- Sep 15, 2009
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I've started raising chickens 4 years ago when my 2nd grader hatched out chicks in the classroom. I had always wanted to try raising chickens, so my husband and I built--OK, well mostly my husband--built a chicken mobile home and an 8 ft. run. We ended up with 8 of those white Leghorns from the classroom. Great layers, but I really didn't care for their "chicken-ality". So the next year we had lots of chicken soup and ordered Sicilian Buttercups through the mail. I named my favorite hen "Cecilia" for obvious reasons and also because I am a singer and St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians. My rooster, Dasher, just died this weekend of unknown causes, but he had a FABULOUS crow. His cock-a-doodle had a very long doooooooooooooooo at the end. Since Buttercups don't lay all that well, I experimented with Welsummers (didn't lay well and were too boring) and Austrolorps. They are showing promise as layers, but sure have tame chickenalities. At the present we have 3 Buttercup hens, 2 Welsummer hens, an Austrolorp cockerel and 8 Austrolorp pullets. We remodeled the kids' playhouse since they never used it, and house most of our chickens there.
