Mtviking
In the Brooder
- May 24, 2020
- 30
- 68
- 46
Hello, thanks for letting me join in. I’m also a member of backyard herds, we are starting our own homestead/mini farm and have added chickens to the family. We also raise satin rabbits for meat, have 4 dogs a farm cat with 5 brand new babies born yesterday, and a lizard and pet bird. We originally planned on six hens for eggs and that grew the minute my DW got online to order the chicks. We now have I believe 26 chickens ranging from 8 weeks to 3 weeks some have been moved to the coop while a few newbies are still inside in the brooder. I turned an existing shed on the property into a deluxe chicken coop with an attached fully covered run. Our hopes are to be able to do free range but that will depend on how well the dogs adjust to the chickens. We have a wide variety of chickens we ordered some pullets and some straight run so I’m sure we will be adding some roosters into the freezer depending on how well everyone behaves. We have Cochins, wyandottes, Americana, steeler, Easter eggers, Marans, and some more I’m not sure to be honest and I probably got some of those names wrong. My wife has taken charge with the chickens and has way more knowledge about them than I do at this time. I’m here for labor and extra hands for feeding and caring for the birds but am a complete newbies but love learning more about them. We have 13 acres to play with have been in the property about a year. We started with rabbits and have a good breeding program going and will produce a lot of meat this summer. I have one litter growing out now and two litters due in June as well as a litter just put in the freezer. I’m very excited for fresh eggs, and can’t wait for them to start laying. We just introduced some 4 week olds to the flock of 8week olds this week and all seems to be going good. We have a small enclosure the little ones can run to if the big ones get to picking on them too much but so far there has been very little trouble between everyone. We have 6 more to introduce but they’re only a couple weeks old and need to grow more feathers before they get to leave the warm brooder. We also are growing our first big veggie garden we’ve grown veggies in the past but living in town we have very little space to work with now that we moved out of town we are upscaling the garden considerably. We both work full time me as an electrician and my wife for a Local nonprofit organization we have 4 kids 3 are close to adults and 1 younger one. Chickens are this years adventure and we are already planning for goats, sheep or pigs for next year we haven’t decide which one we want first. Originally we were thinking goats for milk and meat but with the covid 19 putting a damper on pork supplies I’m starting to think pigs my be the next critter to join the chaos and joy of the farm.
lots of awesome people here!
Glad you joined. 
