New to chicken raising

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Tonya Mohler

Tonya Mohler

Hatching
6 Years
Apr 27, 2013
1
0
7
We have some chicks that are about 5-6 wks old and another set that is about 2 wks old. I want to feed quality food. What do you recommend? I have heard feeding countryside organic soy free is the best. We are looking forward to learning more about chickens. Tonya
 
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Hello everyone. My name is Chrissy. I am very new to raising chickens. We decide to turn our old dog run into our chicken coop. My husband built a rather large hen house inside the dog run. He also built a roof over it and covered it with some chicken wire for added protection. The chicken have the whole dog run to walk around because the house was built above the ground. My husband and I bought our 1st chickens at our local flea market. We bought 7 hens and 1 rooster. We were told that the rooster was 7mnths old. He was a Rhode Island Red. The hens we now know they are mixed breeds. We believe we have 1that is Bantam/Dominique. 1 we think is Orpington/Dominique. I believe 3 of them to be of Catalana. The rest of them is a big question. We really don't care of the breeds at this time. We bought all of the hens already laying eggs. We don't know how old the hens are, only that they were already laying. Shortly after we bought our chickens the weather here in Silver Springs, FL got very cold. I noticed 1 hen had bubbles coming out of her eyes. She was quickly separated. I started her on Duramycin 10 Powder as well as some vitamins and electrolytes. A few days later I noticed the rooster was just laying around and would move. I went to get him separated and he had passed away as he was being put into another area. Well I was very scared that I was going to loose my whole flock so I began the rest of them on the Duramycin. I mixed it 1tbsp to 1 gallon of water. It really didn't seem like the they were ever goin to get better so I started them on an antibiotic feed and mixed it with there crumble. The hen that was separated started to get better and then she got worse. I also bought some heat lights and put them up in the coop and in the dog cage we had the really sick hen in. Just when it seemed like we were going to loose her she came through. We thought the only name she should have is Miracle. I tell ya it was very hard but I made it through it all. We have now had our chickens for 3 months now and I am happy to say they are all happy, healthy, and laying eggs. Unfortunately we have not been able to return Miracle with the rest of the flock. We have tried several times and every time she ends up bleeding. Through it all I love it. I have a special relationship with a few of the hens. They love to eat out of my hands. I feed my hens a mixture of feed. They get crumble in their feeder and I throw some scratch on the ground. I buy them this block of sweet feed and I break it up with a hammer and screwdriver and put it in ziplock bags. I throw that on the ground with the scratch. I also dig up earthworms and grubs as a special treat for them. They also get some freeze dried meal worms as a treat. I can't wait to get another rooster so I can try my hand at raising them from eggs.
This is my very 1st egg. I was so happy when I found it. I knew that what I was doing was the right thing.
These are a few of my hens. The waterer is not a the floor any more.
This my Molly. She was the 1st hen that came up to me and ate out of my hand.
This is the house my husband built. It has steps for them to get in it they just weren't up in this picture. You can't really see it but underneath but, there is a perch that goes from one side of the dog run to the other. We have since added 3 more perches. 1 is about a foot off of the ground. Another is about 2ft and the last one is about 3ft off of the ground.
 

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