Hi everybody! I've been haunting BYC for three or four months now, since I first started thinking about getting chickens. I'm renting half a house on five acres and my landlady who's ex-Amish got SO excited when I mentioned possibly getting chickens, so then of course I had to 
Originally I'd intended to drive up to Meyer Hatchery (I'm in mid-Ohio), but then found a bunch of layers on Craigslist. They were already used to running together as a free-range flock, eight hens (two partridge rocks, three barred rocks, one white rock and two NH reds) and one Cuckoo Maran rooster -- what could be more perfect? And they really have been. They're remarkably quiet, inquisitive but not underfoot every second, laying fairly well (some are 1 year olds, some are 2 -- I have no idea how old the roo is but he certainly looks young and healthy!), they ignore the cats and the cats ignore them... It's really been wonderful. Although of course, since I have fertilized eggs (he's a VERY spry and healthy roo ;-), I'm hoping one of my NH reds will eventually go broody and maybe I can finally have some chicks, too! Of course, I have no idea how a male cuckoo maran/female NHR cross would come out -- although if you reverse the sexes, I gather you get a sex-link
So anyway, very happy to be here, VERY happy about my new little flock, very grateful to have found BYC -- reading on here has taught me a lot already and really gave me the confidence to get my first chickens! -- and of course now I have to show off pictures of my girls, if it'll let me
One of my barreds with some yummy eggs! Why is it I built them four nesting boxes and the all lay in one?
My big handsome roo
Guarding his ladies!
My little white hen -- don't let her fool you; she's definitely the alpha!
I love the New Hampshires -- they gleam almost copper when the sun hits them right!
Ironically, except for a couple of Orpingtons and a couple of Golden Comets, this was pretty much exactly the flock I'd intended to get! I'd planned to start with a dozen, but even at less than optimum production (averaging slightly under 5 eggs a day over the past 3 weeks) these eight ladies are producing all the eggs we can use! And after an initial 48 hours in the chicken shed to adjust to the new digs, they've stuck very close to home and go back into their new roost every night without fail. Yay!
Sweetie doesn't know what to make of the chickens, but she sure loves getting a fresh egg with her breakfast every morning
Thank you for letting me show off my shiny new gallus domesticae, and hello from Mansfield, Ohio!
Originally I'd intended to drive up to Meyer Hatchery (I'm in mid-Ohio), but then found a bunch of layers on Craigslist. They were already used to running together as a free-range flock, eight hens (two partridge rocks, three barred rocks, one white rock and two NH reds) and one Cuckoo Maran rooster -- what could be more perfect? And they really have been. They're remarkably quiet, inquisitive but not underfoot every second, laying fairly well (some are 1 year olds, some are 2 -- I have no idea how old the roo is but he certainly looks young and healthy!), they ignore the cats and the cats ignore them... It's really been wonderful. Although of course, since I have fertilized eggs (he's a VERY spry and healthy roo ;-), I'm hoping one of my NH reds will eventually go broody and maybe I can finally have some chicks, too! Of course, I have no idea how a male cuckoo maran/female NHR cross would come out -- although if you reverse the sexes, I gather you get a sex-link So anyway, very happy to be here, VERY happy about my new little flock, very grateful to have found BYC -- reading on here has taught me a lot already and really gave me the confidence to get my first chickens! -- and of course now I have to show off pictures of my girls, if it'll let me
One of my barreds with some yummy eggs! Why is it I built them four nesting boxes and the all lay in one?
My big handsome roo
Guarding his ladies!
My little white hen -- don't let her fool you; she's definitely the alpha!
I love the New Hampshires -- they gleam almost copper when the sun hits them right!
Ironically, except for a couple of Orpingtons and a couple of Golden Comets, this was pretty much exactly the flock I'd intended to get! I'd planned to start with a dozen, but even at less than optimum production (averaging slightly under 5 eggs a day over the past 3 weeks) these eight ladies are producing all the eggs we can use! And after an initial 48 hours in the chicken shed to adjust to the new digs, they've stuck very close to home and go back into their new roost every night without fail. Yay!
Sweetie doesn't know what to make of the chickens, but she sure loves getting a fresh egg with her breakfast every morning
Thank you for letting me show off my shiny new gallus domesticae, and hello from Mansfield, Ohio!
