My name is Suzie & I am a hatch-a-holic. When I first moved to the "country" I was NOT interested in chickens. My neighbor runs a chicken ranch & has well over 1000 birds. What a strange noise to wake up to, I thought, listening to the cacophony of roosters. Honestly, I didn't know what it was that first morning. I never heard so many roosters at one time.
Well, that first year passed and then my husband retired. Since he was always at home, I noticed there was never any food in the house anymore. Then my boss found out I lived next to a chicken ranch. He used to have chickens that laid blue eggs & asked me if I could get him some chicks. Blue eggs?!?! Chickens lay BLUE EGGS??? I was intrigued. So I did some research...
Found out Ameraucanas laid blue eggs. Searched Craigslist & found a listing for some chicks about an hours drive away from me. So off I went. I bought 12 straight run chicks & figured I'd keep only 4 hens, give my boss however many he wanted, & my neighbor could have the rest. I mean, after all, 4 hens is enough to provide my husband with snack food, right???
WRONG! My boss moved on to a promotion & never answered my many text messages about his blue-egg laying chicks. Fine! I'll keep them then. I got attached anyway.
Then my friend runs a farmstand a few miles away. She was selling eggs like crazy!!! Problem was, she was buying eggs from a local farmer, then raising the price by a dollar or two to make some profit. I thought she could use some chooks of her own. Then she could collect her own eggs & keep all the profits. So I bought her some RIRs since I read they were egg-laying machines. But she didn't have a coop yet & I kept them here until they were about 9 months old. By then, I was collecting about 6 eggs a day! This is NEAT!! I kept some, but sold the rest to my neighbor...yes, the one who raises chickens. Apparently his chooks don't lay in cold weather. But those RIRs did!
Well, my friend finally got her coop up & running. I was sad to let go of those RIRs I bought for her, but I found someone on Craigslist who was rehoming 5 chooks. I brought them home to fill the hole in my heart left by the missing RIRs.
Now the babies start up. She found a baby chicken running around her farm & was sooo excited! She caught it & was playing with it, when all of the sudden, she realized she lost the mom. Not being able to find her & knowing the baby could not survive with out her, we did the only logical thing to do...buy some baby chick friends for it!
Since my friend wants to raise chooks to start her egg business, she decided to build an incubator. It looked so easy, that I did one myself. But before I could test it, I found a baby chicken screaming his head off for a mom who was gone (maybe to a predator attack?) So I scooped up that baby & the abandoned(?) eggs & brought them home. The eggs went into my homemade incubator & the baby went into my brooder along with some new friends bought at the local feed store in his honor.
My homemade bator hatched 6 eggs, but only 3 survived. It must have been my bator. Eggtopsies showed at least 9 more had developed full term. I didn't want that to happen again, so I went & bought a Brinsea ECO 20 (called my Eggo)
Now that I have a real, functioning incubator, I have to test it, right? So into the Eggo went every egg I could pack into it! I hatched 17 out of 21 eggs. Not bad for a first timer. To date, I am on my 2nd batch of eggs & I currently own 16 adult hens, 7 juveniles & 16 fluffy butts! So much for keeping only 4 hens for some eggs. What was I thinking!
So there you have it. My life in a nutshell...err...eggshell? Yeah, I need a straight jacket!!
Well, that first year passed and then my husband retired. Since he was always at home, I noticed there was never any food in the house anymore. Then my boss found out I lived next to a chicken ranch. He used to have chickens that laid blue eggs & asked me if I could get him some chicks. Blue eggs?!?! Chickens lay BLUE EGGS??? I was intrigued. So I did some research...
Found out Ameraucanas laid blue eggs. Searched Craigslist & found a listing for some chicks about an hours drive away from me. So off I went. I bought 12 straight run chicks & figured I'd keep only 4 hens, give my boss however many he wanted, & my neighbor could have the rest. I mean, after all, 4 hens is enough to provide my husband with snack food, right???
WRONG! My boss moved on to a promotion & never answered my many text messages about his blue-egg laying chicks. Fine! I'll keep them then. I got attached anyway.
Then my friend runs a farmstand a few miles away. She was selling eggs like crazy!!! Problem was, she was buying eggs from a local farmer, then raising the price by a dollar or two to make some profit. I thought she could use some chooks of her own. Then she could collect her own eggs & keep all the profits. So I bought her some RIRs since I read they were egg-laying machines. But she didn't have a coop yet & I kept them here until they were about 9 months old. By then, I was collecting about 6 eggs a day! This is NEAT!! I kept some, but sold the rest to my neighbor...yes, the one who raises chickens. Apparently his chooks don't lay in cold weather. But those RIRs did!
Well, my friend finally got her coop up & running. I was sad to let go of those RIRs I bought for her, but I found someone on Craigslist who was rehoming 5 chooks. I brought them home to fill the hole in my heart left by the missing RIRs.
Now the babies start up. She found a baby chicken running around her farm & was sooo excited! She caught it & was playing with it, when all of the sudden, she realized she lost the mom. Not being able to find her & knowing the baby could not survive with out her, we did the only logical thing to do...buy some baby chick friends for it!
Since my friend wants to raise chooks to start her egg business, she decided to build an incubator. It looked so easy, that I did one myself. But before I could test it, I found a baby chicken screaming his head off for a mom who was gone (maybe to a predator attack?) So I scooped up that baby & the abandoned(?) eggs & brought them home. The eggs went into my homemade incubator & the baby went into my brooder along with some new friends bought at the local feed store in his honor.
My homemade bator hatched 6 eggs, but only 3 survived. It must have been my bator. Eggtopsies showed at least 9 more had developed full term. I didn't want that to happen again, so I went & bought a Brinsea ECO 20 (called my Eggo)
Now that I have a real, functioning incubator, I have to test it, right? So into the Eggo went every egg I could pack into it! I hatched 17 out of 21 eggs. Not bad for a first timer. To date, I am on my 2nd batch of eggs & I currently own 16 adult hens, 7 juveniles & 16 fluffy butts! So much for keeping only 4 hens for some eggs. What was I thinking!
So there you have it. My life in a nutshell...err...eggshell? Yeah, I need a straight jacket!!
