- Aug 27, 2015
- 31
- 21
- 99
I've put some of this elsewhere so apologize for repeating.
My wife and I live in the Southeast corner of Alabama (what we call the "other LA"), just a few miles from the Florida border and an hour and a half from the beach. Our house and little over an acre "spread" lies just outside the town limits of a small rural town.
When I was a kid we lived for a time on a five acre farm in rural Illinois. One of my fondest childhood memories is of the chickens we had when we lived there. Thinking back I remember some Barred Rocks, a couple White Leghorns, a couple Red Leghorns, a RIR or two, and a couple of Bantams ("banties") It was my job to feed the chickens and gather the eggs. I remember one little "banty" hen we had (I think she was a red leghorn now) who would lay double yokers. I remember a doubter who questioned how I knew she was the one who lay them. Well, all I know is one day I'm out there getting ready to gather eggs and she comes flying out of one of the nesting boxes screeching like the world is ending. I check out the box and there is a huge egg that turned out to be a double yoker. I guess if that big thing had come out of me I would have made a ruckus, too.
We've been trying to raise some cattle on my wife's family land over in Georgia, but it's difficult with the distance and last year we had to pull a couple of calves over to a rented pasture across the road from us. In February, my wife came back from TSC buying some sweet feed for the calves with the news that TSC was selling baby chicks for a few dollars apiece. She wondered if I wanted to go look.
I said, I was willing to "look." Just look.
Famous last words.
We were going to buy a couple but the minimum number of chicks on could buy was six, so we got 2 of each they had - Road Island Reds, Barred Rocks, and Red Leghorns. These were all supposed to be pullets. The RIRs were mixed pullets and cockerels so I bought an extra hoping for a roo - I didn't know how to sex them but the guy there did - or claimed to. The guy there also mentioned some Red Leghorns who were getting too old for them to keep so they were on sale at a buck apiece so we picked up four. We now had thirteen chicks - and about everything we needed to take care of them.
I set them up in a big plastic storage container with wood shavings, and their food in the library. We had a heat lamp to keep them warm, plenty of chick feed, etc. We were in business.
Then, one of the RIR's died. Sad, but not unexpected. I decided I wanted at least two RIRs so we returned to get another. We went to another TSC, the catch was the minimum number of chicks one could buy was six... So we picked up two more Barred Rocks, two more RIRs, and two Cornish Rocks. We were now up to sixteen chicks! I'd never have to buy an egg again! I told my two sons still living in the area with their families they didn't have to worry either.
Soon, I had to put some chicken wire over the top of the container to keep the babies from flying out. Then, we noticed our four bigger birds were bullying the smaller ones so we put them in a separate container. I noticed THEY were having problems getting along, bumping breasts against each other - and I began to doubt whether these were really pullets (as advertised) after all...
In the meantime, I began making arrangements for their move outside. We have a shed in back of our house we park our lawnmower in. About five years ago I built an addition to that shed to hold a peachick we had bought for the neighborhood peacock. Percy, the Peacock greeted me when I first moved in to my house back in 1992. He belonged to our neighbors across the way and as I began feeding him he ended up spending as much time at my house as he did his own. When my neighbors died several years ago, their daughters felt he should stay with us - problem was, he was used to spending his evenings in the neighbor's barns so crossed the (very dangerous) road to roost at night. My wife and I thought a girlfriend might keep him here. It didn't work. We got a female whom we named Penny, and put her in our new coop I'd built for her. We kept her there two weeks hoping she would get used to her new home. One day we released her when Percy was in the yard - there was no chemistry, no sparks, Penny and Percy took one look at each other, started honking, and Penny ran off into the woods never to be seen - until about six months ago when my wife was driving to work early one morning and saw her with two young males (her offspring?) in the woods alongside the road. I guess she and Percy got together on their own...
So, I had a coop - all I had to do was convert it to a henhouse. I set about doing this with everything but indoor plumbing. I set up an upper roosting area with nesting boxes separate from the entrance. My babies loved it. The problem was our four "big" leghorns. They all turned out to be roosters!
Talk about chaos in the barnyard. These guys were like the Mafia, fighting each other, fighting over hens, bullying the hens. Chasing the poor hens from the food. I have a kind heart but I'd had enough. I told my wife we needed to have the kids over for fried chicken Sunday. She said I might be able to kill them and clean them but she'd be danged if anyone in the family would eat them.
So I gave all four to my new neighbors, who had moved in to my old neighbor's place. They appreciated the meat.
On the up side my hens started laying eggs shortly thereafter.
About the same time I heard about Easter Eggers. The thought of hens laying colored eggs seemed neat to me. I wanted some.
For the grandkids of course.
Imagine how much they would enjoy different colored eggs for breakfast!
So I began looking and discovered there were none in my area and the minimum anyone would ship is 15. I didn't want fifteen more chicks. We asked our neighbor if she'd go in with us on a shipment? She said sure. So we made arrangements. It turned out she only wanted three chicks of an exotic breed. We ended up buying four Easter Eggers, four Silver laced Wyandottes, and Four Gold lacd Wyandottes. The company sent us an extra Easter Egger and Wyandotte each. One Easter Egger died shortly after arriving so now we have something like 25 chickens of various ages.
At the same time, the lady who sold us Penny told us her hens were about to lay again were we interested? I said sure, thinking one or two maybe. We ended up getting three - $10 each, she threw in a fourth free.
This was the first week in June. Since then I've been building new coops and holding pens. I've fenced in another part of the yard to expand my chickens' ranging area. With a nearby road (where I've lost too many pets) and numerous predators in the surrounding woods I don't think free-ranging is an option.
We added to our flock last month with two Puff Orpingtons, a White Rock, and a really beautiful Wyandotte mix.
With my Quaker Parrot, you might say my life has become fowled-up!
My wife and I live in the Southeast corner of Alabama (what we call the "other LA"), just a few miles from the Florida border and an hour and a half from the beach. Our house and little over an acre "spread" lies just outside the town limits of a small rural town.
When I was a kid we lived for a time on a five acre farm in rural Illinois. One of my fondest childhood memories is of the chickens we had when we lived there. Thinking back I remember some Barred Rocks, a couple White Leghorns, a couple Red Leghorns, a RIR or two, and a couple of Bantams ("banties") It was my job to feed the chickens and gather the eggs. I remember one little "banty" hen we had (I think she was a red leghorn now) who would lay double yokers. I remember a doubter who questioned how I knew she was the one who lay them. Well, all I know is one day I'm out there getting ready to gather eggs and she comes flying out of one of the nesting boxes screeching like the world is ending. I check out the box and there is a huge egg that turned out to be a double yoker. I guess if that big thing had come out of me I would have made a ruckus, too.
We've been trying to raise some cattle on my wife's family land over in Georgia, but it's difficult with the distance and last year we had to pull a couple of calves over to a rented pasture across the road from us. In February, my wife came back from TSC buying some sweet feed for the calves with the news that TSC was selling baby chicks for a few dollars apiece. She wondered if I wanted to go look.
I said, I was willing to "look." Just look.
Famous last words.
We were going to buy a couple but the minimum number of chicks on could buy was six, so we got 2 of each they had - Road Island Reds, Barred Rocks, and Red Leghorns. These were all supposed to be pullets. The RIRs were mixed pullets and cockerels so I bought an extra hoping for a roo - I didn't know how to sex them but the guy there did - or claimed to. The guy there also mentioned some Red Leghorns who were getting too old for them to keep so they were on sale at a buck apiece so we picked up four. We now had thirteen chicks - and about everything we needed to take care of them.
I set them up in a big plastic storage container with wood shavings, and their food in the library. We had a heat lamp to keep them warm, plenty of chick feed, etc. We were in business.
Then, one of the RIR's died. Sad, but not unexpected. I decided I wanted at least two RIRs so we returned to get another. We went to another TSC, the catch was the minimum number of chicks one could buy was six... So we picked up two more Barred Rocks, two more RIRs, and two Cornish Rocks. We were now up to sixteen chicks! I'd never have to buy an egg again! I told my two sons still living in the area with their families they didn't have to worry either.
Soon, I had to put some chicken wire over the top of the container to keep the babies from flying out. Then, we noticed our four bigger birds were bullying the smaller ones so we put them in a separate container. I noticed THEY were having problems getting along, bumping breasts against each other - and I began to doubt whether these were really pullets (as advertised) after all...
In the meantime, I began making arrangements for their move outside. We have a shed in back of our house we park our lawnmower in. About five years ago I built an addition to that shed to hold a peachick we had bought for the neighborhood peacock. Percy, the Peacock greeted me when I first moved in to my house back in 1992. He belonged to our neighbors across the way and as I began feeding him he ended up spending as much time at my house as he did his own. When my neighbors died several years ago, their daughters felt he should stay with us - problem was, he was used to spending his evenings in the neighbor's barns so crossed the (very dangerous) road to roost at night. My wife and I thought a girlfriend might keep him here. It didn't work. We got a female whom we named Penny, and put her in our new coop I'd built for her. We kept her there two weeks hoping she would get used to her new home. One day we released her when Percy was in the yard - there was no chemistry, no sparks, Penny and Percy took one look at each other, started honking, and Penny ran off into the woods never to be seen - until about six months ago when my wife was driving to work early one morning and saw her with two young males (her offspring?) in the woods alongside the road. I guess she and Percy got together on their own...
So, I had a coop - all I had to do was convert it to a henhouse. I set about doing this with everything but indoor plumbing. I set up an upper roosting area with nesting boxes separate from the entrance. My babies loved it. The problem was our four "big" leghorns. They all turned out to be roosters!
Talk about chaos in the barnyard. These guys were like the Mafia, fighting each other, fighting over hens, bullying the hens. Chasing the poor hens from the food. I have a kind heart but I'd had enough. I told my wife we needed to have the kids over for fried chicken Sunday. She said I might be able to kill them and clean them but she'd be danged if anyone in the family would eat them.
So I gave all four to my new neighbors, who had moved in to my old neighbor's place. They appreciated the meat.
On the up side my hens started laying eggs shortly thereafter.
About the same time I heard about Easter Eggers. The thought of hens laying colored eggs seemed neat to me. I wanted some.
For the grandkids of course.
Imagine how much they would enjoy different colored eggs for breakfast!
So I began looking and discovered there were none in my area and the minimum anyone would ship is 15. I didn't want fifteen more chicks. We asked our neighbor if she'd go in with us on a shipment? She said sure. So we made arrangements. It turned out she only wanted three chicks of an exotic breed. We ended up buying four Easter Eggers, four Silver laced Wyandottes, and Four Gold lacd Wyandottes. The company sent us an extra Easter Egger and Wyandotte each. One Easter Egger died shortly after arriving so now we have something like 25 chickens of various ages.
At the same time, the lady who sold us Penny told us her hens were about to lay again were we interested? I said sure, thinking one or two maybe. We ended up getting three - $10 each, she threw in a fourth free.
This was the first week in June. Since then I've been building new coops and holding pens. I've fenced in another part of the yard to expand my chickens' ranging area. With a nearby road (where I've lost too many pets) and numerous predators in the surrounding woods I don't think free-ranging is an option.
We added to our flock last month with two Puff Orpingtons, a White Rock, and a really beautiful Wyandotte mix.
With my Quaker Parrot, you might say my life has become fowled-up!
