Newbie!

[kimmybow]

Hi all! I'm a new chicken farmer - lol! I got chickens because I love animals, and what a bonus to have animals that give back more than love!

My hens (pullets?) are still pretty young - got them in May 2011. I have 6 - 5 of them are definitely Buff Opringtons, one is a bit of a mystery. She looks like a buff for the most part, but she has somewhat different shaped feathers, a different tail, and is bigger than the rest of the girls. There is a rumor that she is a buff aracauna, but I'm not sure. She has no face decorations

Haven't been able to find a good pic of one.

They are cracking my family up with their antics. Our mystery girl, Zoey, is a supreme bug catcher, and we love to watch her launch herself into the air to get a choice bug. Ozzy has a bit of a funny eye - perhaps an injury? She seems to be missing part of her upper eyelid. She is a nervous nelly. Yoko is super friendly and has a funny cowlick on her back. JiJi "runs like a dinosaur", says my 9 y/o. Yolky and Peepers are kind of non-descript.

I am a little concerned that the honeymoon will be over once the winter arrives. Things are going very smoothly - Caring for them seems relatively easy right now. We don't have egg laying to contend with yet - not sure how much that adds to the work...

I have a husband and 2 girls, 11 and 9. The 9 y/o is so in love with the girls - she is my future vet

11 y/o could not be less interested-pre teen - lol!

Looking forwared to fresh eggs!

 

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

Hello and

Glad you joined!

 

[izel]

Hi Im Brenda. Just started raising chicks for our back yard for my daughters 4H project

Here is my dilemma

I have just finished incubating 12 chicken eggs and 5 turkey eggs. I only got three healthy chicks. Out of the 9 fertile chick eggs 6 hatched. 3 of them had trouble coming out. two of those died. Two of the chicks had spayed legs and I used a bandaid to help them. One died but I think it had something wrong with its back it couldn't lift its head. The other still will not use his right leg but is getting around. He is smaller than the rest. He eats and drinks fine.

As for the turkeys only 3 were fertile. One died coming out of the shell. One has the same problem the chick with the bad back has. I expect him to die soon. Dont know what to do. And the third one was born with only one eye and a bad beak.

I have incubated three times and the first time I hand turned them and we got 12 out of 13 chicks. The last two times I used an egg turner, and we didn't get a good hatch in either case. Could it be the egg turner causing this problem?

I am afraid of having another set of eggs.

Brenda

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.

 

[what's kickin' chicken]

Hi

 

[texasgal]

A big Texas-sized

Sounds like you're really lovin' your chickens!

 

[Poppafrog]

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us.

 

[FarmCoe]

"Yoko," I love that name!

 

[NonnasBabies]

&

from Louisiana!