Prior to the wife's chicken venture my experience with chickens was back on the farm as a child, the White Leghorn chicks were ordered and arrived; we fed and watered them. Over the course of the year some died, we ate some which included all the roosters and the remaining hens were added to the egg laying flock. With that as an experience base, I built a coup/pen and the wife got her chickens. Her little flock of (9)nine chickens consists of (4)four breeds that were purchased as chicks at different times, which included (2)two roosters. Although possible, I can't think of a much more difficult scenario since the intent was to have them all get along in the same coup and pen. The first group of chicks was (2)Ameraucana's, (2)Wyandotte's, (1)Australorp and a (1)Cochin Bantam rooster who was several weeks older than the others. As expected even as a young chick the Bantam Rooster tried to pick on the others. After about 10 weeks she got an additional (2)Ameraucanas chicks; one hen & one rooster. Following a long and challenging indoctrination process the two new chickens finally became accepted by the existing group. Then with the desire to have a Cochin Bantam pair later she got a Cochin Bantam hen chick, now mostly grown it too has been finally accepted by all of the flock, ironically except for the Cochin Bantam rooster. At present, a controlled progression of behavior modification training is underway to have them become a friendly couple and then re-introduce them to the group. The challenge has always been and thus far successful to resolve each chicken yard problem as it arose before anyone got injured. As a brief summary the indoctrination process was accomplished using the (3)three controllable areas of the coup/pen along with 2)two cages. Needless to say, it has taken a considerable amount of time and effort. In retrospect a much easier chicken raising venture would have been to select a docile breed such as the Ameraucana's and get them as chicks, all at the same time with no rooster. Hope this helps someone, Kentucky
seems like you needed some type of diagram / tracking system -lol- all this work- any eggs yet ? We got a "free" (similar to the idea of a "free" horse) coop from a neighbor in April and the hens were given to us by another neighbor. We have nine hens now, 5 different breeds; 5 are teenagers and not laying yet, three are freeloaders, and 1 lays every day but hides it in a different spot, and has lately taken to burying it in the shavings. My husband wants to know how I can spend all this $$ for feed, shavings, etc and still have to buy eggs at the store !! Hopefully yours will start laying soon and all the trauma will be worth it !
chixbvs: Agreed a better plan would probably have very beneficial, however the wife handled the selection process, I merely had to make it all work, LOL. Yes, thus far we have (5)Five, medium blue eggs from one Ameraucana hen. She lays in the same nesting box each time(we think). The others are as you say freeloaders. As far as raising chickens on a small scale being a cost effective venture, probably not. I will say this Backyard Chicken Raising has been interesting and I have learned far more about chickens than I thought I needed to know. Kentucky
