I am a new chicken owner - since February 2014. My wife says I have too many chickens! I am looking forward to the first eggs and hope it doesn't take much longer. Read only the bold if you want to skip the journey and see the destination... Tell me if you think my wife is correct.
In the first group of chickens, I bought 25 Brown Danish Leghorns pullets and 6 Black Sex Link pullets from Ideal Poultry. I also bought one straight run Rouen Duck. I went to the feed store get some supplies the day I got the chicks and they had received Brahmas, also from Ideal Poultry, so they let me trade 6 of the leghorns for 6 Brahmas. (It turned out that 1 was a light Brahma and 5 were Buff.) Also, we got another Rouen duck from the feedstore that was supposed to be female. (This week we have discovered that both ducks, the straight run and the supposed female are both boys.) A week later we bought 7 Barred Rocks from a different feed store that also receives its stock from Ideal Poultry. However during that 1st week we lost 2 of the leghorns for no particular reason. We replaced the two that died with some random chicks from that the feedstore had - 1 Rhode Island Red and 1 Gold Sex Link. This left me with a grand total of 38 chickens. We later lost one more so we had a total of 37 prior to a few weeks ago.....
About five weeks ago, I went to buy feed and the feedstore had Black Jersey Giants. The lady in the feedstore told me all the awesome things about those so I brought home 6. I asked them to get me a rooster for them as well. They ordered it. About three weeks later when the rooster came in, it wasn't marked. They gave me one that we thought was a rooster (we're not really sure either way) but when I got it home, the older girls kept picking at his feet so I separated him in the brooder. Since you can't have a chicken isolated and keep it healthy and happy, I went back to the feedstore and got 1 more his own age. Then a week after that the feedstore finally got our Barred Rock Rooster, a marked Black Jersey Giant rooster, and an Amerucana rooster. We also got 1 Faverolle, 1 Silver Laced Wyndotte, and 6 Amerucana ladies. The next morning I had to go back and get a yellowed colored Amerucana that my wife told me about because she picked up the other Amerucanas. A week later (yesterday actually) was my birthday and my sweet wife let me get 1 more Amerucana that had a really cool reddish colored head and a greyish neck. The feedstore lady says she will probably be a blue color. So that was a total of 21 more....
The current tally is... 16 Brown Danish Leghorns, 6 Black Sex Links, 1 Light Brahma, 5 Buff Brahmas, 7 Barred Rocks, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Gold Sex Link, 8 Black Jersey Giants, 8 Amerucanas, 1 Barred Rock Rooster, 1 Black Jersey Giant Rooster, and 1 Amerucana Rooster, and 2 Rouen male ducks.
If you think my wife is right, PLEASE don't tell her!
Take care!
In the first group of chickens, I bought 25 Brown Danish Leghorns pullets and 6 Black Sex Link pullets from Ideal Poultry. I also bought one straight run Rouen Duck. I went to the feed store get some supplies the day I got the chicks and they had received Brahmas, also from Ideal Poultry, so they let me trade 6 of the leghorns for 6 Brahmas. (It turned out that 1 was a light Brahma and 5 were Buff.) Also, we got another Rouen duck from the feedstore that was supposed to be female. (This week we have discovered that both ducks, the straight run and the supposed female are both boys.) A week later we bought 7 Barred Rocks from a different feed store that also receives its stock from Ideal Poultry. However during that 1st week we lost 2 of the leghorns for no particular reason. We replaced the two that died with some random chicks from that the feedstore had - 1 Rhode Island Red and 1 Gold Sex Link. This left me with a grand total of 38 chickens. We later lost one more so we had a total of 37 prior to a few weeks ago.....
About five weeks ago, I went to buy feed and the feedstore had Black Jersey Giants. The lady in the feedstore told me all the awesome things about those so I brought home 6. I asked them to get me a rooster for them as well. They ordered it. About three weeks later when the rooster came in, it wasn't marked. They gave me one that we thought was a rooster (we're not really sure either way) but when I got it home, the older girls kept picking at his feet so I separated him in the brooder. Since you can't have a chicken isolated and keep it healthy and happy, I went back to the feedstore and got 1 more his own age. Then a week after that the feedstore finally got our Barred Rock Rooster, a marked Black Jersey Giant rooster, and an Amerucana rooster. We also got 1 Faverolle, 1 Silver Laced Wyndotte, and 6 Amerucana ladies. The next morning I had to go back and get a yellowed colored Amerucana that my wife told me about because she picked up the other Amerucanas. A week later (yesterday actually) was my birthday and my sweet wife let me get 1 more Amerucana that had a really cool reddish colored head and a greyish neck. The feedstore lady says she will probably be a blue color. So that was a total of 21 more....
The current tally is... 16 Brown Danish Leghorns, 6 Black Sex Links, 1 Light Brahma, 5 Buff Brahmas, 7 Barred Rocks, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Gold Sex Link, 8 Black Jersey Giants, 8 Amerucanas, 1 Barred Rock Rooster, 1 Black Jersey Giant Rooster, and 1 Amerucana Rooster, and 2 Rouen male ducks.
If you think my wife is right, PLEASE don't tell her!
Take care!
and Welcome To BYC! Sounds like a nice assortment of chickens! X3 as long as you have the space and can take care of them properly and are enjoying them, why not.. Like most of us you will eventually decide you like some better than others, some will turn out to be roosters that you will wind up culling etc, and one nice thing about chickens are you can eat the ones you don't like! X2, be careful of the ducks, drakes are not a good combination with chicken hens. Hope those first eggs show up soon!
