- Mar 15, 2011
- 9
- 0
- 7
as a new chicken owner I figured i would share some thoughts and observations that you guys have probably already know.
I have 4 Red Sex Link (20 weeks), 6 Austrolorpes (18 weeks), and 2 white leghorns (16 weeks) - all hens no roosters...
The RSLs are bar far the friendliest, the come up to me, squat when i pet them (only since laying) and are overall the most interactive. The Austrolorpes are the most skittish which really surprised me, i thought it would have been the leghorns (based on what I was reading).
Also, ever since the the RSLs started laying, ALL of the hens became VERY CHATTY...i mean they are talking all the time...before egg laying, you wouldnt even know if they were in the coop. Maybe that settles down - i guess I will find out.
The leghorns are much skinnier overall compared to the RSLs and Austros, wondering if they will get more round shapes (when they start laying) or all always much more slender than the others.
I also can't belive based on the size of a chicken that an egg comes out that big, haha.
My coop is 10 x 6 with 8 foot walls that i built and i have 2 roosting poles going the width of the coop (12 feet total - 1 ft per bird I was told), and they ALL cram on 6 feet of space - its really quite funny..the lower pole (about a foot away and 6 inches lower) is NEVER used, except to hop to the higher one. When they were small they all fit fine and now they are soo tight. Wondering if they'll ever use the lower one.
I got my chickens when they were all about 6-8-10 weeks old and could not believe how hard it was to find ones where they still had beaks. Especially the RSLs and LHs - i guess since they are commercial egg layers. Took about 2-3 months of searching and several hours of driving (I'm in maryland)
I thought once they started laying they would lay every day early in the morning - they just started and I'm getting about 2 eggs a day and usually 1 in the morning and one several hours later. One is usually in one of my 3 nest boxes (about a foot off the ground) and the other underneath the nest boxes.
When walking up to the coop and they are all inside, one will usually poke their head out to look and see what is going on, then some chirping and they all come out when they see me. I don't know if it's the same one honestly because i don't have bands on them and it's hard for me to tell them all apart (some are easy but not others). They hate the lawnmower. When I open the door that I use, they all come running up to me and i can't even walk because they just keep stepping in front of me - they ALL used to run away when I first got them.
We give our chickens the leftover vegetables that we can't eat from our garden and they love the green squash but will NOT touch the yellow squash? I guess it's just the color, maybe same as grass? Just thought it was funny.
We ate our first eggs a few days ago (making scrambled eggs with cheese) and our 2 year old daughter LOVED them and asked for more...we only had three medium eggs, but still it was cool. We added some tomatoes and green peppers that we had been growing in the garden - a truly homemade breakfast.
I really don't know where I would be without this site, library books are great and I had plenty of them but this site is really fantastic.
Overall, chickens are a lot of fun and have more personality than I ever thought they would. I have been keeping friends and family up to date on facebook and they are loving the backyard poultry updates...it's amazing how many people either raise chickens or really like the idea and get excited when talking about it.
I realize this is a scattered mess of a post but I thought someone might enjoy reading from someone who just started and may remember back when they started...anyway that's my 2 cents.
Matt
I have 4 Red Sex Link (20 weeks), 6 Austrolorpes (18 weeks), and 2 white leghorns (16 weeks) - all hens no roosters...
The RSLs are bar far the friendliest, the come up to me, squat when i pet them (only since laying) and are overall the most interactive. The Austrolorpes are the most skittish which really surprised me, i thought it would have been the leghorns (based on what I was reading).
Also, ever since the the RSLs started laying, ALL of the hens became VERY CHATTY...i mean they are talking all the time...before egg laying, you wouldnt even know if they were in the coop. Maybe that settles down - i guess I will find out.
The leghorns are much skinnier overall compared to the RSLs and Austros, wondering if they will get more round shapes (when they start laying) or all always much more slender than the others.
I also can't belive based on the size of a chicken that an egg comes out that big, haha.
My coop is 10 x 6 with 8 foot walls that i built and i have 2 roosting poles going the width of the coop (12 feet total - 1 ft per bird I was told), and they ALL cram on 6 feet of space - its really quite funny..the lower pole (about a foot away and 6 inches lower) is NEVER used, except to hop to the higher one. When they were small they all fit fine and now they are soo tight. Wondering if they'll ever use the lower one.
I got my chickens when they were all about 6-8-10 weeks old and could not believe how hard it was to find ones where they still had beaks. Especially the RSLs and LHs - i guess since they are commercial egg layers. Took about 2-3 months of searching and several hours of driving (I'm in maryland)
I thought once they started laying they would lay every day early in the morning - they just started and I'm getting about 2 eggs a day and usually 1 in the morning and one several hours later. One is usually in one of my 3 nest boxes (about a foot off the ground) and the other underneath the nest boxes.
When walking up to the coop and they are all inside, one will usually poke their head out to look and see what is going on, then some chirping and they all come out when they see me. I don't know if it's the same one honestly because i don't have bands on them and it's hard for me to tell them all apart (some are easy but not others). They hate the lawnmower. When I open the door that I use, they all come running up to me and i can't even walk because they just keep stepping in front of me - they ALL used to run away when I first got them.
We give our chickens the leftover vegetables that we can't eat from our garden and they love the green squash but will NOT touch the yellow squash? I guess it's just the color, maybe same as grass? Just thought it was funny.
We ate our first eggs a few days ago (making scrambled eggs with cheese) and our 2 year old daughter LOVED them and asked for more...we only had three medium eggs, but still it was cool. We added some tomatoes and green peppers that we had been growing in the garden - a truly homemade breakfast.
I really don't know where I would be without this site, library books are great and I had plenty of them but this site is really fantastic.
Overall, chickens are a lot of fun and have more personality than I ever thought they would. I have been keeping friends and family up to date on facebook and they are loving the backyard poultry updates...it's amazing how many people either raise chickens or really like the idea and get excited when talking about it.
I realize this is a scattered mess of a post but I thought someone might enjoy reading from someone who just started and may remember back when they started...anyway that's my 2 cents.
Matt
