- Aug 6, 2011
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Hi BackYardChickens Forum members,
What a great resource! This forum is consistently the first few results on google when typing in a question about a chicken. Seriously, what topic hasn't been covered yet.
My wife talked me into getting chickens, and I couldn't be happier that she did. We are the proud parents of 3 Silkies, 2 black and 1 blue (Oprah, Gail, and Chow), and 2 Buff Orpingtons (Nellie and Camilla). Along with our 3 kids (7, 4 and 2 years old) and our 2 Whippets (Spanky and Taz), we are one busy, happy, little urban farm.
The Silkies are about 5 1/2 months old and the Orpingtons are about 3 weeks younger than that. We got them all as chicks (in 2 stages so the Orpingtons wouldn't crush the Silkies). The Silkies weren't sexed when we got them. The Orpingtons were sexed and are supposed to both be hens (we have our doubts about Nellie, but that will be for another post).
We re-fashioned an old dog house for the hen house and built a pretty good long run in an unused part of our backyard. We built an automatic waterer, using a 5 gallon bucket, PVC pipe, and poultry nipples, which has been so nice. And we actually can just put the feeder under a corner of the dog house, which is up on cinder blocks. This is really convenient because I can tuck it in a corner with the cinder blocks so the chickens don't really have a chance to push it around and knock it over or poop in it. Built a little hinged door in between those two cinder blocks for easy access.
This has been such a fun time getting to know our chickens. They get some free time in the backyard when we're out back with the kids and dogs, and everyone gets along really well. Our dogs are super mellow and usually just keep their distance. We've had a couple of ruffled feathers moments, but nothing too dramatic.
Next stop......goats. Well, maybe in a year or two.
tim and isa
What a great resource! This forum is consistently the first few results on google when typing in a question about a chicken. Seriously, what topic hasn't been covered yet.
My wife talked me into getting chickens, and I couldn't be happier that she did. We are the proud parents of 3 Silkies, 2 black and 1 blue (Oprah, Gail, and Chow), and 2 Buff Orpingtons (Nellie and Camilla). Along with our 3 kids (7, 4 and 2 years old) and our 2 Whippets (Spanky and Taz), we are one busy, happy, little urban farm.
The Silkies are about 5 1/2 months old and the Orpingtons are about 3 weeks younger than that. We got them all as chicks (in 2 stages so the Orpingtons wouldn't crush the Silkies). The Silkies weren't sexed when we got them. The Orpingtons were sexed and are supposed to both be hens (we have our doubts about Nellie, but that will be for another post).
We re-fashioned an old dog house for the hen house and built a pretty good long run in an unused part of our backyard. We built an automatic waterer, using a 5 gallon bucket, PVC pipe, and poultry nipples, which has been so nice. And we actually can just put the feeder under a corner of the dog house, which is up on cinder blocks. This is really convenient because I can tuck it in a corner with the cinder blocks so the chickens don't really have a chance to push it around and knock it over or poop in it. Built a little hinged door in between those two cinder blocks for easy access.
This has been such a fun time getting to know our chickens. They get some free time in the backyard when we're out back with the kids and dogs, and everyone gets along really well. Our dogs are super mellow and usually just keep their distance. We've had a couple of ruffled feathers moments, but nothing too dramatic.
Next stop......goats. Well, maybe in a year or two.
tim and isa
