We're new to chickens and have not had a great start. Due to a variety of reasons (egg bound hen, poisoned hen, coyote attack, and a hawk attack, etc) we lost 9 of our 11 orinigal chickens. Our 2 remaining hens are doing OK and one even started laying again! It's been cold here in MA with 3 feet of snow in the back yard for the last month. It was not a fun winter to have chickens, but it was OK with those 2 ladies. We have electric in the coop and water nearby, but the pipes froze. Generally, there was a lot of hauling of water, panic about wind and ice and zero tempos, and hiking to the back yard in pitch blackness at 4 pm to lock up 2 chickens that weren't even laying eggs.
We've had ups and downs with this bird experiment and I've been ready to say FORGET IT more than twice.
But, we bought 3 new chickens (ancona pullet, wellsummer pullet and ancona roo) that did their 30 days of quaratine in my garage and are now out in the coop. They are just about 17 weeks old. Introductions have been challenging as the coop is small, but things are OK. They seem to have turned a corner last night. Maybe the 50 degree temps on Friday will melt enough snow that they can actually get OUT of the run for a bit. Right now, there is about 6 feet of snow on one side and 2 on all others. It's like a chicken snow tunnel out there. At least it's not muddy (yet). Things are looking up.
We've made improvement plans. Our coop can hold 7 chickens. We are going to expand our covered run this summer. We used it only for emergencies and let the chickens free-range in our small fenced back yard. We are going to expand the run and hope that we don't lose any to the hawks this year. We're planting more cover shrubs and may hang CDs everywhere for good measure!! We have a plan.
I got an email yesterday from the farm supply store that they are ordering spring chicks. I couldn't resist and took a look at all the breeds they are offering. I NICE list! I broke down and ordered 4 more EE chicks. We LOVE the green eggs and our EE has been a great layer (after her 2 month break this winter).
So, I did it. I want to be closer to this food source and want to have a back yard flock. I've been saying this to myself over and over--- and I'm starting to listen! We have plans to add a small silkie coop out there, too. I have an order in for June.
I can honestly say that if it wasn't for this board, I'd never have done this in the first place. Certainly, I'd have quit months ago!
Thanks
We've had ups and downs with this bird experiment and I've been ready to say FORGET IT more than twice.
But, we bought 3 new chickens (ancona pullet, wellsummer pullet and ancona roo) that did their 30 days of quaratine in my garage and are now out in the coop. They are just about 17 weeks old. Introductions have been challenging as the coop is small, but things are OK. They seem to have turned a corner last night. Maybe the 50 degree temps on Friday will melt enough snow that they can actually get OUT of the run for a bit. Right now, there is about 6 feet of snow on one side and 2 on all others. It's like a chicken snow tunnel out there. At least it's not muddy (yet). Things are looking up.
We've made improvement plans. Our coop can hold 7 chickens. We are going to expand our covered run this summer. We used it only for emergencies and let the chickens free-range in our small fenced back yard. We are going to expand the run and hope that we don't lose any to the hawks this year. We're planting more cover shrubs and may hang CDs everywhere for good measure!! We have a plan.
I got an email yesterday from the farm supply store that they are ordering spring chicks. I couldn't resist and took a look at all the breeds they are offering. I NICE list! I broke down and ordered 4 more EE chicks. We LOVE the green eggs and our EE has been a great layer (after her 2 month break this winter).
So, I did it. I want to be closer to this food source and want to have a back yard flock. I've been saying this to myself over and over--- and I'm starting to listen! We have plans to add a small silkie coop out there, too. I have an order in for June.
I can honestly say that if it wasn't for this board, I'd never have done this in the first place. Certainly, I'd have quit months ago!
Thanks
