Hi,
My name is Kate and I finally wore my husband down and I got chickens for mother's day! I am fortunate to have experienced chicken friends with many chickens and was able to obtain a broody Golden Nugget hen and 8, 1 day old Black and Lavender Orpington chicks. It has been a lot of fun to watch the mama raise the babies and oh so easy, no heat lamp or chickens in the house! We did have one fatality of a 4 day old chick, but everyone else is 9 weeks old and doing well. The one downside of getting straight run is that you have a 50% chance of roosters and I have 4 roosters that I will need to decide what to do with. I have a friend that said she would caponize a rooster for me if I wanted to keep one. I am thinking on it. Anyone have experience with owning a caponed rooster?
My babies have a 4x8 coop enclosure and then have the run of the side yard during the day. I am amazed at how fast they have turned it into a waste land and have decided to harness the power of chicken and have created an additional run in an area of the back yard that is overgrown. I plan to take a before and after picture.
My advice to people just starting out is that your coop is going to cost more than you think and take a lot longer to build then you think it should. In hind site it might have just been easier to buy a plan and the lumber needed rather than winging it.
Looking forward to chatting with everyone!
Kate
PS - If anyone is interested in Lavender Orpingtons let me know. I could part with a hen and rooster pair. I also have 1 black Orpington that could be paired with a Lavendar hen. Through my connections I ended up with"fancy" chickens. Their mother is a Lavender Orpington and their father is some special Black Rooster that was imported from England to try and improve the color of the Lavenders. If this is something you are trying to accomplish in your flock let's make a deal!
My name is Kate and I finally wore my husband down and I got chickens for mother's day! I am fortunate to have experienced chicken friends with many chickens and was able to obtain a broody Golden Nugget hen and 8, 1 day old Black and Lavender Orpington chicks. It has been a lot of fun to watch the mama raise the babies and oh so easy, no heat lamp or chickens in the house! We did have one fatality of a 4 day old chick, but everyone else is 9 weeks old and doing well. The one downside of getting straight run is that you have a 50% chance of roosters and I have 4 roosters that I will need to decide what to do with. I have a friend that said she would caponize a rooster for me if I wanted to keep one. I am thinking on it. Anyone have experience with owning a caponed rooster?
My babies have a 4x8 coop enclosure and then have the run of the side yard during the day. I am amazed at how fast they have turned it into a waste land and have decided to harness the power of chicken and have created an additional run in an area of the back yard that is overgrown. I plan to take a before and after picture.
My advice to people just starting out is that your coop is going to cost more than you think and take a lot longer to build then you think it should. In hind site it might have just been easier to buy a plan and the lumber needed rather than winging it.
Looking forward to chatting with everyone!
Kate
PS - If anyone is interested in Lavender Orpingtons let me know. I could part with a hen and rooster pair. I also have 1 black Orpington that could be paired with a Lavendar hen. Through my connections I ended up with"fancy" chickens. Their mother is a Lavender Orpington and their father is some special Black Rooster that was imported from England to try and improve the color of the Lavenders. If this is something you are trying to accomplish in your flock let's make a deal!
lots of info on this site 
