- Mar 23, 2013
- 8
- 0
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Live in Tallahassee, Florida on 7 acres. I have never had chickens, but have always wanted to. We built our coop and got six Rhode Island Reds from our local Tractor Supply. The store required a minimum purchase of six, that's what we bought.
My daughter told me about this site. She has six chickens also and is learning along with us.
We are also experimenting with hydroponics and aquaponics. Our garden is on a small scale this year, but we plan to expand as we learn. We have enjoyed the experience and being able to eat food we have grown.
We have two dogs - Papillions. They don't disturb the chickens at all when they are out of the coop. We were relieved at that as our daughter has a schnauzer that chases her chickens and has to be put up when she has the chickens out.
We get five eggs per day. One of our chickens is a buff color - the rest are red. It is very obvious that the buff is at the bottom of the pecking order. I understand that it is natural for chickens to have a pecking order, but they are torturing this poor buff. She runs to a corner of the pen and buries her face to get them to stop pecking at her. I felt sorry for her so I put her is a separate area, using a dog crate. She seems to enjoy that, but I don't want this to be a permanent solution. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open!
I look forward to visiting the site and contributing when I can.
My daughter told me about this site. She has six chickens also and is learning along with us.
We are also experimenting with hydroponics and aquaponics. Our garden is on a small scale this year, but we plan to expand as we learn. We have enjoyed the experience and being able to eat food we have grown.
We have two dogs - Papillions. They don't disturb the chickens at all when they are out of the coop. We were relieved at that as our daughter has a schnauzer that chases her chickens and has to be put up when she has the chickens out.
We get five eggs per day. One of our chickens is a buff color - the rest are red. It is very obvious that the buff is at the bottom of the pecking order. I understand that it is natural for chickens to have a pecking order, but they are torturing this poor buff. She runs to a corner of the pen and buries her face to get them to stop pecking at her. I felt sorry for her so I put her is a separate area, using a dog crate. She seems to enjoy that, but I don't want this to be a permanent solution. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open!
I look forward to visiting the site and contributing when I can.