GirlNestDoor
In the Brooder
- Jul 26, 2017
- 10
- 11
- 34
Hello! I'm a first time chicken mom. I bought my first chicks about six-ish months ago, kinda of on a whim. Although I had already been planning for chickens, the preparations for them were still underway when I walked in to a tractor supply and bought six little chicks and two ducklings. Two of the chicks were bantams a male and a female (I later found out via this forum, which I've been stalking for well over a year now.) I now only have the roo because my girl got picked up by a hawk. The other four chicks were from the pullet bin don't really know their breed, but they did all turn out to be hens. Of those I have three left. Again a hawk. I actually lost both chickens in the same week, so although they were free ranging by then, I ended up not letting them out of their run for the next month until they were significantly bigger. Have not had hawk issues since then. Although if I see a hawk flying around on a certain day, I will keep them in their run for the day. I have plenty of trees and brush my chickens can hide in, but still they like to come to the back porch and crossing to it means crossing open space. So if anyone has good suggestions for keeping hawks at bay, I'm all ears. Since I definitely want to keep my chicks free range. My ducks turned out to be one male one female. They've pretty much been raised together so they go everywhere together. I'm almost 100% sure my ducks actually think they are chickens.
About a month and a week ago, I was on a livestock group on FB and found a lady selling black laced marans, that lay olive eggs. Well, I thought they were beautiful and since I had managed not to kill any chickens thus far (not counting the hawk deaths) I decided to buy some from her. Originally I was just going to pick up three, but since it was her last batch for the season she threw some in some for free and long story short, I ended up with seven! So I've kept them in a crate in my bathroom for about a month and this week I started putting them in the run, in the crate still so they can start getting used to each other. So that's where I'm at in life. Oh and this week one of my hens started laying eggs too... That was pretty exciting!
So that's my chicken story. Other than that, I own 1 husband, 4 kids, 3 dogs, 3 cats, and 2 budgies. Pheeeew! I'm also trying to grow things in a garden without an actual green thumb, sigh.
About a month and a week ago, I was on a livestock group on FB and found a lady selling black laced marans, that lay olive eggs. Well, I thought they were beautiful and since I had managed not to kill any chickens thus far (not counting the hawk deaths) I decided to buy some from her. Originally I was just going to pick up three, but since it was her last batch for the season she threw some in some for free and long story short, I ended up with seven! So I've kept them in a crate in my bathroom for about a month and this week I started putting them in the run, in the crate still so they can start getting used to each other. So that's where I'm at in life. Oh and this week one of my hens started laying eggs too... That was pretty exciting!
So that's my chicken story. Other than that, I own 1 husband, 4 kids, 3 dogs, 3 cats, and 2 budgies. Pheeeew! I'm also trying to grow things in a garden without an actual green thumb, sigh.
My next batch of chickens I will be getting some olive eggers too! i love a colorful basket!
