We live in the country outside Austin, TX. Hubby brought home a baby duck in Feb., then started bringing in chickens, more chickens, two guineas, more chickens...so now we are very busy with them...something new to us.
We have 13 chickens outside...some silkies and some bantams, (and one huge multicolored rooster who is just here for decoration. He isn't interested in the girls at all). Also, we hatched 10 in an incubator about 5 weeks ago, and had two hens sitting on 7 more that hatched two weeks later. So we have 16 chickies in a big cage on the front porch for now, and one very different sort of chicken in a box in the house. She (?) got an eye infection and was pulling her feathers out...obviously stressed with the others, since she was bigger, white (the others are black), and just didn't fit in. She seems to be thriving now.
I love this site. I started looking for ideas for a chicken coop and pen, as we are about ready to start building something for them. They free range during the day and stay in cages at night, so far. I get lost in looking at all the various coops people have built, and am very excited to have found this site.
We have 13 chickens outside...some silkies and some bantams, (and one huge multicolored rooster who is just here for decoration. He isn't interested in the girls at all). Also, we hatched 10 in an incubator about 5 weeks ago, and had two hens sitting on 7 more that hatched two weeks later. So we have 16 chickies in a big cage on the front porch for now, and one very different sort of chicken in a box in the house. She (?) got an eye infection and was pulling her feathers out...obviously stressed with the others, since she was bigger, white (the others are black), and just didn't fit in. She seems to be thriving now.
I love this site. I started looking for ideas for a chicken coop and pen, as we are about ready to start building something for them. They free range during the day and stay in cages at night, so far. I get lost in looking at all the various coops people have built, and am very excited to have found this site.
