- Nov 26, 2012
- 5
- 0
- 7
Hello,
My Wife Cassie and I started raising chickens earlier this year. My wife was raised with both goats and chickens, but I have never had anything other than family pets. We decided to raise chickens for fresh eggs and something to compliment our gardening interests. I did a bunch of research on building coups and tried my hand at it. We accompanied my Father-in-law to a swap meet and acquired 6 chickens initially. We had one New Hampshire Red, one Barred Rock, one Silver laced wyndotte, one cross between a RIR and a Black Sex Link (this is what I was told), one Americauna, and one Americauna bantam. Unfortunately I had to put the Americauna down because she had what I am pretty sure was Merricks disease. The others must have been vaccinated because they never experienced any of the symptoms and are thriving. Later the RIR and Black sex link mix went to sleep and never woke up around the time they all started laying. I think she might have been bound up without us knowing.
We later accepted 5 other chickens from a friend whose father was aging and didn't want to deal with the chickens throughout the winter so we took them in and welcomed them to our flock after quarantining them for 30 days. When we finally introduced them they fought quite a bit, but quickly established their pecking order and have been doing quite well. We are now gearing up for our first Michigan winter together. I have installed two lights inside their coop that have 100w bulbs in each. I have them wired to separate switches so I can have one or both on depending on how warm I think it should be. I have also put in a water heater for their galvanized water fount. They seem happy so far.
Our coop is off the ground 2 feet so we have decided we will enclose underneath the coop (the basement) and put straw on the ground to give them more area to roam in the winter. Our coop is 6' by 6' square with and additional foot off the back for the laying boxes and with 9 chickens now I want to give them a bit more space in the winter.
Well that is pretty much our chicken story. Feel free to ask any questions if there is something you'd like to know that I haven't disclosed. Also would love to talk with any other chicken fanatics as well so feel free to drop me a message or two, and I will try to do the same.
Have a good day,
Aaron
Churchill Farms
My Wife Cassie and I started raising chickens earlier this year. My wife was raised with both goats and chickens, but I have never had anything other than family pets. We decided to raise chickens for fresh eggs and something to compliment our gardening interests. I did a bunch of research on building coups and tried my hand at it. We accompanied my Father-in-law to a swap meet and acquired 6 chickens initially. We had one New Hampshire Red, one Barred Rock, one Silver laced wyndotte, one cross between a RIR and a Black Sex Link (this is what I was told), one Americauna, and one Americauna bantam. Unfortunately I had to put the Americauna down because she had what I am pretty sure was Merricks disease. The others must have been vaccinated because they never experienced any of the symptoms and are thriving. Later the RIR and Black sex link mix went to sleep and never woke up around the time they all started laying. I think she might have been bound up without us knowing.
We later accepted 5 other chickens from a friend whose father was aging and didn't want to deal with the chickens throughout the winter so we took them in and welcomed them to our flock after quarantining them for 30 days. When we finally introduced them they fought quite a bit, but quickly established their pecking order and have been doing quite well. We are now gearing up for our first Michigan winter together. I have installed two lights inside their coop that have 100w bulbs in each. I have them wired to separate switches so I can have one or both on depending on how warm I think it should be. I have also put in a water heater for their galvanized water fount. They seem happy so far.
Our coop is off the ground 2 feet so we have decided we will enclose underneath the coop (the basement) and put straw on the ground to give them more area to roam in the winter. Our coop is 6' by 6' square with and additional foot off the back for the laying boxes and with 9 chickens now I want to give them a bit more space in the winter.
Well that is pretty much our chicken story. Feel free to ask any questions if there is something you'd like to know that I haven't disclosed. Also would love to talk with any other chicken fanatics as well so feel free to drop me a message or two, and I will try to do the same.
Have a good day,
Aaron
Churchill Farms
