I've been wanting to have chickens for some time now, I've been giving it a lot of thought and the more I thought about it, the more resolute I became towards raising chickens. I wanted to get them mostly for having fresh eggs and also to teach my daughters how to raise and care for animals that is not a dog or a cat.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Last Sunday, I stopped in at a local feed store and they had a bunch of Rhode Island Red chicks, at $3 each, they were easier for me to get then ordering some off the Internet and having to meet minimum orders and pay for shipping. I didn't think to ask how old they were or if they knew when they hatched, but I'm assuming they were only a few days old, couldn't have been more than a week at most.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
I have 5 chicks.
(3) What breeds do you have?
All five are Rhode Island Reds
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
During my pre-obsessing over the idea of getting chickens, I was looking for coop designs and found it through a google search.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I'm a homebrewer, I make beer and mead. I've been making mead, a honey based alcoholic beverage similar to wine, since about 2001 but recently started making beer about 4 years ago now. I'm an avid armature photographer, cook baker and all around jack of all trades.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I'm a geek by trade, I make a lot of websites, and run a small web hosting business on the side. By day, I'm half the IT staff for my company where I support 130 employees in 9 states. I have a wife and 2 daughters who are 4 and 6 years old and we share our home with a boarder collie named Wysiwyg and a Australian Shepherd mix that my wife and I rescued from the pound about 10 years ago named Odin. We battle over territory with 4 cats as well.
I guess this is where I whip out my wallet and start showing off pics of my new family members.
The ride home.. It seemed to have scared the crap out of some of them.
Their first night home.
Hungry! There is one chick that insists on jumping into the food and scratching around. It emptied nearly an entire bucket of feed in the first week. All the rest seem happy to scratch and eat the food off the floor.
Here's my attempt to keep the chicks from scratching in the food..
They can still jump up on it, but it should be harder to scratch. If they stand on the floor they can easily feed.
Also, being the geek that I am, I figured friends and family may want to see the chicks as they grow. I set up a streaming webcam which is visible at http://cluckercam.com. Who doesn't like to watch chicks on a webcam?
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Last Sunday, I stopped in at a local feed store and they had a bunch of Rhode Island Red chicks, at $3 each, they were easier for me to get then ordering some off the Internet and having to meet minimum orders and pay for shipping. I didn't think to ask how old they were or if they knew when they hatched, but I'm assuming they were only a few days old, couldn't have been more than a week at most.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
I have 5 chicks.
(3) What breeds do you have?
All five are Rhode Island Reds
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
During my pre-obsessing over the idea of getting chickens, I was looking for coop designs and found it through a google search.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I'm a homebrewer, I make beer and mead. I've been making mead, a honey based alcoholic beverage similar to wine, since about 2001 but recently started making beer about 4 years ago now. I'm an avid armature photographer, cook baker and all around jack of all trades.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I'm a geek by trade, I make a lot of websites, and run a small web hosting business on the side. By day, I'm half the IT staff for my company where I support 130 employees in 9 states. I have a wife and 2 daughters who are 4 and 6 years old and we share our home with a boarder collie named Wysiwyg and a Australian Shepherd mix that my wife and I rescued from the pound about 10 years ago named Odin. We battle over territory with 4 cats as well.
I guess this is where I whip out my wallet and start showing off pics of my new family members.
The ride home.. It seemed to have scared the crap out of some of them.
Their first night home.
Hungry! There is one chick that insists on jumping into the food and scratching around. It emptied nearly an entire bucket of feed in the first week. All the rest seem happy to scratch and eat the food off the floor.
Here's my attempt to keep the chicks from scratching in the food..
They can still jump up on it, but it should be harder to scratch. If they stand on the floor they can easily feed.
Also, being the geek that I am, I figured friends and family may want to see the chicks as they grow. I set up a streaming webcam which is visible at http://cluckercam.com. Who doesn't like to watch chicks on a webcam?
from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard. :tCute pics. humbsup
