Hey there. New guy saying hi.
Recently my city legalized chickens, 6 hens, no roos, 15 foot from property line, and a $30 chicken permit(dog licenses are only $10).
So back at the beginning of July I got some chicks, I really wanted some Ameraucana's since thats what I always had in the past, but being past the spring chick season I couldn't find any locally.
I did however find someone who had just gotten a shipment of chicks from a hatchery, I went down and picked out 6. (figured if any didn't make it or turned out to be roos later I could find some Ameraucanas to fill the gap up to 6)
Well I didn't know what kinda chickens I was getting, I just picked out the ones I thought looked good, I grabbed 3 brown ones(that looked like Ameraucana chicks to me) 2 with those little dots on their heads, and 1 mostly black one who was particularly feisty.
So I got em home into their new semitransparent home in the back of my garage:
Well of course they started getting bigger, I think I liked em best at this stage because they looked like little mini chickens with all their feathers(or near all the feathers)
By this time I had pretty much figured out that 2 of em were barred rocks, but I was still unsure about the brown ones, and still had no idea what the black one was.
Well then someone learned how to get into the feed(and also how to get out of the transparent home):
Then one day one of em slipped by and ran off before I could stop her, and despite the animal wire on my fence slipped through to my nieghbors yard, where of course there are two dogs excited to see a new toy(we have this stupid fence which places every other board on the opposite, the result is a fence that isn't solid, and has to have animal wire putup to keep small dogs, cats etc in.
Well, RIP little chickie:
http://colorado4wheel.com/images/chicks/chicks38.jpg
Well some weeks later, after they had taken over the back room of my garage it was time for them to go out. Against my insistence a prebuilt coop thing was purchased:
By this time I had figured out for sure I had barred rocks and two remaining Welsummers, I still didn't know about the black girl yet. At this point I was starting to calm down because I had not yet heard any prepubescent crowing(we all know that kinda halfway crow, like when a teenagers voice cracks), so I was happy to have all hens.
Well more time passes, no crowing, just evisceration of my lawn, eating, pooping, molting etc, they really didn't change appearance, only grew bigger:
nom nom nom nom:
Well I finally figured out what my black one was, I had thought she might be an australorp(she has a nice green sheen, which I read the Australorps are noted for), but then I noticed she was getting much larger than the others, looking around some more I read about the differences between Jersey Giants and Australorps, so I checked the bottom of her feet(which she was not pleased about) and sure enough, yellow bottoms, Jersey Giant!
I got them setup with their outdoor area, basically section off part of my backyard 15' away from the property line:
They take it well, they go into their coop at dusk and I lock em in, in the morning before I leave for classes I let em out, they even let me sleep in on weekends.
Well my Dog - Zeus is only a few months older than the chicks and has been raised with them since I took him home at 6 months, so they get along nice, I've never had a problem with my goldens and my chickens - as long as they were full grown, something about a little chick is just irresistible to them, and only ends badly - once the chickens are large enough, and are gutsy enough to peck back, he leaves em alone.
And of course, the grass is always greener:
Sleepy time:
I will have to get some more pics today - the two Welsummers are really getting their combs in, one in particular is getting HUGE. The whole comb thing is new to me - My Araucanas in the past never really had combs, so this bug rubbery red thing that wiggles around is fascinating to me!
Recently my city legalized chickens, 6 hens, no roos, 15 foot from property line, and a $30 chicken permit(dog licenses are only $10).
So back at the beginning of July I got some chicks, I really wanted some Ameraucana's since thats what I always had in the past, but being past the spring chick season I couldn't find any locally.
I did however find someone who had just gotten a shipment of chicks from a hatchery, I went down and picked out 6. (figured if any didn't make it or turned out to be roos later I could find some Ameraucanas to fill the gap up to 6)
Well I didn't know what kinda chickens I was getting, I just picked out the ones I thought looked good, I grabbed 3 brown ones(that looked like Ameraucana chicks to me) 2 with those little dots on their heads, and 1 mostly black one who was particularly feisty.
So I got em home into their new semitransparent home in the back of my garage:
Well of course they started getting bigger, I think I liked em best at this stage because they looked like little mini chickens with all their feathers(or near all the feathers)
By this time I had pretty much figured out that 2 of em were barred rocks, but I was still unsure about the brown ones, and still had no idea what the black one was.
Well then someone learned how to get into the feed(and also how to get out of the transparent home):
Then one day one of em slipped by and ran off before I could stop her, and despite the animal wire on my fence slipped through to my nieghbors yard, where of course there are two dogs excited to see a new toy(we have this stupid fence which places every other board on the opposite, the result is a fence that isn't solid, and has to have animal wire putup to keep small dogs, cats etc in.
Well, RIP little chickie:
http://colorado4wheel.com/images/chicks/chicks38.jpg
Well some weeks later, after they had taken over the back room of my garage it was time for them to go out. Against my insistence a prebuilt coop thing was purchased:
By this time I had figured out for sure I had barred rocks and two remaining Welsummers, I still didn't know about the black girl yet. At this point I was starting to calm down because I had not yet heard any prepubescent crowing(we all know that kinda halfway crow, like when a teenagers voice cracks), so I was happy to have all hens.
Well more time passes, no crowing, just evisceration of my lawn, eating, pooping, molting etc, they really didn't change appearance, only grew bigger:
nom nom nom nom:
Well I finally figured out what my black one was, I had thought she might be an australorp(she has a nice green sheen, which I read the Australorps are noted for), but then I noticed she was getting much larger than the others, looking around some more I read about the differences between Jersey Giants and Australorps, so I checked the bottom of her feet(which she was not pleased about) and sure enough, yellow bottoms, Jersey Giant!
I got them setup with their outdoor area, basically section off part of my backyard 15' away from the property line:
They take it well, they go into their coop at dusk and I lock em in, in the morning before I leave for classes I let em out, they even let me sleep in on weekends.
Well my Dog - Zeus is only a few months older than the chicks and has been raised with them since I took him home at 6 months, so they get along nice, I've never had a problem with my goldens and my chickens - as long as they were full grown, something about a little chick is just irresistible to them, and only ends badly - once the chickens are large enough, and are gutsy enough to peck back, he leaves em alone.
And of course, the grass is always greener:
Sleepy time:
I will have to get some more pics today - the two Welsummers are really getting their combs in, one in particular is getting HUGE. The whole comb thing is new to me - My Araucanas in the past never really had combs, so this bug rubbery red thing that wiggles around is fascinating to me!
