My chickens all grown up! (23 and 16 weeks old)

[Lots A Cluckin]

We bought 33 one day old chicks at Tractor Supply in the second week of March 2012. 1 passed away 2 days after we brought it home. out of those 32 chicks 23 were straight run chicks (a mix of male and female chicks) out of the 23 straight run chicks 11 were roosters we kept 2 roosters. May 2nd we went to a local hatchery and got 24 chicks. One passed away 6 days after we brought it home. out of those 23 chicks 9 were straight run chicks, and out of those 9 straight run chicks 5 were roosters we have not sold any of those and I hope we never will. on July 26th we had to put a chicken down due to an unknown illness that made it seem as it was paralyzed...we thought it flew into something and broke something in it's back until 2 weeks later another got paralyzed and died the next day. we searched for answers as to what could be causing this paralysis...but with out a necropsy we will never know for sure what happened to them..and again 5 days later we lost another one over night, not sure if she got paralyzed or not but she has always been on and off sick...we read that water hoses leak out lead into the water...so I quit filling their water containers with a water hose hoping that was the reason those 3 chickens died. it has been one week since we lost the last chicken and so far every one is doing fine. We started using oxine in the coop at night we fog them with it for about 9 hours during the night hoping that it will keep illnesses from spreading and also hopefully cure the respiratory issues some of the chickens have. So now we have 38 hens and 7 roosters total of 45 chickens! Next spring we will be breeding bantam Lavender/Self Blue cochins, spitzhaubens, Polish (maybe), Silkies (maybe) and Old English Game bantams (again maybe)

Right now we are getting about 7 eggs per day from the oldest chickens usually we get 4 full size eggs and 3 bantam eggs. I am waiting for the day we get 38 eggs in one day (that is how many hens we have) Here are some pictures of my beautiful chickens and some of their eggs.


Five beautiful eggs from five beautiful hens 3 full size and 2 bantam




Lavender Cochin taking in the sun




Spitzhuben Rooster..wonder what he is thinking..lol



Just relaxing in the fence row.



Lakenvelder Rooster



Red Sex-Link Hen



Speckled Sussex Hen




Polish Rooster



Dominique Hen











Spitzhauben Hen...she is the sweatest little chicken she follows me every where and wants me to pick her up.


He is so beautiful! I love him!



Mottled Cochin Hen



Japanese Bantam Hen...Itty bitty is her name





Light Brahma Hen



Barred Rock Hen








Welsummer Hen



Buttercup Bantam Hen









Easter Egger/"Ameraucana"



Itty bitty again



Lavender Cochin Rooster



Rhode Island Red Hen





Silkie Roosters









Practicing his crowing



Silkies





Silkie Hen







Practicing crowing again...he just started crowing yesterday! and he is 16 weeks old..all of the other roosters started at 6-8 weeks old!



Splash Wyandotte hen



Spitzhauben hen...she is always at my feet


Silkie hen...Her name is Tia...she is tiny...she is 16 weeks old and only stands about 6 inches tall..and that is with her neck stretched out...all of the other silkies are at least 2x as big as a she is.









Silver Duckwing Old English Game Rooster



Golden Laced Sebright Hen

 

[b.hromada]

Simply gorgeous!

I'm sorry about your loss, lets just hope you got to the root of the problem now. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Lots A Cluckin]

thank you!...I hope so too.

 

[christineavatar]

Great sharing!!!

 

[Lots A Cluckin]

Yesterday I got 10 eggs!!! that is the most I have ever gotten in one day!!!! YAY!!! the numbers are slowly but surely going up

 

[theoldchick]

Wow! Wonderful photos of beautiful chickens!

 

[Habibs Hens]

such beautiful pics and such lovely chicken

such a great variety there

 

[Lots A Cluckin]

Thank you both...I am very proud of my chickens. Yes they are very beautiful and they know it too lol...I spoil all of them I talk to them hold them (the ones that let me hold them) my spitzhauben hen follows me everywhere and wants me to pick her up...she will start screaming at my feet until I pick her up and then she just does a soft purr type thing...I read that they are very flighty and are not friendly but she is..but the spitzhauben rooster is not as friendly he just runs away.

 

[chucksaway]

Couldnt help but notice that you have some evergreen plants in your garden, many of the berrys from these plants are quite toxic. Chickens in my experiance are very curious and will peck at almost anything, it may be worth investigating the plants.