I'll try to keep this short but I am not known for short tales!!! My Roommate is one of those people who would help anyone if it is within his power. So when the conversation at work last week between him and a co-worker (who happens to be a german immigrant) turned to learning that they both had chickens on their respective farms, the offer was made from Edmond to give my roomie his chickens. Seems his wife has been very upset with the chickens as they were tearing up all of her attempts to do and gardening.So Harvey(roomie) being the good natured soul he is(and not really thinking other than on impulse)says he'll take them. Okay cool but reality check here: Where we gonna put more chickens? I tell him to realize they will have to be quarantined and we really have no room to do this! See, long story short is (told you I can't tell a short tale didn't I?) I was diagnosed 4 years ago with having had a couple of minor strokes after waking one morning to a completely useless left arm I have since regained some usage but have never regain a healthy portion of my dexterity with it. So when we ventured into this thing called chicken raising it was with a lot of trepidation on my part-will I be able to be of any help with this as we had/have quite a lot of work to do restoring the 25-30 year old coop that was his grandmother's here on the property that he inherited from her. Well it turns out I can do a lot but not fast enough when by myself as I am most of the time as our days off rarely coincide each week. So I am really far behind on getting the coop rebuilt and ready for chickens. Okay that said in the mean time we order chicks as most of you know, and are raising these in the storeroom/laundry room. that was 7 months ago and be shocked if those chicks didn't grow up to be chickens in the storeroom! Who'd of thunk they'd dare do such a thing? Well good ol Harv set out on a mission to adopt Edmond's chickens not even knowing what kinds nor how many.... I tell him to think about it as they cannot go into the storeroom! 1. quarantine 2. no room! So first rule established.. you do this you build door to coop and they go out there! Now good ol Harv is one of these good ol farm raised Texas boys where improvisation to every job is the key! give him some pliers and baling wire and he'll built you a birdhouse! Off he goes to Edmond's house with a cardboard box and some duct tape and about two hours later here he comes with 8 more chickens! 1RIR roo 4 RIR hens 2 Ameracauna hens and a mottled Houdan roo. All born in March of '08. All hens laying. Brings them home actually secures the coop (including a door!!!) and poof we nopw have chickens outside and inside!!!! (now that there is a door that will be changing as soon as the quarantine is over! I have spent 6 months trying to get a door built on the coop and in one afternoon it is done. Now for the fun part. On the second day new birds here we have 6 eggs! Now remember the count we "acquired"6 hens and two roos I was floored at actually getting that many eggs after the stress of moving the birds! Here is a pic of the new additions. The Houdan is OBAMA thje Amer. hen to the left of him is HILLARY ( this was Edmond's doing and this will probably change!) Obama's colors washed a bit in the sun but you can still see him pretty good. The RIR roo is behind him with a couple of the girls They hens are obviously being bred... feathers missing on backs but they are very productive layers! we had a full dozen from them after 3 days! Now to get my birds out! FINALLY!
The Houdan to so cute! If the missing hen feathers are a bother to you, I'd suggest some saddles. They work well for my girl. That's some story you have there! But look at that, more eggs than we get from our 10 laying hens in a day! So I guess it's all worth it, eh?
Thanks Princess! We're getting three -four medium sized eggs a day from my 20 week old Dominique hens (6) and now 4- 6 from the news bunch so not too bad! Definately more than we'll eat so our friends are about to become eggficiaries...(egg- beneficiariesProlly have some friends crawl outta the woodwork!
Really think so? VComb? Not arguing ...I am definately no expert. I just figured with as much black as he has he was Houdan The sun really bleached out the colors on his head I will have to get some better head shots... He is still being too timid of us to let me get a good look at his comb/head closely Although he did let me give him a chelly rub (chest/belly = chelly) tonight but then he was roosted for the night and it was well after dark(10:45P.M.) and getting colder so noone was moving.Either way we are thrilled! He is gorgeous and turning friendlier as time goes. They all seem very healthy and are settling into the new digs nicely. ETA Doh! your right VComb! Even the pic shows no 5th toe! I just thought the coloring on the SLP was different. hmmm Shows what I know... NADDA! Thank You!!!!!!!!!!
