Kiariana
In the Brooder
Hi all! I'm a new chicken owner living in BC, Canada. I've wanted chickens for years and years, but didn't have the ability to keep them. I used to come onto the backyard chicken website years ago and read about chicken keeping, dreaming of the day I'd be able to keep my own! Luckily for me, I was able to get some chickens for my family's backyard a couple months ago, and have been checking this site regularly for help taking care of them.
My family built the coop from scratch, and we scoured the local facebook groups looking for chicks, but they were being snapped up crazy fast- so many people have been starting sustainable living practices with the whole covid thing- good for the environment, bad for our plans to keep chickens! So we made an order at a local store to get 25 assorted dual-purpose chicks from a hatchery, knowing they wouldn't come in for at least three weeks (which turned out to be several months wait). And then, after we made that order... we spotted some local Rhode Island Red chicks for sale, and managed to nab 9 chicks. Well, we still weren't sure at the time how long it would be for the ordered chicks, so we let the order stand. We weren't going to keep all 25 chicks from the order anyway- some would go out to other people looking for chickens, and we'd keep a dozen or so for eggs and meat.
I lost 1 chick- it just wasn't thriving and was clearly miserable, so after a couple days of trying to nurse it to health, I put the poor thing out of its misery with a heavy heart. The remaining 8 thrived and are still happy and healthy and growing like weeds
Three weeks after the RIR chicks had been acquired, my mom asked if I'd also like to get ducks. 'Eh, I dunno...' I said, knowing I'd be the one taking care of them. 'They're Muscovy ducks' she said. 'Yes, please, thank you, I've always wanted Muscovies.' I said, and we got 6 week-old Muscovy ducklings. They all thrived as well and integration was a breeze since the birds are all fairly young.
Now we've got a lovely little mixed flock of Muscovies and chickens
The Chickens are 9 weeks old right now and the Muscovies are 7 weeks old.
My family built the coop from scratch, and we scoured the local facebook groups looking for chicks, but they were being snapped up crazy fast- so many people have been starting sustainable living practices with the whole covid thing- good for the environment, bad for our plans to keep chickens! So we made an order at a local store to get 25 assorted dual-purpose chicks from a hatchery, knowing they wouldn't come in for at least three weeks (which turned out to be several months wait). And then, after we made that order... we spotted some local Rhode Island Red chicks for sale, and managed to nab 9 chicks. Well, we still weren't sure at the time how long it would be for the ordered chicks, so we let the order stand. We weren't going to keep all 25 chicks from the order anyway- some would go out to other people looking for chickens, and we'd keep a dozen or so for eggs and meat.
I lost 1 chick- it just wasn't thriving and was clearly miserable, so after a couple days of trying to nurse it to health, I put the poor thing out of its misery with a heavy heart. The remaining 8 thrived and are still happy and healthy and growing like weeds
Three weeks after the RIR chicks had been acquired, my mom asked if I'd also like to get ducks. 'Eh, I dunno...' I said, knowing I'd be the one taking care of them. 'They're Muscovy ducks' she said. 'Yes, please, thank you, I've always wanted Muscovies.' I said, and we got 6 week-old Muscovy ducklings. They all thrived as well and integration was a breeze since the birds are all fairly young.
Now we've got a lovely little mixed flock of Muscovies and chickens
The Chickens are 9 weeks old right now and the Muscovies are 7 weeks old.
So glad you decided to join! 
Make yourself at home here.
