Hey there from the Key Peninsula in Washington

The Homesteader

Hatching
5 Years
Sep 1, 2014
5
0
7
Key Peninsula, Washington
I'm Steph and I just finally decided to join BYC after looking so many things up on this site throughout this last year. I am so thankful for so much info available in one place and that most everyone seems friendly and supportive.

We bought our 1st house out here on 5 acres almost a year ago and the first thing we did was buy chicks and build a coop. We were both raised in the city and are having a blast out here on our Homestead!

We started with 6 chicks 1 buff orp, 3 RIR, and 2 EEs. They were all great but we lost one EE, she was found dead in the coop and had been partially eaten by the others. RIP Bella. The remaining 5 all started laying within about 7-8 day period right around 20 weeks. I was pretty impressed by how they all started so close together.

One of our RIR was killed by a bald eagle. RIP Cinnamon. So we were down to 4 (Buffy, Fuzzy, Paprika, and Tiny). We decided to get more chicks in March: 1RIR-Honey, 1Gold. Sex link-Mystery, 1BR-Curiosity aka blind Shelly, 1-Cuckoo Maran-Dr. Pepper (our Roo), 1-SS-Speedy, 1-Black sex link-Cookie, and 2EEs-Buttercup and Brownie.

We recently had attacks 3 days in a row so have finally decided to make a run. Previously they were in a very large fenced treed enclosure with no cover on top. We are going to make 4-5 600sqft runs that we can rotate them between.

Dr. Pepper saved one of our young EEs from another bald eagle and luckily my brother saved him from the eagle too. Unfortunately, he had a couple bald spots above and below his tail feathers and some of the girls were pecking at him and making it worse. So he is separated and lonely for a while.

While I was very excited about getting the baby chicks to start with, I thoroughly enjoy caring for these funny and cute creatures. It's very relaxing watching them. We currently have 9-10 laying out of 11. Not too shabby! With 9 eggs being our top laying day! We are considering getting some meat birds and we've just purchased some wood for a new coop. I had a blast building the first one with my husband James, so l look forward to this one as well.

That's my story. Thanks for reading it :)
 
Welcome to BYC. Glad you decided to join our flock. I'm sorry about your losses. It's always sad to lose some of our flock. Be sure and use hardware cloth on your run, not chicken wire as there are too many predators that can either tear through hardware cloth or sueeze through the openings in the mesh. Hardware cloth is more expensive to purchase than chicken wire, but it's cheaper than replacing your flock. Hardware cloth has saved many chicken owners a lot of tears. You have a nice mix of good layers. I've raised Black Sex Links for years and they are my favorite kind of chicken; hardy, friendly, egg laying machines. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck in building your runs and with your flock.
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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So glad you could join our community!

Sorry about all the Eagle attacks. You will definitely want to use a good hardware cloth on your run. Large Hawks and Eagles can crash right through chicken wire. Last week I had a large Hawk come in for a chick that was along side the inside of the run. He landed right on the side of the hardware cloth, not even seeing it and just clung there with his talons. He was a heavy Hawk and I could hear how loud his weight came crashing into the wire. If I had had chicken wire on my run, he would have come right through. Lots of critters can chew right through chicken wire, not to mention bears too. So build it like fort knox! Like you yourself are going to sleep in there! Ha!

Sounds like you are enjoying your flock! Chickens are so much fun to keep and sit with. Very relaxing.

Enjoy all your adventures with your birds and welcome to our flock!
 
Thanks for the welcome and info. Will have to talk to my husband about the hardware cloth as we've added chicken wire to the existing cattle fencing(I'm not sure what it's called). I sure wouldn't like to lose any more! My dog is a good help against predators though. So hopefully that will do until we can afford the upgrade.
 
Welcome to BYC! Please make yourself at home and we are here to help.

So sorry about the attacks!
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X2 on using hardware cloth. Very helpful. Do not use chicken wire as it's weak, flimsy and a welcoming to predators.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! Sorry about your losses, good luck with the rest of the flock!
 

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