How I went from egg hobby to obsession

[MissTracy]

You hatched 91 chicks today?!?!

LOL NOOOOOOOO
91 Total bird count. I hatched six and got three.
Omfg could you imagine?

 

[AngBantamLuv]

I would love to have as many as you! Plus the yard space

I only have 3... house chickens! Minnie and Daisy are my d'Uccles and Elsa is my splash bantam cochin love them.

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

Oh, okay!! That would be a lot of baby chicks!! (Says the one who has two brooders of chicks in her bedroom [15 babies total] and is expecting 25 more chicks next month).

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

I'm up to 80 total bird count currently. Well, total chicken count. I also have Frank and Joe the parakeets.

 

[MissTracy]

I'm up to 80 total bird count currently. Well, total chicken count. I also have Frank and Joe the parakeets.

Yes ma’am. I include my guineas, but we also have three dogs, two barn cats, and two guinea pigs. Oh and there’s my husband and three kids from teen to toddler.
I am constantly feeding something

 

[TropicalBabies]

LOL NOOOOOOOO
91 Total bird count. I hatched six and got three.
Omfg could you imagine?

Yes

 

[TropicalBabies]

Oh my goodness, fun thread and it makes me feel way better about my math. I am the pillar of restraint!! I only hit 62 @ my best so far. And chicks don't really count as chickens... at least that is what I tell my DH and it some how works

You must have some fabulous room and boundless energy. How about an update?

 

[MissTracy]

We are a million percent enjoying the warm weather! Everything on our little homestead is blooming and turning green green green!

I am expecting our first Serama and Brahma hatch in just eleven short days... I thought I was going to hatch on Easter but then I remembered that I cannot count or read calendars apparently.

I am also attempting my first Little Giant still-air hatch. It has been a challenge compared to my NR360. I feel like I am constantly checking on it. 35 eggs to start, we’ll see how bad at that I am

My guinea flock is SLOWLY getting going as far as laying goes. I am on a waitlist for orders of hatching eggs, which is not my favorite thing because it’s sort of making me anxious and I hate it.
On the other hand, all of my seedlings are doing well and I hope to plant lots of flowers and other seeds after the cold snap this week!

I am selling all of my eating eggs, about two dozen per day on average. My first hatch of La Fleche chicks found a new home, and my barred rock chicks are growing up so fast!!

I will have to build a separate enclosure for them so they will breed true (maybe as early as this Fall?) and I can have another breed of hatching eggs/chicks.
I also randomly started wanting to get more Columbian Wyandotte. I have one hen, but now for some reason I want to breed them too. I need to press pause on myself before I outgrow my britches

How is everyone else’s Spring coming along? Happy Easter!!! Oh, and my cat caught a rat. It was huge. He ate the whole thing.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Spring?!!! My chickens are driving me crazy. I live in a warm climate and feel a little robbed by winter this year. Very mild, so I am eyeballing spring suspiciously and certainly not ready for summer.
Yes, you need another pen or two or three. Sounds like you are able to have it help pay for itself with sales so major bonus in feeding and enabling your "chicken habit". What do you do with your boy chickens?

My Brahma (light, Buff & Dark) roo's are all big and beautiful, mini bachelor coop is built, I just need another step up to the roost and some nest boxes and I'll (gulp) let a few pretty ladies in with them..? Well, that was the plan but I find myself in no hurry, these girls just started laying less than a month ago and I still have a few stragglers from my last incubation and broody hen of barnyards- all boys left of course . With Spring springing and everybody in such a ruckus I just want to take a step back and let things settle. I'm sure the feed stores have things in hand. I am also down 2 light Brahma hens. I really, really, really don't want to raise any chicks now (did I really say that?!! wow!!)
Our summers are too hot for POL, I like summer chicks so maybe by then I will feel differently.


Nice job on the rat!! Good kitty and beautiful photos. Happy Spring folks!!

 

[MissTracy]

Spring?!!! My chickens are driving me crazy. I live in a warm climate and feel a little robbed by winter this year. Very mild, so I am eyeballing spring suspiciously and certainly not ready for summer.
Yes, you need another pen or two or three. Sounds like you are able to have it help pay for itself with sales so major bonus in feeding and enabling your "chicken habit". What do you do with your boy chickens?

My Brahma (light, Buff & Dark) roo's are all big and beautiful, mini bachelor coop is built, I just need another step up to the roost and some nest boxes and I'll (gulp) let a few pretty ladies in with them..? Well, that was the plan but I find myself in no hurry, these girls just started laying less than a month ago and I still have a few stragglers from my last incubation and broody hen of barnyards- all boys left of course . With Spring springing and everybody in such a ruckus I just want to take a step back and let things settle. I'm sure the feed stores have things in hand. I am also down 2 light Brahma hens. I really, really, really don't want to raise any chicks now (did I really say that?!! wow!!)
Our summers are too hot for POL, I like summer chicks so maybe by then I will feel differently.


Nice job on the rat!! Good kitty and beautiful photos. Happy Spring folks!!

So I lost my favorite hen this past weekend, Bess. I am so broken hearted. I put the girls up like I always do and lo and behold, she just wasn’t in there. A fox got her, and buried the rest of her in the mulch my husband just happened to be moving the next day. I buried her and built her a cross.