- Aug 8, 2012
- 2
- 0
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Howdy! - I'm new here on the forum, but have been getting sage advice from y'all for the past two years as we were in the planning stages for starting our own little layer flock.
Yes, all our chickens are named!!! - I don't plan on eating any, soon...we raised them from week-old chicks and have lost NONE to dogs, coyotes, disease or anything else - I have 11 ladies and one roo (who we purchased as a pullet chick - who knew!) - they started laying maybe 6 weeks ago and we are up to 7 eggs a day on most days! Yahoo! Keeping the church folks and great neighbors in eggs for the fall, we hope!
Australorps - Hannah - we hope she is not a testament to her name (Hannah in the Bible had a 'closed womb' and didnt' bear many children)
Candace - also a Bible name - after the Queen of the Ethiopians (she is, after all, the dark chicken besides Hannah)
Buff Orpingtons - Tish (because I like the name) and Lydia (another Bible name - because even as the tiniest chick, she would spread out her wings and the other chicks would come in and snuggle underneath her little wings for warmth)
A Gold Laced Wyandotte - Bess - because as a little (NOT CUTE) chick- she was a little bald but was fearless and used to boss the other chicks around - "Bossy Bess" is what we call her - now she's gorgeous
A Silver Laced Wyandotte - Emmy Lou (after Emmy Lou Harris - because of her coloring)
A straight run "I don't know what kind but she's awfully cute" chicken that grew up to be a hen - Victor/Victoria - because we didn't know if she would be a boy or a girl - she's one of my fave hens - she had a hurt wing as a chick so it droops a little - we call her Victor - because Victoria is too many syllables
Two Easter Eggers - Cleo (because as a chick, she had dark eyeliner around her eyes like Cleopatra) - a beautiful muted smoky blue/grey Easter Egger who lays sky blue eggs - she looks like an owl with those muffs she has!
Reba (as a chick she had a red-brown spot on the top of her head - named after Reba McIntire) - a gorgeous red-brown Easter Egger who lays olive green eggs - she looks like a hawk!
A Rhode Island Red Rooster - Rhodes - we bought him as a pullet and named him a very unimaginative Rhoda - 'she' started crowing at 4 months of age and we just thought she was trying ot be the boss.....then 'she' started getting tall, growing spurs and long green-blue-black tail feathers....oops!!! and Rhodes he became - he takes care of all the girls - offers them treats he finds in the pen and 'clucks' when he finds a nice worm that he gives to his favorite hen, Bess -
A Welsummer pullet - Vashti - we bought her after we got the rest - she's too young to lay yet - maybe 3 months old now
A Speckled Sussex pullet - Esther - we bought her the week after we got Vash, because Vash was getting chased by the other, older pullets - she's almost 3 months old.
My pullets are now on layer feed, get free fed oyster shells and are on pine chips in their chicken house - we were given a 14-box galvanized steel nesting box from a lady at church - that helped determine how big our chicken house was going to be.
I also have five show dogs - 3 IRish Setters (Merlin, Stone and Jimmy), 1 Gordon Settter (Ford) and 1 fawn Great Dane (Grimm)
Two goats - Riley and Flower (the grandkids named them)
Two horses - Gator and Tex
And a wonderful husband, Eric, who puts up with all my craziness
We live on 11 acres in rural mid-central Indiana and have 7 acres in good alfalfa/grass hay. Our kids are alll grown and gone now, and our zoo is our family!
My husband is a contractor who built a 5x12 chicken 'house' - he thought he should build something smaller until we started looking at the number of chickens we have - right now they have a chainlink fenced in area in our back yard attached to the chicken house - but eventually that house will be on wheels - It's so heavy I think we need a car chassis or small hay wagon tomove it - SERIOUSLY!!! - an Indiana tornado won't bring that thing down!!!!
Good to meet you all and thanks for all the advice you didn't know you were giving me!!!!
Pam - Forest, IN
Yes, all our chickens are named!!! - I don't plan on eating any, soon...we raised them from week-old chicks and have lost NONE to dogs, coyotes, disease or anything else - I have 11 ladies and one roo (who we purchased as a pullet chick - who knew!) - they started laying maybe 6 weeks ago and we are up to 7 eggs a day on most days! Yahoo! Keeping the church folks and great neighbors in eggs for the fall, we hope!
Australorps - Hannah - we hope she is not a testament to her name (Hannah in the Bible had a 'closed womb' and didnt' bear many children)
Candace - also a Bible name - after the Queen of the Ethiopians (she is, after all, the dark chicken besides Hannah)
Buff Orpingtons - Tish (because I like the name) and Lydia (another Bible name - because even as the tiniest chick, she would spread out her wings and the other chicks would come in and snuggle underneath her little wings for warmth)
A Gold Laced Wyandotte - Bess - because as a little (NOT CUTE) chick- she was a little bald but was fearless and used to boss the other chicks around - "Bossy Bess" is what we call her - now she's gorgeous
A Silver Laced Wyandotte - Emmy Lou (after Emmy Lou Harris - because of her coloring)
A straight run "I don't know what kind but she's awfully cute" chicken that grew up to be a hen - Victor/Victoria - because we didn't know if she would be a boy or a girl - she's one of my fave hens - she had a hurt wing as a chick so it droops a little - we call her Victor - because Victoria is too many syllables
Two Easter Eggers - Cleo (because as a chick, she had dark eyeliner around her eyes like Cleopatra) - a beautiful muted smoky blue/grey Easter Egger who lays sky blue eggs - she looks like an owl with those muffs she has!
Reba (as a chick she had a red-brown spot on the top of her head - named after Reba McIntire) - a gorgeous red-brown Easter Egger who lays olive green eggs - she looks like a hawk!
A Rhode Island Red Rooster - Rhodes - we bought him as a pullet and named him a very unimaginative Rhoda - 'she' started crowing at 4 months of age and we just thought she was trying ot be the boss.....then 'she' started getting tall, growing spurs and long green-blue-black tail feathers....oops!!! and Rhodes he became - he takes care of all the girls - offers them treats he finds in the pen and 'clucks' when he finds a nice worm that he gives to his favorite hen, Bess -
A Welsummer pullet - Vashti - we bought her after we got the rest - she's too young to lay yet - maybe 3 months old now
A Speckled Sussex pullet - Esther - we bought her the week after we got Vash, because Vash was getting chased by the other, older pullets - she's almost 3 months old.
My pullets are now on layer feed, get free fed oyster shells and are on pine chips in their chicken house - we were given a 14-box galvanized steel nesting box from a lady at church - that helped determine how big our chicken house was going to be.
I also have five show dogs - 3 IRish Setters (Merlin, Stone and Jimmy), 1 Gordon Settter (Ford) and 1 fawn Great Dane (Grimm)
Two goats - Riley and Flower (the grandkids named them)
Two horses - Gator and Tex
And a wonderful husband, Eric, who puts up with all my craziness
We live on 11 acres in rural mid-central Indiana and have 7 acres in good alfalfa/grass hay. Our kids are alll grown and gone now, and our zoo is our family!
My husband is a contractor who built a 5x12 chicken 'house' - he thought he should build something smaller until we started looking at the number of chickens we have - right now they have a chainlink fenced in area in our back yard attached to the chicken house - but eventually that house will be on wheels - It's so heavy I think we need a car chassis or small hay wagon tomove it - SERIOUSLY!!! - an Indiana tornado won't bring that thing down!!!!
Good to meet you all and thanks for all the advice you didn't know you were giving me!!!!
Pam - Forest, IN
from Ohio. So glad to have you aboard. 
