Hi from Virginia

[chickens in VA]

Hi everyone,

I'm about to acquire my first chickens in rural Virginia. They're 3-4 year old Golden Comet adoptees - laying is slowing down, and their current owner has replaced them with new chicks, so either I get them or the foxes do! I plan to treat them primarily as pets - any eggs will just be a nice bonus. Their current family has treated them fairly well, but definitely views them as livestock, so any advice on acclimatizing them and getting them to bond with me would be much appreciated. I've never had chickens before, though I have had lots of other birds - parrots and injured wild birds I've rehabbed.

I've been reading this forum a lot to get ideas and insights on all things chickens. I bought an Eglu Cube based on reviews from people who had it, and so far am underwhelmed (it arrived badly scuffed up and Omlet customer service doesn't want to do anything about it, but I might start another thread on that!). I haven't actually put it together yet, though, and of course the chickens aren't here to move in yet either. Eventually the plan is for the chickens to free range within a fenced in area which will also contain a guardian llama and a pygmy goat, and just return to their coop whenever they like. For now, though, there's still quite a bit of construction going on at my property and the llama, goat and fence are plans for the future (I was planning to wait on chickens too, but since it was either me or the foxes...). So I'm planning to keep the chickens in their coop/run unless I'm around to supervise their free ranging.

Happy to meet you all and look forward to sharing chicken experiences!

 

[nj2wv]

Welcome to BYC !!

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi

Glad you could join the flock! That's so nice of you to take these golden comet hens in and save them from the foxes. The learning centre is a great place to start for lots of info on getting going with your chicken adventures. Here is the link for a lovely section of the canter https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/getting-started-raising-chickens

I have looked at the eglu cube and although it looked great I wasn't sure on the actual room in it, plus it's a bit pricey but I would certainly persevere in complaining to them that's it's bashed up.

Wishing you the very best of luck with your new hens when they arrive I hope your llama and goat get on with them. I would love to have a goat but just don't have the room right now.

Enjoy BYC and all the chicken chat

 

[N F C]

Welcome to BYC!

Golden Comets are one of the names Red Sex Link hybrids go by and they are such nice birds (at least ours are). Thank you for taking them in and I hope you enjoy them as much as we have.

If you have questions, feel free to ask.

Good luck to you and nice to have you join us!

 

[chickens in VA]

Thanks everyone! For those of you who have Golden Comets, do you have any sense of how long they're expected to live? I've read conflicting information and am a tad concerned because I gather they're basically bred to produce a lot of eggs fast and then get out of the way. It's probably either impossible and/or too late, but I'm wondering if there's any way I can slow down the process for them at this point. ;-)

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[N F C]

Thanks everyone! For those of you who have Golden Comets, do you have any sense of how long they're expected to live? I've read conflicting information and am a tad concerned because I gather they're basically bred to produce a lot of eggs fast and then get out of the way. It's probably either impossible and/or too late, but I'm wondering if there's any way I can slow down the process for them at this point. ;-)

I have also read reports that they are shorter-living birds than others. What I have been doing is not using supplemental lighting. I'm going to let nature take the lead and if the daylight hours are shorter and I a few fewer eggs from the RSL, that's ok, I can live with that. You want to also be sure they are getting adequate nutrition with enough calcium and protein. That's the way I'm doing it anyway. I'll have to wait to see how it works out because my girls are only 1 year old.

 

[drumstick diva]

You may want to tell the Omlet folks that you are a member of Backyard Chickens, with over 330,000 members around the globe. They will all have a chance to read about the shoddy condition their product arrived in., at your home.

Welcome to the Backyard chickens flock

 

[chickens in VA]

I have also read reports that they are shorter-living birds than others. What I have been doing is not using supplemental lighting. I'm going to let nature take the lead and if the daylight hours are shorter and I a few fewer eggs from the RSL, that's ok, I can live with that. You want to also be sure they are getting adequate nutrition with enough calcium and protein. That's the way I'm doing it anyway. I'll have to wait to see how it works out because my girls are only 1 year old.

Thanks! I've read about the supplemental lighting being bad too, so I am also planning not to do that. Good to have some confirmation! I think my future adoptees may already have calcium issues, since according to Susan, their current ''mom'', at least one of them is eating her/their own eggs. Susan doesn't give them oyster shell, though, and I am planning to.

 

[chickens in VA]

You may want to tell the Omlet folks that you are a member of Backyard Chickens, with over 330,000 members around the globe. They will all have a chance to read about the shoddy condition their product arrived in., at your home.

Welcome to the Backyard chickens flock

Yes, I think I may have to do that! Apparently they're notoriously bad at responding to customer complaints - since my coop arrived in such a mess, I've been googling and found a number of threads even at Omlet's own forum where posters have had the same issue I did with the coop coming all scratched and/or the much more serious issue of gaps between the parts when assembled and resultant leaks. Omlet always seems to dismiss any of these problems by telling customers ''there's nothing wrong with the coop'' even when clear evidence is to the contrary! A poster here responded to the separate thread I started about the coop damage, saying that s/he had just tried to assemble an Eglu and was having the gaps problem, so maybe we'll have to see how Omlet responds to the BYC threat. ;-)