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- #11
- Nov 21, 2012
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Thank you for such a warm welcome! I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving!
I couldn't agree with Flock Master more... our life has turned into a full-fledged poultry operation due to our "greenness" in the ways of chickens. It's a funny story that I think you will enjoy, and many of you may be able to relate to...
We we first started out flock-sitting, it was pretty easy.... we went down to our neighbors in the mornings to let the 8 hens and 1 rooster out of their pen/roost (a chain-link fence and some old corrugated metal cobbed together) to free range in the area. At night they generally all went back on their own to the roost and we simply had to close and lock the pen gate. Every now and again they found a particularly good nesting spot in the burnt out house carcass or an alder tree and we'd have to manually move them into the pen area, but that didn't happen often. Morning and evenings we gave them some scratch and filled their feeder with layer mix, cleaned and refilled the water container, and also would give treats and goodies once or twice a day.
It all seemed pretty simple until one evening when a hen came up missing... my husband and I scoured the area for hours with head lamps and a shake-jar filled with scratch and dried mealy worms (this ALWAYS brought them running to us!). After 3-4 days of hopeful searches we finally gave her up as a goner, figuring she'd been nabbed by a predator. I felt SO awful having lost one of the girls on our watch - but our neighbors were very understanding and explained that this had happened in the past (raccoons at night), so overall we came to accept it as something "that happens" if you have free-range chickens. So, we were down to caring for 7 hens and 1 rooster when our neighbors informed us that they were not going to be able to find a new home that would allow them to keep their chickens. By that time we were totally in love with the girls (and Kramer the rooster), and there wasn't a chance in the world that we'd consider breaking them up or giving them to anyone else! After all, who couldn't care for 8 chickens, right?? It would be easy
Thus, ownership class started.... Chickens 101.... I spent hours on the internet reading up on chicken care, housing, food, breeding, etc. (BYC was quickly bookmarked as my main information resource). My husband brought home chicken magazines and books, and listened patiently to my plans, visions and dreams of the perfect chicken-tractor, organic eggs, and hens clucking contentedly while gracefully adorning our yard and and gently pecking in the gardens, ridding us of all those nasty bugs that are so troublesome in the vegetable garden...
How many of you chicken "sourdoughs" are
right now? I can't help doing so, as I look out my window at the muddy patch of "garden" that we allotted to our new children.... my novice dreams have dissolved a bit with the recognition that chickens are generally not "gentle" on anything (except maybe the heart when you snuggle with one)!!
Anyhoo, one weekend in May 2012, one of my dear friends from work came over to our house to help me build a chicken-tractor for our 8 adoptees. It was a modified (enlarged significantly to house 10 large breed birds) Better Homes and Gardens design, and I figured we could "crank it out in a couple of weekends". We put a long day in on Saturday, and it became apparent that the project would take a bit longer than originally planned... so on Sunday morning I brought my friend down to the neighbor's property to meet our new chicken family, my fingers crossed that she would become as attached as I was - securing the much needed help on a rather large project
I'm an engineer by profession - and spend my time planning, preparing, calculating and assessing risks. I have become accustomed to things working out as I've planned, however, the world of chickens had "tilted" things. That Sunday my life was skewed cattywampas and turned completely upside down! As I was introducing my friend to this sweet and glorious flock of 10 SS, guess who arrived? Yep, our long lost "eaten" hen was back
! There she was, exactly 23 days after that panicked night search, but she was not alone
..... she had brought along the company of 10 tiny but perfect, beautiful (and very hungry) SS chicks! Unbelievable! She was one tough bird. That's for sure! Hiding out in the cold, wet and wild NW woods - she'd managed to fool us all (including the raccoons, coyotes and fox)! And we'd thought she was dead! We were definitely "greenhorns" to the chicken world....
So, that Sunday (Mother's Day to be exact) I became the proud Mother of 8 SS hens, 1 SS rooster, and 10 SS chicks! My husband in turn, has become the surrogate Father of the flock. Fortunately he has just as soft a heart as I when it comes to all creatures (feathered or furry)... and ever since this past Mother's Day has demonstrated the most extraordinary patience and fortitude with the flock, with me, and with my chicken "planning" endeavors that continue to go awry!
Again, those of you who are doing the math will recognize that our "planned" adoption has morphed from 8 SS to a total of 19 SS at this point in the story, but that still doesn't equal our "current" flock numbers of 18 SS + 4 BO +4 EE mentioned in my original thread posting.... I'll share the last bit of the story on my next post to this thread, I don't want to overwhelm you with much more "longwindedness" plus I've got to run again.
It is so much fun to share our experience with other poultry lovers... thanks again for your welcome and I hope you enjoyed this segment of our adventure!
Best Regards,
I couldn't agree with Flock Master more... our life has turned into a full-fledged poultry operation due to our "greenness" in the ways of chickens. It's a funny story that I think you will enjoy, and many of you may be able to relate to...
We we first started out flock-sitting, it was pretty easy.... we went down to our neighbors in the mornings to let the 8 hens and 1 rooster out of their pen/roost (a chain-link fence and some old corrugated metal cobbed together) to free range in the area. At night they generally all went back on their own to the roost and we simply had to close and lock the pen gate. Every now and again they found a particularly good nesting spot in the burnt out house carcass or an alder tree and we'd have to manually move them into the pen area, but that didn't happen often. Morning and evenings we gave them some scratch and filled their feeder with layer mix, cleaned and refilled the water container, and also would give treats and goodies once or twice a day.
It all seemed pretty simple until one evening when a hen came up missing... my husband and I scoured the area for hours with head lamps and a shake-jar filled with scratch and dried mealy worms (this ALWAYS brought them running to us!). After 3-4 days of hopeful searches we finally gave her up as a goner, figuring she'd been nabbed by a predator. I felt SO awful having lost one of the girls on our watch - but our neighbors were very understanding and explained that this had happened in the past (raccoons at night), so overall we came to accept it as something "that happens" if you have free-range chickens. So, we were down to caring for 7 hens and 1 rooster when our neighbors informed us that they were not going to be able to find a new home that would allow them to keep their chickens. By that time we were totally in love with the girls (and Kramer the rooster), and there wasn't a chance in the world that we'd consider breaking them up or giving them to anyone else! After all, who couldn't care for 8 chickens, right?? It would be easy
Thus, ownership class started.... Chickens 101.... I spent hours on the internet reading up on chicken care, housing, food, breeding, etc. (BYC was quickly bookmarked as my main information resource). My husband brought home chicken magazines and books, and listened patiently to my plans, visions and dreams of the perfect chicken-tractor, organic eggs, and hens clucking contentedly while gracefully adorning our yard and and gently pecking in the gardens, ridding us of all those nasty bugs that are so troublesome in the vegetable garden...
How many of you chicken "sourdoughs" are
Anyhoo, one weekend in May 2012, one of my dear friends from work came over to our house to help me build a chicken-tractor for our 8 adoptees. It was a modified (enlarged significantly to house 10 large breed birds) Better Homes and Gardens design, and I figured we could "crank it out in a couple of weekends". We put a long day in on Saturday, and it became apparent that the project would take a bit longer than originally planned... so on Sunday morning I brought my friend down to the neighbor's property to meet our new chicken family, my fingers crossed that she would become as attached as I was - securing the much needed help on a rather large project
I'm an engineer by profession - and spend my time planning, preparing, calculating and assessing risks. I have become accustomed to things working out as I've planned, however, the world of chickens had "tilted" things. That Sunday my life was skewed cattywampas and turned completely upside down! As I was introducing my friend to this sweet and glorious flock of 10 SS, guess who arrived? Yep, our long lost "eaten" hen was back
So, that Sunday (Mother's Day to be exact) I became the proud Mother of 8 SS hens, 1 SS rooster, and 10 SS chicks! My husband in turn, has become the surrogate Father of the flock. Fortunately he has just as soft a heart as I when it comes to all creatures (feathered or furry)... and ever since this past Mother's Day has demonstrated the most extraordinary patience and fortitude with the flock, with me, and with my chicken "planning" endeavors that continue to go awry!
Again, those of you who are doing the math will recognize that our "planned" adoption has morphed from 8 SS to a total of 19 SS at this point in the story, but that still doesn't equal our "current" flock numbers of 18 SS + 4 BO +4 EE mentioned in my original thread posting.... I'll share the last bit of the story on my next post to this thread, I don't want to overwhelm you with much more "longwindedness" plus I've got to run again.
It is so much fun to share our experience with other poultry lovers... thanks again for your welcome and I hope you enjoyed this segment of our adventure!
Best Regards,
