Hello, all 
I'm not really new to chickens, since I was the "helper" when I was a kid and we had chickens. I even took a 4H class in Poultry, and didn't do too bad, lol. However, aside from occasionally helping my sister-in-law and her (sometimes) boyfriend (long story, you don't want to know), I hadn't been around them in more years than I care to admit to. This spring, we ordered 50 "barnyard mix" chickens, and I soon realized I'd forgotten a *whole bunch* more than I remembered
Since then, I and 99% of the chickens survived the learning curve. Some of the extra cockerels have already made their way to the freezer, and yesterday we got our 1st 2 eggs! I posted the pics on my facebook, if anyone's interested: [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...148762.103626.1635885362&type=1&theater][/url]
We still have 40 chickens, including several more cockerels who need harvested. We'll likely keep no more than 3 roosters, as we only have in the neighborhood of 22-25 pullets. A couple of them, though (some of the barred rocks & mixed breeds), may or may not be girls, as they seem to be developing slower.
We have Rhode Island Reds, of which most are pullets, Barred Rocks, which mostly ended up being cockerels, and a couple of what we assume are mixed-breeds - odd-looking critters that are black/nearly black, with some very dark red thrown in for flavoring.
They can't be free-range, since we have too many wild critters around here that would love to help themselves to a feathery buffet, day or night. They're in a fenced & chicken-wire-covered pen around 8ft x 16 ft, with room to expand the pen another 8 x 16 once I get that half covered in chicken wire. (too many projects, too few hours in the day or days in the week)
Their coop, though, I'm pretty proud of, if I do say so myself!
At an auction very early this year, we got hold of a 6 x 8 garden shed (the 2" x 4" and siding kind you'd pay several hundred dollars for, new) which had been "adapted" for some reason (I don't think I want to know...) to have a roof made of a pickup's camper shell, rather than the actual roof it should have come with. Still, everything else on it looked nearly new, and we knew we could get it fixed. Got it for $20, since no one else wanted it, lol. Using materials we got from the ReStore near work (Habitat for Humanity's line of stores, stuff that's used, leftovers, etc., really cool kind of store!!), stuff we saved from the long, one-way trip from work to the land-fill, some shingles left over from another project, and some ingenuity, we built a pretty cool coop. My facebook album on that project is here: [https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1747111051012.94709.1635885362&type=1][/url]
I ran across your awesome website while looking at the idea of setting up a "maggot farm" to give my guys and gals some nice, fresh proteins. I have been wandering the forums and fascinating threads ever since!
Anything you might possibly want to know about me, and possibly way more than you care about, you'd discover at my facebook homepage, to which either link above will eventually lead you. A synopsis, however, would go something like this:
I'm a 40-something gal who is a semi trailer mechanic at the same shop as my awesome hubby
works, to whom I've been happily married close to 3 decades (and I think I'll keep him!). We have two sons, several dogs & cats, and 3.3 acres out in the middle of nowhere outside of a tiny town no one has heard of unless they live nearby.
I love the outdoors, fishing, hunting, camping, canoeing, gardening, hiking, etc. and am one of those recycling/composting/reduce-reuse-recycle tree-hugger types, who absorbed a lot of my outlook on life on my great-grandmother's lap when I was a little thing listening to her tell the old Native American stories. My mother, a genuine Ozark Hillbilly, has also taught me a deep respect for all things, and I've always tried to live the "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" creed that comes from that hillbilly background.
And, now, off to wander the forums again
I do sooo love my 4 10's shift, gives me an extra day to play online! (okay, well, as well as another day to take care of our little farm, lol) I can tell this place is going to be addictive
I'm not really new to chickens, since I was the "helper" when I was a kid and we had chickens. I even took a 4H class in Poultry, and didn't do too bad, lol. However, aside from occasionally helping my sister-in-law and her (sometimes) boyfriend (long story, you don't want to know), I hadn't been around them in more years than I care to admit to. This spring, we ordered 50 "barnyard mix" chickens, and I soon realized I'd forgotten a *whole bunch* more than I remembered
Since then, I and 99% of the chickens survived the learning curve. Some of the extra cockerels have already made their way to the freezer, and yesterday we got our 1st 2 eggs! I posted the pics on my facebook, if anyone's interested: [https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...148762.103626.1635885362&type=1&theater][/url]
We still have 40 chickens, including several more cockerels who need harvested. We'll likely keep no more than 3 roosters, as we only have in the neighborhood of 22-25 pullets. A couple of them, though (some of the barred rocks & mixed breeds), may or may not be girls, as they seem to be developing slower.
We have Rhode Island Reds, of which most are pullets, Barred Rocks, which mostly ended up being cockerels, and a couple of what we assume are mixed-breeds - odd-looking critters that are black/nearly black, with some very dark red thrown in for flavoring.
They can't be free-range, since we have too many wild critters around here that would love to help themselves to a feathery buffet, day or night. They're in a fenced & chicken-wire-covered pen around 8ft x 16 ft, with room to expand the pen another 8 x 16 once I get that half covered in chicken wire. (too many projects, too few hours in the day or days in the week)
Their coop, though, I'm pretty proud of, if I do say so myself!
I ran across your awesome website while looking at the idea of setting up a "maggot farm" to give my guys and gals some nice, fresh proteins. I have been wandering the forums and fascinating threads ever since!
Anything you might possibly want to know about me, and possibly way more than you care about, you'd discover at my facebook homepage, to which either link above will eventually lead you. A synopsis, however, would go something like this:
I'm a 40-something gal who is a semi trailer mechanic at the same shop as my awesome hubby
I love the outdoors, fishing, hunting, camping, canoeing, gardening, hiking, etc. and am one of those recycling/composting/reduce-reuse-recycle tree-hugger types, who absorbed a lot of my outlook on life on my great-grandmother's lap when I was a little thing listening to her tell the old Native American stories. My mother, a genuine Ozark Hillbilly, has also taught me a deep respect for all things, and I've always tried to live the "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" creed that comes from that hillbilly background.
And, now, off to wander the forums again
