm (our last name is Tuominen). Days before my husband passed away, he designed a logo for TMNfarm. I want to have it painted on the side of my new barn, but I want to have a real "farm" first... Maybe that is what sparked my interest in chickens...
We have 6 dogs... A 4 year old Aussie/Border Collie cross (Paws), a 4 year old 3 legged Jack Russel Terrier (Jack), a 3 year old Golden Retriever (Shmi), a 10 month old Mini Aussie (Breezy), and a 7 month old Aussie (Gus). We are active in our local dog training club and compete with our dogs in agility.
We also have 8 horses... 2 mini's (Gunner and Pal), a pony (Riley), a 29 year old Quarter horse (Amigo), a 19 year old Quarter Pony (Tootsie Roll), a 14 year old Quarter horse (Fire), a 10 year old QH (Cash), and a 9 year old Paint (Smoke). We are crazy barrel racers and compete in local gaming shows and have even tried our hand at team penning. Even the old horse still loves to compete.
We also have 5 cats (Scrappy, Vader, Dennis, Deisel, and MG) and 2 rabbits (Bean and Chili Pepper).
Quite the menagerie anready, but we needed more... So we added the chickens!!! We bought 24 chicks from our local L&M supply store. They came out of the Hoover hatchery. We have 12 Cornish crosses, which we are raising as broilers... We'll see how that goes when the time comes... and 12 layers that are more like our pets... 6 Buff Orpingtons (Bertha, Tiny, and the Quads), 4 Production Reds (Honey, Scorpion, Peep, and Gertrude), and 2 Black Australorps (Cuddley and Sisu). They are 3 weeks old now and we are having SO much fun!!! They are growing so fast! We moved the layers out to their new coop yesterday, with a heat lamp. We had to move their feed and water closer to the lamp last night. They haven't ventured too far away from it yet. My brother-in-law is working on building a chicken tractor for the broilers, so we can get them out of their quickly shrinking brooder, hopefully today...
And since the chickens were so much fun, I went and got 2 turkeys the other day!!! They are only a few days old, so they are in a makeshift brooder right now (a small old rubber feed trough my horses don't use any more), but I plan to move them to one of the brooders we had set up for the other chickens as soon as I can get them cleaned out. We're calling this "The Great Chicken Experiment". If it continues to work out for us, I'm considering getting a rooster (if none of my chicks are...) and maybe trying to hatch my own chicks next year! My kids are active 4H members, so this opens up a whole new project area for them...
I have learned so much on BYC already, and it has quickly become my favorite website... Thanks so much for all of the articles and info!!! I'll be visiting often, and hopefully posting pics of my growing flock!
I'll try to post some pics, but they won't load right now!
from Ohio. So glad you joined. So sorry for your loss. That can't be easy. Good luck with your mini farm. Animals can be very helpful to our souls. 
