Hi there, my name is Katie, im from Wauconda, illinois. I keep my polo horses at a private farm, been there for about 8 months or so. In the process of being there about a month, the owner of the propertt was given 25 hens and 3 roosters. She knew absolutely nothing about taking care of them. Neither did I. Ive never been around chickens before. However, another member of our polo team has 50 Argentine hens and babysat for her farm a couple times. I grew into loving her chickens and their goofy way of life. They lady whom was givin the chickens/roosters to had no clue how to take care of them. She didnt feed them anything except let them free range on her property. The eggs her hens were laying were not "eggs". They were squishy soft and rotten. I explained to her right away they needed food. They dont just forage through the grass alone. Anyhow i went and bought them layer feed and add a little bit of cracked corn for a tasty treat on top. Within a couple days they started laying eggs. She gave up completely on the chickens and I've basically inherited them. Under her eye, she lost all the chickens down to 8. They were picked off by local coyotes, foxes, and chicken hawks. I explained to her they cant go unsupervised EVER. unless she gets a chicken run that is completely closed in. So that's when she gave up on them. Ive had the last 8 chickens left and kept all of them safe and healthy the last 9 months!! Go me!! We had 1 chicken, 6 laying hens, and two bantam roosters. We had a full size rooster but he brutally attacked her 3 yo son, (her fault) he was protecting his hens. Needless to say she gave him to someone else to use him for breeding. Now our one little girl I call "fee-fee" never laid any eggs. The lady told me she was plenty old enough, I beg to differ because she laid her first egg christmas eve and has been laying ever since. Previous to her first egg, she never laid anything then last 7 months. So its safe to say she wasntbold enough as her "thing" (im forgetting what its called) on her head recently got darker red and a little bigger after she started laying. Now I have 1 bantam chicken, 5 fullsize hens, and two bantam roosters. Healthy as can be with excellent egg quality and production. For some reason the bantam sized chicken got picked on big time from the bigger girls. They plucked her and ripped alot of her feathers out. I felt so horrible I just let her have free roam of the barn at all times. She DOES NOT like being in with them at night or on cold days. She always their first target so she has become the spoiled one. She like a dog. She follows me everywhere and is waiting for me in front of the barn door every morning. She cant wait to jump in my lap and fall asleep. I have completely fallen in chicken love. I almost know exactly what shes saying to me. She has her free-range time with the chickens everyday and they all get along. But because of the cold weather they go out for an hour and willingly come back in. They big hens go back into their big mare/foal stall and fee-fee knows to stay in the aisle until I close the door. Its routine now. And I've always got a watchful eye on all them while im picking through stalls 
my mini horse clyde loves her to pieces. I actually catch fee-fee on his back sometimes catching some zzz's..they've become best of friends. I just wonder why they choose to pick on her and only so bad when they go back in the stall? I have plenty for them to do in there. They can lay, hang out on all the sticks set up (which they usually are), pick at the cabbage balls hanging from the ceiling, they have a bale of hay to pick through every couple days etc...I also was wondering what kind of chickens they all are? Im so new to all this and would love to know more about them. Im going to take an individual picture of each one and post it to my profile on here so y'all can take a look and let me know. Also one of our chickens has some weird looking feet. She gets around just fine, doesnt look like shes in pain at all but they sure look twisted and weird. Anyhow ill post all those shortly. I already have some posted if you can tell me what kind they are and what you know about them I would be so thankful!! Happy Chickening to you all!!!!
my mini horse clyde loves her to pieces. I actually catch fee-fee on his back sometimes catching some zzz's..they've become best of friends. I just wonder why they choose to pick on her and only so bad when they go back in the stall? I have plenty for them to do in there. They can lay, hang out on all the sticks set up (which they usually are), pick at the cabbage balls hanging from the ceiling, they have a bale of hay to pick through every couple days etc...I also was wondering what kind of chickens they all are? Im so new to all this and would love to know more about them. Im going to take an individual picture of each one and post it to my profile on here so y'all can take a look and let me know. Also one of our chickens has some weird looking feet. She gets around just fine, doesnt look like shes in pain at all but they sure look twisted and weird. Anyhow ill post all those shortly. I already have some posted if you can tell me what kind they are and what you know about them I would be so thankful!! Happy Chickening to you all!!!!
