ajwhitti79
Chirping
- Jul 7, 2020
- 15
- 42
- 56
I am a homeschooling mother of 4 and this is our fist year raising chickens. I have always wanted chickens so when we moved to 7 wooded acres in Southwest Missouri, I couldn't wait to get a small flock started.
Right now we have, 10 chickens: 7 pullets and 3 cockerels. I know that ratio is a little off, but they are only 12 weeks old so we are making arrangements to save the poor hens from future harassment. We have 3 Buff Orpington pullets (The PowerBuff Girls: Bubbles, Buttercup & Blossom), 2 Rhode Island Red pullets(Kung Pao & Five Spice), 1 Barred Rock Pullet(Angela), 1 Ameraucana Pullet(Pam), and our cockerels are an Ameraucana(Clover... so sweet), a Barred Rock(Dwight), and a Rhode Island Red(Bob).
I know someone who raises Rhode Island Reds ONLY so I am hoping to donate our RIR to him. Bob is such a jerk, super aggressive, and we need to get rid of at least one rooster anyway. If it comes down to it, he will be in the freezer around May of next year.
We have only had our chickens since March. I loved watching them transform into the adolescents that they are now. They are beautiful and super sweet (except Bob). I constantly had to remind myself that they are chickens, though, as I fought the urge to baby them like a puppy or pet. I mean, they are our pets. We don't plan on eating them. But they are farm animals, not dogs. I digress. I learned to give credit where credit is due and just let them be chickens. They free range during most of the daylight hours, especially with COVID19 because we don't go anywhere for a long period of time and someone is almost always home. The roosters take good care of the girls and they all seem to be happy birds.
Our newly hatched guinea keets arrived June 22! I spent so many months researching this site for how to care for chickens. Now I have moved on to the keets. They are so different. We have limited housing so the goal is to put the guineas in with the chickens. There are also 3 ducklings the same age as the keets and they have their own duck house with run.
We have two dogs, a 2 year old Catahoula/Beagle mix and an 11 year old German Shepherd/Husky mix, and two cats, both short hair orange tabbys. They are indoor cats.
We hope to get two dwarf nubian goats next spring as well.
Like I said, we homeschool so that takes up a good bit of our time besides homesteading adventures. I knit, sew, practice traditional cooking from scratch, and spend way too much time on Twitter. My husband works outside of the home and we are both avid table top gamers. You name it, we have played it.
I have 4 children. Our oldest is a 2nd year (college Junior) Cadet Master Sergeant at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.
We have three children still at home. DD(14) is a high school sophomore, DD(11) is in 7th grade, DS(6) is in the middle of 2nd grade. We school year round and take breaks whenever we want. This year we decided to take July off and really work on getting the homestead organized and ready for fall. With all these new birds in our lives, we want to make sure they will do well over the colder months ahead.
I joined BYC hoping to be able to ask specific questions when they come up. I have found that the community where I live is less than generous with advice on caring for backyard poultry. I asked the hatchery for advice on caring for our keets, and was told to google it. I hope to get some pictures up of our birds and their coops.
So it is nice to be here on this site. I haven't been on a forum site like this since I was in college so this is kind of fun!
Right now we have, 10 chickens: 7 pullets and 3 cockerels. I know that ratio is a little off, but they are only 12 weeks old so we are making arrangements to save the poor hens from future harassment. We have 3 Buff Orpington pullets (The PowerBuff Girls: Bubbles, Buttercup & Blossom), 2 Rhode Island Red pullets(Kung Pao & Five Spice), 1 Barred Rock Pullet(Angela), 1 Ameraucana Pullet(Pam), and our cockerels are an Ameraucana(Clover... so sweet), a Barred Rock(Dwight), and a Rhode Island Red(Bob).
I know someone who raises Rhode Island Reds ONLY so I am hoping to donate our RIR to him. Bob is such a jerk, super aggressive, and we need to get rid of at least one rooster anyway. If it comes down to it, he will be in the freezer around May of next year.
We have only had our chickens since March. I loved watching them transform into the adolescents that they are now. They are beautiful and super sweet (except Bob). I constantly had to remind myself that they are chickens, though, as I fought the urge to baby them like a puppy or pet. I mean, they are our pets. We don't plan on eating them. But they are farm animals, not dogs. I digress. I learned to give credit where credit is due and just let them be chickens. They free range during most of the daylight hours, especially with COVID19 because we don't go anywhere for a long period of time and someone is almost always home. The roosters take good care of the girls and they all seem to be happy birds.
Our newly hatched guinea keets arrived June 22! I spent so many months researching this site for how to care for chickens. Now I have moved on to the keets. They are so different. We have limited housing so the goal is to put the guineas in with the chickens. There are also 3 ducklings the same age as the keets and they have their own duck house with run.
We have two dogs, a 2 year old Catahoula/Beagle mix and an 11 year old German Shepherd/Husky mix, and two cats, both short hair orange tabbys. They are indoor cats.
We hope to get two dwarf nubian goats next spring as well.
Like I said, we homeschool so that takes up a good bit of our time besides homesteading adventures. I knit, sew, practice traditional cooking from scratch, and spend way too much time on Twitter. My husband works outside of the home and we are both avid table top gamers. You name it, we have played it.
I have 4 children. Our oldest is a 2nd year (college Junior) Cadet Master Sergeant at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO.
We have three children still at home. DD(14) is a high school sophomore, DD(11) is in 7th grade, DS(6) is in the middle of 2nd grade. We school year round and take breaks whenever we want. This year we decided to take July off and really work on getting the homestead organized and ready for fall. With all these new birds in our lives, we want to make sure they will do well over the colder months ahead.
I joined BYC hoping to be able to ask specific questions when they come up. I have found that the community where I live is less than generous with advice on caring for backyard poultry. I asked the hatchery for advice on caring for our keets, and was told to google it. I hope to get some pictures up of our birds and their coops.
So it is nice to be here on this site. I haven't been on a forum site like this since I was in college so this is kind of fun!
So glad you decided to join! 
Make yourself at home here.
