Hi, everyone. I'm posting this introduction a little late, since I've already had some questions answered in the other forum sections, but I figured I should say "Hi."
Several years ago my dad and his barber/friend started raising chickens together on the barber's property. My kids had a few opportunities to play with the chickens, and the oldest of the three expressed a desire to have chickens of her own. My dad promised her that when she graduated from the 8th grade, he'd build her a coop in our back yard. (This was before I was even sure our township allowed chickens - fortunately they do.)
Well, this past spring, Dad started on the coop, cutting out the sides and making the door at his house, then assembling here. It's a beautiful little coop with a glass window on one side, and a dutch door on the other, gabled roof, painted yellow with white trim. Mom made a sign to hang on it that says "Clare's Coop" (with the o's being eggs).
So, we started checking Craigslist for pullets that were young enough for us to tame at least a little bit, but old enough that we wouldn't have to wait until fall or later for eggs. So I found a guy about 50 minutes from here selling 13-week old pullets (or say he claimed). We bought 2 golden comets, 2 Barred Rocks, one Buff Orpington (that's all the BOs he had left) and one "Easter Egger" for $5 a piece. He assured me that in all the years he's been getting chicks from the hatchery, they have *never* sent him a cockerel.
You can guess where this is going, I am sure. Before long, the Easter Egger (whom we had named Pasquale and which our research later identified as a Brahma) started grabbing the pullets by the neck. We hoped "she" was just showing her dominance, but then "she" started to crow. And crow. And crow. I even convinced myself that she was one of those "crowing hens." But finally we came to the realization that "she" was a he. Meanwhile, we also noticed the 2 Barred Rocks were starting to differentiate. The comb and wattles of one were getting far larger and much redder. Then one day he started to crow, too. Roxie became Rocky!
So what are the odds? 2 out of 6, supposedly from a pullet-only order, not a straight run, were cockerels. Our township does not allow roosters (for noise reasons), so now we had to get rid of two of them. I wanted to return them. Guess who wouldn't return my calls?
Now Pasquale was getting annoying. He was constantly badgering the pullets and his crow was shrill and frequent. Rocky, on the other hand, was gentle, quiet and very handsome. Clare was growing attached to him, and frankly so was I. Heading for the stew pot was not a prospect we really wanted to consider. Then we met someone who actually wanted some roosters for their large flock. They had lost an entire flock to a fox earlier in the spring. They had just got from some other friends a flock of one-year old RIR hens, but wanted roosters to aid in protection. They were also rearing two broods of BOs, and said we could trade roosters for hens. Well, since Rocky had been so gentlemanly and quiet, as well as the best looking of the bunch, we decided to trade in only Pasquale. (The neighbors are okay with this - Rocky really is an infrequent and soft-spoken crower. We're hoping we won't regret it as he matures further.) And so we came home with a two-month old BO pullet.
Foolishly, we tossed her in the run in the middle of the day, and she was immediately pinned to the ground by the other BO. Poor thing. So we spent over a week working on integrating her into the flock. (Yes, yes. I know we should have quarantined her anyway - beginners' mistake.) We caged her in a dog cage, but let her free range most of the day (I work from home and stayed outside with her). When we let the rest of the flock out to free range, they would sometimes run after her, and she would run to us for protection. And she liked to be scooped up and held, which we really liked. After a couple of days, we put her cage in the run in the evening (instead of the garage), with a sheet over it, and let the other hens experience her through the cage. We spent several more days letting them free range together. Then, after a week, we put her on the roost with the sleepy flock at night. (I even set up a two-way radio so I could hear if there was any bullying going on - am I crazy?) Well, it was a great success, and now she cozies up with the others during rest periods during the day, and on the roost at night. And she still likes to be held, too.
Now, besides being wrong about the gender of the chickens, I am not so sure the guy was right (intentionally or not) about their age. Based on what he told us, they were 14 weeks old when we bought them. All peeping, and no clucking. They didn't stop peeping for 2 more weeks. The younger BO we came home with later, has pretty much stopped peeping, and she is only about 11 or 12 weeks old. Not to mention that we don't have any eggs, and the comets (which I understand ought to start earlier than the others) are not really show many signs of being close. Of course I know we are inexperienced and impatient, so any amount of time seems like an eternity.
So there's this newbie's story so far. Who knew that my daughter's chickens would be so much work and anxiety for her dad? Ha-ha! Well I am enjoying them anyway, and enjoying BYC, too.
Hope to keep in touch!
- Clare's Dad.
Several years ago my dad and his barber/friend started raising chickens together on the barber's property. My kids had a few opportunities to play with the chickens, and the oldest of the three expressed a desire to have chickens of her own. My dad promised her that when she graduated from the 8th grade, he'd build her a coop in our back yard. (This was before I was even sure our township allowed chickens - fortunately they do.)
Well, this past spring, Dad started on the coop, cutting out the sides and making the door at his house, then assembling here. It's a beautiful little coop with a glass window on one side, and a dutch door on the other, gabled roof, painted yellow with white trim. Mom made a sign to hang on it that says "Clare's Coop" (with the o's being eggs).
So, we started checking Craigslist for pullets that were young enough for us to tame at least a little bit, but old enough that we wouldn't have to wait until fall or later for eggs. So I found a guy about 50 minutes from here selling 13-week old pullets (or say he claimed). We bought 2 golden comets, 2 Barred Rocks, one Buff Orpington (that's all the BOs he had left) and one "Easter Egger" for $5 a piece. He assured me that in all the years he's been getting chicks from the hatchery, they have *never* sent him a cockerel.
You can guess where this is going, I am sure. Before long, the Easter Egger (whom we had named Pasquale and which our research later identified as a Brahma) started grabbing the pullets by the neck. We hoped "she" was just showing her dominance, but then "she" started to crow. And crow. And crow. I even convinced myself that she was one of those "crowing hens." But finally we came to the realization that "she" was a he. Meanwhile, we also noticed the 2 Barred Rocks were starting to differentiate. The comb and wattles of one were getting far larger and much redder. Then one day he started to crow, too. Roxie became Rocky!
So what are the odds? 2 out of 6, supposedly from a pullet-only order, not a straight run, were cockerels. Our township does not allow roosters (for noise reasons), so now we had to get rid of two of them. I wanted to return them. Guess who wouldn't return my calls?
Now Pasquale was getting annoying. He was constantly badgering the pullets and his crow was shrill and frequent. Rocky, on the other hand, was gentle, quiet and very handsome. Clare was growing attached to him, and frankly so was I. Heading for the stew pot was not a prospect we really wanted to consider. Then we met someone who actually wanted some roosters for their large flock. They had lost an entire flock to a fox earlier in the spring. They had just got from some other friends a flock of one-year old RIR hens, but wanted roosters to aid in protection. They were also rearing two broods of BOs, and said we could trade roosters for hens. Well, since Rocky had been so gentlemanly and quiet, as well as the best looking of the bunch, we decided to trade in only Pasquale. (The neighbors are okay with this - Rocky really is an infrequent and soft-spoken crower. We're hoping we won't regret it as he matures further.) And so we came home with a two-month old BO pullet.
Foolishly, we tossed her in the run in the middle of the day, and she was immediately pinned to the ground by the other BO. Poor thing. So we spent over a week working on integrating her into the flock. (Yes, yes. I know we should have quarantined her anyway - beginners' mistake.) We caged her in a dog cage, but let her free range most of the day (I work from home and stayed outside with her). When we let the rest of the flock out to free range, they would sometimes run after her, and she would run to us for protection. And she liked to be scooped up and held, which we really liked. After a couple of days, we put her cage in the run in the evening (instead of the garage), with a sheet over it, and let the other hens experience her through the cage. We spent several more days letting them free range together. Then, after a week, we put her on the roost with the sleepy flock at night. (I even set up a two-way radio so I could hear if there was any bullying going on - am I crazy?) Well, it was a great success, and now she cozies up with the others during rest periods during the day, and on the roost at night. And she still likes to be held, too.
Now, besides being wrong about the gender of the chickens, I am not so sure the guy was right (intentionally or not) about their age. Based on what he told us, they were 14 weeks old when we bought them. All peeping, and no clucking. They didn't stop peeping for 2 more weeks. The younger BO we came home with later, has pretty much stopped peeping, and she is only about 11 or 12 weeks old. Not to mention that we don't have any eggs, and the comets (which I understand ought to start earlier than the others) are not really show many signs of being close. Of course I know we are inexperienced and impatient, so any amount of time seems like an eternity.
So there's this newbie's story so far. Who knew that my daughter's chickens would be so much work and anxiety for her dad? Ha-ha! Well I am enjoying them anyway, and enjoying BYC, too.
Hope to keep in touch!
- Clare's Dad.
from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard. Good luck. 
