- May 30, 2010
- 8
- 0
- 7
First off, I want to thank the operators of BackYardChickens. I've been Lurking here for a couple of months trying to figure out my gameplan for chickens. I've been an active consumer of "yard eggs" for a couple of years. I've been slowly working on the self-sustainability concept and decided to take the plunge into raising my own laying hens. I know perfectly well, it will be a money losing venture since I can only keep under 5 chickens in my neighborhood (they actually have that written into the covenants).
After building the coop (then going back and reinforcing it several times after reading all the predator topics!), I finally bought a couple of young hens (6 months) from craigslist. I decided to go with adults due to the fear factor of getting chicks with no previous bird experience. One is some sort of brown sex linked and the other a rhode island red. The fellow I bought them from had all sorts of varieties but I asked him for good solid hens that would be hard to mess up.
The brown hen started laying this past week. Wow, within three days of her starting to lay, her comb got bright pink and BIG! The RIR hasn't started yet but I noticed a couple of days ago that her comb was starting to get a bit more pink although it is tiny.
Now if I could just get the one girl to lay in the nest box. She lays in the corner right by the nest box. 3 eggs so far (about 1 every other day). One of the was cracked when I found it. So I put a deep layer of shavings in the corner to help cushion the eggs and a fake egg in each nest. I'm hoping she takes the hint.
Anyway, thanks for such a great site. It is very informative.
Oh and FYI, freeze dried mealworms is like crack to chickens.
After building the coop (then going back and reinforcing it several times after reading all the predator topics!), I finally bought a couple of young hens (6 months) from craigslist. I decided to go with adults due to the fear factor of getting chicks with no previous bird experience. One is some sort of brown sex linked and the other a rhode island red. The fellow I bought them from had all sorts of varieties but I asked him for good solid hens that would be hard to mess up.
The brown hen started laying this past week. Wow, within three days of her starting to lay, her comb got bright pink and BIG! The RIR hasn't started yet but I noticed a couple of days ago that her comb was starting to get a bit more pink although it is tiny.
Now if I could just get the one girl to lay in the nest box. She lays in the corner right by the nest box. 3 eggs so far (about 1 every other day). One of the was cracked when I found it. So I put a deep layer of shavings in the corner to help cushion the eggs and a fake egg in each nest. I'm hoping she takes the hint.
Anyway, thanks for such a great site. It is very informative.
Oh and FYI, freeze dried mealworms is like crack to chickens.
FromAlaska.......... try putting some fake eggs or something like them into the nest you'd LIKE the hen to lay in, then.................................???????????????????
