- May 19, 2013
- 55
- 2
- 41
Hey I'm colton. I'm new to BYC and chickens really. I just got my girls in february. I finally got the go ahead last year around june last year. Ive wanted chickens for an extremely long time. I always wanted to share in my grandmas stories of her childhood of tending her chickens and guineas as well as my dads same stories with his chickens and geese. I really got the bug in 4th grade when we hatched eggs in class. I found the experience so fun and i was hooked. Well after my go ahead came the coming of my new adventure. First came my coop in august, which made the wait for my chicks half a year later quite the painful wait. After that was the flood of chicken books, magazines, and other apparel by all my family members and the studying began, but no amount of studying could prepare me for this experience. My first chicks were 11 barred rocks I got at our local farm store. Much of my equipment i inherited from my grandpa or we had on hand, but just in getting my equipment came my first lessons. So for any fellow beginers you can learn from some of my mistakes. My first mistake was getting to small of a chick feeder. I bought a simple round feeder without the jar attachment thinking,"...surely 11 chicks cant eat that much." Well needless to say I was quite wrong as 11 chicks turned to 14. Soon after a friend of mine had some chicks he needed to get rid of. He had two breeds for me to pick from, but he forgot what breeds they were. He had some yellow ones, which i decided were either gonna be buff orpingtons or white rocks, and what he thought was rhode island red crosses. Thus my second lesson. Chickens are racist. I decided I would take 2 of, what I later decided to be welsummers, and 1 or the, what turned out to be a buff orpington. As soon as I put my little additions in with my original group my welsummer fit right in and went about their business but my poor buff orp immedietaly got picked on. She still does too, but she does like being with people and shes learned to hold her own. My second lesson was plan even farther ahead and dont underestimate their growth rate. Soon my girls far outgrew there 50 gallon tote and into a dog exercise pet. Also i learned quickly to watch the birds to judge the temp not the "rule of thumb". I also needed to have researched my breeds even more. I had read that barred rocks were a docile breed but had not looking into how they are with other chickens. They beat up on each other and my poor buff but they cant catch the welsummers luckily. I quickly learned welsummers dont like to be messed with and love to fly. Now 16 weeks old all my birds happily rest on the rop two perches in there coop but my two welsummers stay up in the rafters. For sure this has been quite the adventure and it doesnt show a soon end. My family and I have loved the entire experience and i'm sure our new found hobby shall grow. Well thats a little intro of me and my flock. Sorry it was so long I get windy. Feel free for anyone to comment or give any advice for future knowledge. I look forward to talking and getting to know everyone here, and i'm sure i'm gonna learn a lot.
yeah they get a bit jealous xD I don't hang out here too often, but I do hope I'll see you around 
Have fun with them and welcome to BYC!
