I wanted to stop and say hello to everyone as my wife and I are new chick owners! So I will start this thread off like this;
What in the heck has my wife got me into?!? (hahah) My wife and I got married back in Feb. after being together 5 years, living together for 3 of those 5. Before her and I got married she had been asking me about getting chickens, and like always, my reply was "no". Even with me being a so called 'Country boy', I never cared about having chicken. Now as for her, she had chickens on her farm, and maybe a little bit of everything else that walked and crawled, so she loved the thought of having chickens again.
Two weeks ago I finally agreed to getting chickens, buying a total of four, two day old chicks, from our local farm supply store (no, not tractor supply).; 1 Comet, 1 Road Island Red, 1 Black Sex Link and 1 Ameraucans (spelled correctly?). We dove in a little unprepared, having no were to keep them on our 2 acres besides a dog kennel ( 2' wide x 4' deep probably). Lucky for us, the squares in the kennel are small and with some scrap wood we could shore around it to keep them from hoping out. So with a heat lamp, feed, and water thingy, we are off and running. The first night, after spending a little time with them, we walk from the shop back to the house only to her them chirping like crazy. So we would walk back over and see what was going on to only have them go quiet. Each time we closed the door they would chirp like crazy! My wife was no doubly in love from that moment on with these chickens.
I will go ahead and say, the chicken are for eggs only.
About three or four days went by and she told me a story about a type of chicken she use to have and loved, the australorp. She loved them because of their dark legs and purple or green sheen.
Being a good husband, I listened, and called a few places around town to try and find her one. Shes a smart lady, or my mother told her, and found out what I was trying to do, so she gave me a number of a place she knew that may have them. Within 5 minutes of her and I hanging up the phone with one another, she called me back excited as all get out and said, "honey I found some!!!! Can we go get one?"........here comes the LOL part.
So I leave work that day early and make a trip up to Calhoun to get her this chicken, as a surprise of course. Once there I saw this water barrel full of pretty chicks and asked the lady there if she could help me, and in a kind of weird way, she say's "are you the guy from Atlanta looking for the australorps"? (You notice that 's' at the end making it plural???)
I kind say yes and she proceeds to hand me this box with 5 more chickens, 5 australorp to be exact. I was like, huh?!?!? Whatever
As I go to check out I try and get this lady to only let me buy one. To her credit she did a nice flip, and said that I could put 3 australorps back and get 3 different kind; so I end up with 2 australorps, 2 Ameraucans and 1 buff.
Our total is now 9.
Being excited about these chickens now, I've been reading and looking at all the different types, and wow are there some cool looking chickens BTW, thank a million to the owners of this website, truly a great place and the best I've found for information regarding chickens.
Now, in the same sense, it has SCARED me to death with all the talk of illness, works, lice, different feeds, shots, worms, crazy rabbit dogs, wild neighbors and so on. Is there really anything to worry about that isn't to hard to handle?
Thanks for reading and hopefully this will be enjoyable!
What in the heck has my wife got me into?!? (hahah) My wife and I got married back in Feb. after being together 5 years, living together for 3 of those 5. Before her and I got married she had been asking me about getting chickens, and like always, my reply was "no". Even with me being a so called 'Country boy', I never cared about having chicken. Now as for her, she had chickens on her farm, and maybe a little bit of everything else that walked and crawled, so she loved the thought of having chickens again.
Two weeks ago I finally agreed to getting chickens, buying a total of four, two day old chicks, from our local farm supply store (no, not tractor supply).; 1 Comet, 1 Road Island Red, 1 Black Sex Link and 1 Ameraucans (spelled correctly?). We dove in a little unprepared, having no were to keep them on our 2 acres besides a dog kennel ( 2' wide x 4' deep probably). Lucky for us, the squares in the kennel are small and with some scrap wood we could shore around it to keep them from hoping out. So with a heat lamp, feed, and water thingy, we are off and running. The first night, after spending a little time with them, we walk from the shop back to the house only to her them chirping like crazy. So we would walk back over and see what was going on to only have them go quiet. Each time we closed the door they would chirp like crazy! My wife was no doubly in love from that moment on with these chickens.
I will go ahead and say, the chicken are for eggs only.
About three or four days went by and she told me a story about a type of chicken she use to have and loved, the australorp. She loved them because of their dark legs and purple or green sheen.
Being a good husband, I listened, and called a few places around town to try and find her one. Shes a smart lady, or my mother told her, and found out what I was trying to do, so she gave me a number of a place she knew that may have them. Within 5 minutes of her and I hanging up the phone with one another, she called me back excited as all get out and said, "honey I found some!!!! Can we go get one?"........here comes the LOL part.
So I leave work that day early and make a trip up to Calhoun to get her this chicken, as a surprise of course. Once there I saw this water barrel full of pretty chicks and asked the lady there if she could help me, and in a kind of weird way, she say's "are you the guy from Atlanta looking for the australorps"? (You notice that 's' at the end making it plural???)
I kind say yes and she proceeds to hand me this box with 5 more chickens, 5 australorp to be exact. I was like, huh?!?!? Whatever
As I go to check out I try and get this lady to only let me buy one. To her credit she did a nice flip, and said that I could put 3 australorps back and get 3 different kind; so I end up with 2 australorps, 2 Ameraucans and 1 buff.
Our total is now 9.
Being excited about these chickens now, I've been reading and looking at all the different types, and wow are there some cool looking chickens BTW, thank a million to the owners of this website, truly a great place and the best I've found for information regarding chickens.
Now, in the same sense, it has SCARED me to death with all the talk of illness, works, lice, different feeds, shots, worms, crazy rabbit dogs, wild neighbors and so on. Is there really anything to worry about that isn't to hard to handle?
Thanks for reading and hopefully this will be enjoyable!
