SlayedByRaptors
Chirping
- Jun 10, 2023
- 32
- 307
- 76
Hi everyone!
We live on a little over 5 acres in semi-rural Illinois. We had discussed chickens and bees since we moved out to our little slice of quiet life almost 6 years ago. This year, I decided I was ready and spoke with a lady in one of my Facebook groups who ran a small farm and raised many kinds of poultry. We decided to start with 12 chicks...a mix of Hampshire Red, Black Australorp, Buff Orpington, and Rhode Island Reds. Then I sprained my ankle roughly an hour before I needed to leave to go pick them up. It swelled up pretty big and was very sore, so I did what any woman excited to become a mother to raptors would do...yes, people. I asked my spouse to go pick up chicks. He took our son with him. They came home with 16 chicks instead of the 12 I'd arranged for.
They thought we'd lose some while we were raising them to adulthood, so got a few extra. Coyotes, feral cats, bobcats, hawks, owls, foxes, weasels, minks, skunks, raccoons, possum, snakes...they're all out here. While I anticipate that we will lose a few birds eventually, we haven't lost one yet.
The lady told them that there was a roughly 1 in 96 chance we'd end up with a rooster. Lucky us, we ended up with at least one...they're nearing 16 weeks now, so I'm pretty sure we only have the one. He was quite evident around 10 weeks old and started practicing his authoritative call about a week later. No matter how many times I assure him that we all hear him and he'smastered it, he continues to practice relentlessly.
I'm also an organic gardener, so they get a good supply of fresh goodies. They love the herbs, marigolds and rose petals, lettuce, corn, cherry tomatoes, peas, carrots and asparagus clippings, but strawberries are their absolute favorites. It's so entertaining to watch them play football with the berries when I toss a handful in. One hurdled two of the other girls, then launched herself off the back of the rooster yesterday trying to keep a strawberry all to herself.
We are just starting out and I've read many, many posts on this site, so I'm sure I'll be asking questions that I can't find the answers to eventually. Since we do want to hatch a few eggs every 6 months or so to keep a productive flock going, I'm sure we'll need advice. Right now, I'm just enjoying the constant show of hilarity and awaiting the abundance of fresh eggs we'll be seeing in the weeks to come.
If anyone had any suggestions on plants/trees I should grow to help feed these mini raptors, I'm always open to suggestions.
We live on a little over 5 acres in semi-rural Illinois. We had discussed chickens and bees since we moved out to our little slice of quiet life almost 6 years ago. This year, I decided I was ready and spoke with a lady in one of my Facebook groups who ran a small farm and raised many kinds of poultry. We decided to start with 12 chicks...a mix of Hampshire Red, Black Australorp, Buff Orpington, and Rhode Island Reds. Then I sprained my ankle roughly an hour before I needed to leave to go pick them up. It swelled up pretty big and was very sore, so I did what any woman excited to become a mother to raptors would do...yes, people. I asked my spouse to go pick up chicks. He took our son with him. They came home with 16 chicks instead of the 12 I'd arranged for.
They thought we'd lose some while we were raising them to adulthood, so got a few extra. Coyotes, feral cats, bobcats, hawks, owls, foxes, weasels, minks, skunks, raccoons, possum, snakes...they're all out here. While I anticipate that we will lose a few birds eventually, we haven't lost one yet.
The lady told them that there was a roughly 1 in 96 chance we'd end up with a rooster. Lucky us, we ended up with at least one...they're nearing 16 weeks now, so I'm pretty sure we only have the one. He was quite evident around 10 weeks old and started practicing his authoritative call about a week later. No matter how many times I assure him that we all hear him and he'smastered it, he continues to practice relentlessly.
I'm also an organic gardener, so they get a good supply of fresh goodies. They love the herbs, marigolds and rose petals, lettuce, corn, cherry tomatoes, peas, carrots and asparagus clippings, but strawberries are their absolute favorites. It's so entertaining to watch them play football with the berries when I toss a handful in. One hurdled two of the other girls, then launched herself off the back of the rooster yesterday trying to keep a strawberry all to herself.
We are just starting out and I've read many, many posts on this site, so I'm sure I'll be asking questions that I can't find the answers to eventually. Since we do want to hatch a few eggs every 6 months or so to keep a productive flock going, I'm sure we'll need advice. Right now, I'm just enjoying the constant show of hilarity and awaiting the abundance of fresh eggs we'll be seeing in the weeks to come.
If anyone had any suggestions on plants/trees I should grow to help feed these mini raptors, I'm always open to suggestions.
