rbrannon
Chirping
I've always been more of a horse kinda girl and fairly new to the chicken thing as I happened upon it quite by accident! My chickens, breeds unknown and which I've had for about a year now (they were fairly grown when I "inherited" them) were completely free range and put themselves up each night in an old shed! I started with 1 rooster and 10 hens but my hens started dissapearing and then I found one with it's head missing so I knew the others had more than likely met the same fate but I did not want to pen them so I made sure they were safely closed in at night and let them loose each morning, then one Saturday afternoon the rooster was making an awful rukus so I went to investigage and discovered a neighbor (weiner) dog, in my yard, and it had my last, best layer and had torn it's neck! I had to watch the poor thing die right in front of me, I had found the culprit and confronted the neglectful pet owner neighbor but decided that was a waste of time and realized I had to be the responsible one and keep my chickens safe so my dear hubby helped build a pen and we fixed up an old shed, where they were laying eggs anyway, as the coop/hen house but now I'm down from the 10 hens to 5 hens and only getting 1 to 3 eggs a day where I was used to getting up to 15 a day even in the winter! I don't know if they are adjusting well to being penned and hope they start laying more but I think I am going to have to try and find more of the light colored red hens because they seemed to produce the most eggs! I have also wondered if I should have a fake egg in the nest so they won't be dicouraged everytime they go to and empty nest! I love having the chickens they are quite amusing and the eggs are yummy! I have already found this site helful but have lots of questions so you will probably hear more from me!
Roberta from Rural Ohio
Roberta from Rural Ohio
from a fellow Buckeye. So glad you joined. You should check out the other Ohio members at the link below. 
