Hi everyone, I have been ending up at this site many times over the last month as I googled chicken/goose questions. So I finally decided to join so I can see how much I found online is true and how much is hogwash, and maybe share a few new tips I discovered.
So to start with I am mother with 3 children ranging in age from 11 to 18. My husband and I bought our property 2 years ago and I choose it because I was very close to the previous owners as a child. With the house came 2 outside cats that I was asked to care for before the previous owners past away and I agreed. Well both cats were female and were not fixed! I found homes for many kittens but not all before I was able to tame and spay 1 and trap and spay the other. So we have 4 indoor cats now as well since kids being kids adopted some. All are female and all are fixed! We also have 6 dogs, 4 of which are rescues of 1 kind or another, and I built them their very own pen becaus they are escape artists! Its doggy Fort Knox, and was a very great learning experience for me as I used some of what I learned to keep my dogs in to build my chicken coop to keep stray dogs out! We have a stray problem here but more on that later.
As a child my parents had chickens/ducks/geese and I have good memories of getting eggs, watching our old game hen Julie Brown hatch babies, and playing with our old male goose Lucky. I wanted that again for me and my kids so I got chickens and geese. First I purchased 18 straight run chicks, 6 Rhode Island Reds, 6 Barred Rocks, and 6 Silver Laced Wyandottes, they threw in a free Wyandotte chick but 1 Barred Rock died so still 18 straight run. I also purchased 6 geese in 2 batches of 3 a week apart. I also purchased 6 Buff Orpington pullets and 6 Black Austolorp pullets. It's a lot of chickens but the only hatchery close enough has a habit of throwing all extra male chicks into their straight runs so I figured we would get a lot of males. It seems I was right from the straight runs I think I have 1 BR hen, 3 RIR hens and 2 SLW hens, the geese seem to be 5 males and 1 female. They are 6 weeks and only just starting to display sex characteristics and I will wait to be absolutely sure. I have found 1 potential gander a new home at my sisters, she will wait another couple months to take him because she has problems with hawks and the geese are safer with me, and I plan to keep 2 roosters for myself. The rest may end up in the freezer.
I also enjoy gardening, I have roses, wisteria, lantanna, gardenia and a few other flowering plants that are beautiful. I have strawberry, raspberry, blueberry plants, and a herb garden that gets new additions every year. Currently have basil, oregano, 2 kinds of parsley, cilantro, chives, shallots, lavender, and cornflower. I also got a mandarin orange tree for my birthday this year and it's in bloom! So excited
So hi everyone, hope I didn't bore you with all that.
So to start with I am mother with 3 children ranging in age from 11 to 18. My husband and I bought our property 2 years ago and I choose it because I was very close to the previous owners as a child. With the house came 2 outside cats that I was asked to care for before the previous owners past away and I agreed. Well both cats were female and were not fixed! I found homes for many kittens but not all before I was able to tame and spay 1 and trap and spay the other. So we have 4 indoor cats now as well since kids being kids adopted some. All are female and all are fixed! We also have 6 dogs, 4 of which are rescues of 1 kind or another, and I built them their very own pen becaus they are escape artists! Its doggy Fort Knox, and was a very great learning experience for me as I used some of what I learned to keep my dogs in to build my chicken coop to keep stray dogs out! We have a stray problem here but more on that later.
As a child my parents had chickens/ducks/geese and I have good memories of getting eggs, watching our old game hen Julie Brown hatch babies, and playing with our old male goose Lucky. I wanted that again for me and my kids so I got chickens and geese. First I purchased 18 straight run chicks, 6 Rhode Island Reds, 6 Barred Rocks, and 6 Silver Laced Wyandottes, they threw in a free Wyandotte chick but 1 Barred Rock died so still 18 straight run. I also purchased 6 geese in 2 batches of 3 a week apart. I also purchased 6 Buff Orpington pullets and 6 Black Austolorp pullets. It's a lot of chickens but the only hatchery close enough has a habit of throwing all extra male chicks into their straight runs so I figured we would get a lot of males. It seems I was right from the straight runs I think I have 1 BR hen, 3 RIR hens and 2 SLW hens, the geese seem to be 5 males and 1 female. They are 6 weeks and only just starting to display sex characteristics and I will wait to be absolutely sure. I have found 1 potential gander a new home at my sisters, she will wait another couple months to take him because she has problems with hawks and the geese are safer with me, and I plan to keep 2 roosters for myself. The rest may end up in the freezer.
I also enjoy gardening, I have roses, wisteria, lantanna, gardenia and a few other flowering plants that are beautiful. I have strawberry, raspberry, blueberry plants, and a herb garden that gets new additions every year. Currently have basil, oregano, 2 kinds of parsley, cilantro, chives, shallots, lavender, and cornflower. I also got a mandarin orange tree for my birthday this year and it's in bloom! So excited
So hi everyone, hope I didn't bore you with all that.
and Welcome To BYC! Sounds like you are going to have a really busy summer! At what age to free range, have you considered electric poultry netting if you want to let your birds out? From what it sounds like, you have major predator problems, there really is no good age since while roosters may be a decent warning system, they really can't do much against any real predators like stray dogs who can take out the whole flock in a very short time. Nice thread on free ranging 
