My name is Susan and I've been a chicken owner for 19 days now. I have 3 Red Star sex-link started pullets and two of them are laying eggs. One was a double yolk. I live in a surburban neighborhood where chickens are not allowed and therefore call my girls Team 3 Stealth Chickens. I have a portable ark style coop with an attached run - a total of 40 square feet of room to tear up the ground, which consists of weeds and grass. I love my set up so far, and every day I move it to a new patch of ground after the girls have gone to roost. I made them a dust bath which they use to scratch and poop but they prefer to dig their own hole each day.
I researched many chicken sites, including this one, and read up on everything I could get my hands on to learn about chickens. Clean and dry and bio-security - layer food, healthy greens, fresh air, sun and shade, clean water, vaccinated, locked up at night, and they are not running loose. (I have hawks and I cannot risk them running over to anybody else's property). These girls are quiet - so far - they whine to me for clover when they see me. Only one morning - when I released their ladder just as the sun was coming up - ran back to bed - and heard one singing the most beautiful rendition of greeting the morning - it woke me up. They are in my backyard under my bedroom window - so I opened my window and hollered out BUP BUUUUP, BUP BUUUUUP - and she stopped. That is my signal call to them. Now - I wait until the sun is up for a short while and they are awake in the roost and when I let them out they just race to food. Not that I don't like hearing them - but you know.
I also have 6 cats (indoor only) and I have 1/3 acre property, partially wooded, and extensive gardens filled with shrubs, mostly perennial flowers, and enjoy feeding wild birds also, although I've moved that activity as far from my chickens as possible, many months before I got the chickens.
I work full time and have one son who is in college. I always wanted chickens and love all animals and wish I had a hobby farm. Maybe one day when I grow up
I looked at many breeds and some chickens are so beautiful but decided on the Red Star production type bird and I could not be more pleased. They are friendly, lay good, quiet, and have pretty markings on their feathers. I won't have to worry about broodiness and they seem OK with the coop size and set up. Before they came here they were floor raised. I bought them from McMurray Hatchery and they shipped from Ohio. Unfortunately, they trim the upper beak. I called ahead of time to ask if they could not do that, but they do it as a matter of course, except now they are selling started pullets, other than production, where they don't do that. Maybe they will grow back - but they eat OK, except perhaps tiny ants and the like. If I could had done otherwise I would have as I don't agree with beak trimming for the most part - because birds should not be stressed to the point one has to prevent them from pecking each other to death - but that is another topic,
Anyway - glad to join the forum and I look forward to reading lots of posts. Cheers!
-Susan
I researched many chicken sites, including this one, and read up on everything I could get my hands on to learn about chickens. Clean and dry and bio-security - layer food, healthy greens, fresh air, sun and shade, clean water, vaccinated, locked up at night, and they are not running loose. (I have hawks and I cannot risk them running over to anybody else's property). These girls are quiet - so far - they whine to me for clover when they see me. Only one morning - when I released their ladder just as the sun was coming up - ran back to bed - and heard one singing the most beautiful rendition of greeting the morning - it woke me up. They are in my backyard under my bedroom window - so I opened my window and hollered out BUP BUUUUP, BUP BUUUUUP - and she stopped. That is my signal call to them. Now - I wait until the sun is up for a short while and they are awake in the roost and when I let them out they just race to food. Not that I don't like hearing them - but you know.
I also have 6 cats (indoor only) and I have 1/3 acre property, partially wooded, and extensive gardens filled with shrubs, mostly perennial flowers, and enjoy feeding wild birds also, although I've moved that activity as far from my chickens as possible, many months before I got the chickens.
I work full time and have one son who is in college. I always wanted chickens and love all animals and wish I had a hobby farm. Maybe one day when I grow up
I looked at many breeds and some chickens are so beautiful but decided on the Red Star production type bird and I could not be more pleased. They are friendly, lay good, quiet, and have pretty markings on their feathers. I won't have to worry about broodiness and they seem OK with the coop size and set up. Before they came here they were floor raised. I bought them from McMurray Hatchery and they shipped from Ohio. Unfortunately, they trim the upper beak. I called ahead of time to ask if they could not do that, but they do it as a matter of course, except now they are selling started pullets, other than production, where they don't do that. Maybe they will grow back - but they eat OK, except perhaps tiny ants and the like. If I could had done otherwise I would have as I don't agree with beak trimming for the most part - because birds should not be stressed to the point one has to prevent them from pecking each other to death - but that is another topic,
Anyway - glad to join the forum and I look forward to reading lots of posts. Cheers!
-Susan
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from Ohio. So glad you joined. 
