Greetings from So Illinois!

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cgoins88

cgoins88

Hatching
Jul 6, 2015
5
0
9
Southern Illinois
Hello all! We are new members but long time followers of BYC. We have gleaned a great deal of information from the member posts. We are on year 2 of our adventures in chickens. We have already been schooled in chicken math first hand. Our friends laugh at our attempt to hide our purchases from our children who are surely planning an intervention as I type. We started as pet owners, tried to be farmers but have crossed over to collectors. Every new breed I come in contact with I fall in love and want just 1 pullet. Do the math on that....and here we are! Some would say that we have 85 but by my calculations it is 10.

We have 4 children, 3 are grown, 1 married in, and 1 teenager who just loves to help with the chicken chores (not). We have a basset hound, a miniature dachshund and a golden doodle that believes she is mother hen to the entire flock.

We have already experienced the heart ache of respiratory outbreak, predator attacks and the struggle of the unhatched. We have learned a lot in a short time and still have a lot left to learn! We love the resource that BYC offers to us with immediate answers to our urgent needs and just our curiosity. Thank you all for the amazing support system that you offer. We look forward to giving back!

Gary and Candi
 
Welcome to BYC! Glad you joined the flock!
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We have Australorps, English Orpingtons, Silkies, BLRW, Black Laced Red Wyandottes, Gold Laced Wyandottes, EE, Black Marans, Bantam Cochin, White Rock, Sizzles, Frizzles, Rhodebarrs, some barnyard mix, a Cuckoo Maran, a Copper Maran mix, a Gold Laced Polish, a Red Sexlink, a Rhode Island Red, and an African Grey gosling named Lucy who thinks she's a chicken too. The idea was to focus on a couple of breeds. Obviously I can't decide yet and I love the color and size variety!! So far the Bantam Cochin, the Silkies and the English Orpingtons are stealing my heart away. The Orps are the most social and follow us around. They still don't willing let us pet them but they are under foot constantly and will tolerate a cuddle now and then. I'm hoping they will continue to warm up to physical touch and be the lap chickens I'm looking for, if not there are always the Silkies. Both of these breeds are new to us this year so we're still building relationships with them.

We are not sure what to think of the Black Laced Red Wyandottes. We got a pullet with the BLRW cockerel early in the spring. We have hatched a few of her eggs and the chicks did great until about 4 weeks. One has already died of I suspect Coccidiosis, another was symptomatic so I treated and it perked back up, one has been the slowest feathering chick I've ever seen and now I have the 4th one back in the house with the same symptoms as the first 2. She is now almost 8 weeks old but she stands around puffed out with her head pulled in and her eyes closed 80% of the time. She's eating and drinking and doesn't seem underweight. I'm treating her for Coccidiosis just in case because that's the only thing I can think of. I've checked her over twice now for mites or lice and not a sign anywhere. I'm not sure if it's the hen or the breed but we won't be hatching anymore of these for sure! The Roo has mated with the Gold Laced Wyandotte and those chicks a good and strong so I know it's not him. I'm not good at watching suffering chicks so it's been a tough time for me this summer. Husband has to make the final decisions on when to cull because I don't have the heart to give up on a little one but I know sometimes it merciful.

Thanks for the welcome! It's great to have people to talk chicken with.
 

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