- Nov 21, 2009
- 13
- 0
- 22
Hi everyone,
My name's Lea and I am finally posting here!
The reason is to celebrate!
It's been a long journey, difficult at times. I started this spring with 6 chicks. We reared them in a bin with a screen over the top and a heat lamp. We were planning on building their coop as they grew, but time flew by and soon they were too big for that bin! We got some furring strips and chicken wire and built a little square fence. During the day we would move the fence outside, then wrangle the chickens up and get them in there. They would spend the day enjoying the sunshine and then we would repeat the process at night, bringing them into my garage. During this time we, (actually, mostly me) built my chicken coop. (Actually, it's not even done yet...)
As I was building the coop in my driveway, I usually let the chickens free range. By this time they were getting cramped in their little fence, so they enjoyed the time out. They were right by me, and a FOX ran out and muched on one. I was right there! In the middle of the day! I bolted towards it, and was about two inches away from kicking that fox off the map before it ran away. The chicken was wounded but not fatally. My first chicken injury! Her foot was scraped up and there was a good gash under her wing. Luckily I just cleaned it up a little and she couldn't walk, and then limped for a couple weeks, but it healed fine and I can't even tell which chicken was hurt anymore.
So I got the coop built (Thanks to this forum and a few other sites!). A few things had to be done, but it was livable while I worked on it now. We had a particularly stormy, windy, and rainy night and the service door fell down. OOPS! Two of the chickens went missing, but one showed up the next afternoon. -1.
Just a week or so later, someone (me) got the bright idea to let them out for a few hours. It had been a long time now since the fox, and the people down the road free range their chickens all the time... I had intended to watch them, but things came up and I had to go. After a few minutes of failed chicken-wrangling, I had to give up and go. One didn't come back
So we are down to four chickens.
But anyways
We got our first eggs! I was crawling around in chicken poo making some adjustments to the built in feeder so they wouldn't waste so much when all the sudden I spotted one on the ground! It was itty bitty
I took it inside right away smiling
Then we went back outside to finish the work. While I was clamping the part for the glue to dry, we found four more buried in the bedding in the corner! (Is it normal for chickens to bury their eggs?)
I don't have a picture of the first itty-bitty egg (it was small like a robins egg hehe) but here's a picture of the four other (still small) eggs! With a few of the chickies in the background.
(ok, I'm done
)
My name's Lea and I am finally posting here!
The reason is to celebrate!
It's been a long journey, difficult at times. I started this spring with 6 chicks. We reared them in a bin with a screen over the top and a heat lamp. We were planning on building their coop as they grew, but time flew by and soon they were too big for that bin! We got some furring strips and chicken wire and built a little square fence. During the day we would move the fence outside, then wrangle the chickens up and get them in there. They would spend the day enjoying the sunshine and then we would repeat the process at night, bringing them into my garage. During this time we, (actually, mostly me) built my chicken coop. (Actually, it's not even done yet...)
As I was building the coop in my driveway, I usually let the chickens free range. By this time they were getting cramped in their little fence, so they enjoyed the time out. They were right by me, and a FOX ran out and muched on one. I was right there! In the middle of the day! I bolted towards it, and was about two inches away from kicking that fox off the map before it ran away. The chicken was wounded but not fatally. My first chicken injury! Her foot was scraped up and there was a good gash under her wing. Luckily I just cleaned it up a little and she couldn't walk, and then limped for a couple weeks, but it healed fine and I can't even tell which chicken was hurt anymore.
So I got the coop built (Thanks to this forum and a few other sites!). A few things had to be done, but it was livable while I worked on it now. We had a particularly stormy, windy, and rainy night and the service door fell down. OOPS! Two of the chickens went missing, but one showed up the next afternoon. -1.
Just a week or so later, someone (me) got the bright idea to let them out for a few hours. It had been a long time now since the fox, and the people down the road free range their chickens all the time... I had intended to watch them, but things came up and I had to go. After a few minutes of failed chicken-wrangling, I had to give up and go. One didn't come back
So we are down to four chickens.
But anyways
We got our first eggs! I was crawling around in chicken poo making some adjustments to the built in feeder so they wouldn't waste so much when all the sudden I spotted one on the ground! It was itty bitty
I don't have a picture of the first itty-bitty egg (it was small like a robins egg hehe) but here's a picture of the four other (still small) eggs! With a few of the chickies in the background.
(ok, I'm done
Last edited:
