PNWJewele
Songster
- Feb 18, 2019
- 81
- 275
- 107
This is my third time raising chickens. First time was in the early 80's with young kids. My dh thought it would be a good idea and it didn't turn out well. Raccoons (never saw them but that's what our neighbor said did it) killed over half of our dozen hens.
Next time wasn't until 2014 we went to Wilco for dog food and came home with 5 Plymouth Rock a.k.a. Barred Rock chicks. Everything was going great until 2017 when we lost one due to Egg Yolk Peritonitis. A few days later another one was dead with its head pulled under the chicken yard fence. The remaining three were killed by something when we were gone for a few days and our son was coming over to watch them. We thought it might have been a hawk or coyote although now after finding a half dozen baby weasels our cat killed, it may have been adults of those.
Last year, we were gifted a beautiful young Easter Egger pullet named Ophelia a week before she began laying very pretty blue eggs. We reinforced our coop with hardware cloth covering all openings and under the ground outside of but inside the coop. Our coop is small and was really not big enough when we had the five pretty large hens.
On February 7, we went to Wilco and I picked out three (8 day old) chicks to become flock mates with Ophie. Currently housed inside in a dog crate using a 75 watt regular bulb as they were too hot using the heat lamp. One of each shown left to right in the photo: Easter Egger, Speckled Sussex and Gold Laced Wyandotte.
When I researched all three of these breeds, when grown, they should be close to the same size as Ophelia. They will be three weeks old on the 20th and the Speckled Sussex is quite small compared to the other two.
I've been reading this forum off and on for years. May have signed up back in 2014 but if so, I don't remember any of the information.
Right now reading about the Mama Heating Pad brooder and how to make chicken tunnels.
Next time wasn't until 2014 we went to Wilco for dog food and came home with 5 Plymouth Rock a.k.a. Barred Rock chicks. Everything was going great until 2017 when we lost one due to Egg Yolk Peritonitis. A few days later another one was dead with its head pulled under the chicken yard fence. The remaining three were killed by something when we were gone for a few days and our son was coming over to watch them. We thought it might have been a hawk or coyote although now after finding a half dozen baby weasels our cat killed, it may have been adults of those.
Last year, we were gifted a beautiful young Easter Egger pullet named Ophelia a week before she began laying very pretty blue eggs. We reinforced our coop with hardware cloth covering all openings and under the ground outside of but inside the coop. Our coop is small and was really not big enough when we had the five pretty large hens.
On February 7, we went to Wilco and I picked out three (8 day old) chicks to become flock mates with Ophie. Currently housed inside in a dog crate using a 75 watt regular bulb as they were too hot using the heat lamp. One of each shown left to right in the photo: Easter Egger, Speckled Sussex and Gold Laced Wyandotte.
When I researched all three of these breeds, when grown, they should be close to the same size as Ophelia. They will be three weeks old on the 20th and the Speckled Sussex is quite small compared to the other two.
I've been reading this forum off and on for years. May have signed up back in 2014 but if so, I don't remember any of the information.
Right now reading about the Mama Heating Pad brooder and how to make chicken tunnels.
We are glad you joined this flock!
