- Jun 20, 2010
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Somehow I think I have done this before, but maybe you purge inactive members? Or maybe I read but never joined. I have been keeping chickens since 1986. I knew nothing when I started, I knew no one to ask, and there was no internet. I bought adult hens, whom I now realize were almost surely past their prime. But we enjoyed having them and the occasional egg was an exciting bonus. Then I discovered chicks at the feed store, also books about raising chickens. It has been an interesting journey. I forget what else I should tell you. I think I have around 75 chickens. At this point most of them are “barnyard mix,” but there are still RIR’s, New Hampshire Reds, Easter Eggers, a Cucoo Maran, a Buff Brahama, a Cochin who is dark brown and black sort of penciled, can't remember the type. But most of them are mutts who have hatched here. I have one hen who started brooding Jan1, whose chicks appeared on schedule on a night when it was 16 degrees. She had let me move her to a small coop which I covered with tarps, and put in warming pads and a heat lamp. They are fine. It is a nuisance to undo the tarps to hive them water and food though, a task which awaits me soon. Two others are brooding in the coop. One I tried to move to a dog crate but she was having none of it and went back to the same nest when released. Every day I have to remove unmarked eggs, and some days I have to carefully wipe off her remaining eggs because a nasty egg eater has pecked one and made a mess. I know wiping them is bad but I have had them hatch and they don’t hatch covered by egg goo. I’d say my biggest perplexity about chickens is how to get broody hens to accept being moved. My biggest need is more small broody houses. My biggest fault is being too soft-hearted and too lazy to dispatch birds that should be dispatched! Anyway, I have eggs in the incubator so that I can give those hens chicks if their much abused eggs do not hatch. What else? I am 69, was a nurse and then a disability analyst for Social Security. I miss being a nurse but not being a bureaucrat. I am married, 50 years this coming June, have 9 grown children, 12 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. That’s about it for now!
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