ChicknWing
Chirping
Hello Everyone,
Thought I jump into the fray instead of just observing from the sidelines. I got into this hobby after seeing chickens roam around in the yard of a house in my neighborhood. After a brief conversation with the lady about how easy or difficult it was to keep chickens, I decided to jump in with both feet. I started with 7 pullets, different breeds, from a local farm earlier this year in May. A couple of months later, lost 1 to sudden death. Then got the itch for some more. Added 5 Barnies. About 5 or 6 weeks later, lost all 5 of them to some preadator. While this upset me, it didn't dampen my itch. So found another farm & got about 9 pullets. A few weeks later, lost 2 to a predator & 1, a Speckled Sussex, just died in her sleep. The itch came back again about 5 to 6 weeks later & ended up getting 10 more. So I now have a total of about 22 chickens spread across 2 flocks. One flock has 12 chickens while the other has 10. Each flock has their own coop. While I still have the itch for more, I've managed to control it. Till springtime anyways. Apart from predation, I've not had any issues. Since I live in a semi rural area, I let my birds free range. Not sure though whether I'll continue that in the winter or not. Reason being that with less food around, predators will be more apt to attack during daytime. I'm also considering installing an electric fence. If I can find something reasonable. I'm welcome to suggestions. At the moment, I'm working on running an electric line to the pen where the two coops are connected to so that I can hook up the water warmers to. Living in CT, we will surely get a few blizzards between January and March. Not being a winter person, I would like to avoid having to schlep water twice a day. I don't even do that now. Besides that, I get bored with having to do the same chores every day. So I try & automate things if possible. This keeps the hobby enjoyable.
Anyhow, look forward to chatting with & learning from everyone's experiences & guidance.
Thought I jump into the fray instead of just observing from the sidelines. I got into this hobby after seeing chickens roam around in the yard of a house in my neighborhood. After a brief conversation with the lady about how easy or difficult it was to keep chickens, I decided to jump in with both feet. I started with 7 pullets, different breeds, from a local farm earlier this year in May. A couple of months later, lost 1 to sudden death. Then got the itch for some more. Added 5 Barnies. About 5 or 6 weeks later, lost all 5 of them to some preadator. While this upset me, it didn't dampen my itch. So found another farm & got about 9 pullets. A few weeks later, lost 2 to a predator & 1, a Speckled Sussex, just died in her sleep. The itch came back again about 5 to 6 weeks later & ended up getting 10 more. So I now have a total of about 22 chickens spread across 2 flocks. One flock has 12 chickens while the other has 10. Each flock has their own coop. While I still have the itch for more, I've managed to control it. Till springtime anyways. Apart from predation, I've not had any issues. Since I live in a semi rural area, I let my birds free range. Not sure though whether I'll continue that in the winter or not. Reason being that with less food around, predators will be more apt to attack during daytime. I'm also considering installing an electric fence. If I can find something reasonable. I'm welcome to suggestions. At the moment, I'm working on running an electric line to the pen where the two coops are connected to so that I can hook up the water warmers to. Living in CT, we will surely get a few blizzards between January and March. Not being a winter person, I would like to avoid having to schlep water twice a day. I don't even do that now. Besides that, I get bored with having to do the same chores every day. So I try & automate things if possible. This keeps the hobby enjoyable.
Anyhow, look forward to chatting with & learning from everyone's experiences & guidance.
