Hi Shannon, Welcome to BYC!Hello my name is Shannon and I live with my boyfriend, our 3 dogs, 10 goats, and I have a flock of about 60ish chickens with 4 roosters. We have 3 New Hampshire Reds (though one is definitely at least mixed with something else), about a dozen Buff Orpingtons, some Americaunas, and a bunch of Green Queens (a Meyer Hatchery breed, I think a mix of Americaunas or Arcaunas and something- they have tufts and beards and some have feathered legs and extra toes).
We are new to chicken raising and kind of just jumped right in to some mixed results. Our first chicks were unvaccinated for Marecks and we found out that it is on our property so we suffered more than a few losses to that. Our last batch of chicks was the Green Queens and they were vaccinated and they have been very healthy. We also recently went through fowl pox (something we should have also known to vaccinate for) and the Green Queens and the older birds ( we have about 15-20 that are 1.5 yrs and then about 10-15 1 yr., Rest GQs are 9mos) fared much better. We have had 2 of the 1 yr old Buff Orpingtons that have had a really hard time with it.
Then we have also had to contend with a predator. Our chickens are free range and we have a coyote or a fox come around even during the day right by our house. We have put up more fencing but are working on enclosing a large area for them, we also leave a dog out in the yard next to them to alert us if anything is out there.
I have been looking at various forums on this sight ever since we got our first chicks. I finally joined because I have some questions I couldn't find many answers about. (I am going to post them as a separate thread)
