- Mar 29, 2010
- 25
- 0
- 22
Never having had chickens before and not having a clue where to begin, I turned to the internet, Googled "chickens" and up pops Back Yard Chickens. What an incredible resource this is! I have been reading, learning, making notes, and dreaming about chickens for the last 3 weeks. Sure there are lots of other resources on the web, in book stores, etc., and occasionally I'll do a search on other chicken sites, but always find myself navigating right back to BYC. To the developer of this site, I can't thank you enough. It is easy to navigate, thorough, and most of all enjoyable. To all of those who post and share your chicken insight and experience - you're the greatest! I hope to someday have enough chicken know-how under my belt to be able to "egg-on" a newbie such as myself.
When I told my husband that I wanted to get a few chickens, he tried to come up with all kinds of reasons why I wouldn't want to, but all his arguments involved chicken poop, and I have dealt with a lot bigger problems than chicken poop. We raised two boys... enough said. My first hurdle was to find out if I could actually have chickens. We live on the outskirts of a small village (population about 1800) in southern Michigan. I have never noticed any chickens running around, so I wasn't entirely sure we could legally keep them. A quick trip to the village office gave us the answer - there are no laws against having chickens in town; however they discourage having "too many chickens" (whatever that means), and no roosters. With that bit of news, "MY" chickens suddenly became "OUR" chickens - my wonderful hubby of 28 years was onboard 110%.
We are now the adoring owners of 7 one-week old tweetie-pies. 3 Isa Browns (Mildred, Myrna, and Maude - I don't know how we're going to tell them apart, but hopefully they'll display some differences when they get older), 1 Barred Rock (Fern), 1 Buff Orpington (Gladys), and 2 Aracondas (Harriette and Hazel). We got them when they were less than 24 hours old, and have been in constant entertainment, amazement, and awe since we brought them home. Whether you believe in God or not, isn't it truly amazing how such a complex life form can develop in 21 days, come out of a shell, and almost immediately start to act like a chicken with no mommy chicken to show it how.
They are brooding in a small kiddie swimming pool in our dining room under the watchful eye of our 1 year old Boston Terrier, Corky. He has been really good so far. Hopefully in raising them together, he will learn to be a chicken-friendly dog.
We broke ground on our chicken coop, run, tractor contraption on Saturday. In reading all the different suggestions, and looking at hundreds of pictures, we are designing our coop to reflect many of the great ideas I have found on BYC. It will probably take us a few weeks to get it done, and I'll be sure to post pictures when it's finished. We're excited about it!
Isnt it also amazing how $15 worth of baby chicks can turn into $60 in baby chick paraphernalia, $300- $400 in wood, wire, shingles and were just getting started.
So that's OUR chicken story so far. Again, we want to thank those who read and post on this forum. You don't know how much we appreciate all the information we have found here! Until we meet again - John and Deanne
When I told my husband that I wanted to get a few chickens, he tried to come up with all kinds of reasons why I wouldn't want to, but all his arguments involved chicken poop, and I have dealt with a lot bigger problems than chicken poop. We raised two boys... enough said. My first hurdle was to find out if I could actually have chickens. We live on the outskirts of a small village (population about 1800) in southern Michigan. I have never noticed any chickens running around, so I wasn't entirely sure we could legally keep them. A quick trip to the village office gave us the answer - there are no laws against having chickens in town; however they discourage having "too many chickens" (whatever that means), and no roosters. With that bit of news, "MY" chickens suddenly became "OUR" chickens - my wonderful hubby of 28 years was onboard 110%.
We are now the adoring owners of 7 one-week old tweetie-pies. 3 Isa Browns (Mildred, Myrna, and Maude - I don't know how we're going to tell them apart, but hopefully they'll display some differences when they get older), 1 Barred Rock (Fern), 1 Buff Orpington (Gladys), and 2 Aracondas (Harriette and Hazel). We got them when they were less than 24 hours old, and have been in constant entertainment, amazement, and awe since we brought them home. Whether you believe in God or not, isn't it truly amazing how such a complex life form can develop in 21 days, come out of a shell, and almost immediately start to act like a chicken with no mommy chicken to show it how.
They are brooding in a small kiddie swimming pool in our dining room under the watchful eye of our 1 year old Boston Terrier, Corky. He has been really good so far. Hopefully in raising them together, he will learn to be a chicken-friendly dog.
We broke ground on our chicken coop, run, tractor contraption on Saturday. In reading all the different suggestions, and looking at hundreds of pictures, we are designing our coop to reflect many of the great ideas I have found on BYC. It will probably take us a few weeks to get it done, and I'll be sure to post pictures when it's finished. We're excited about it!
Isnt it also amazing how $15 worth of baby chicks can turn into $60 in baby chick paraphernalia, $300- $400 in wood, wire, shingles and were just getting started.
So that's OUR chicken story so far. Again, we want to thank those who read and post on this forum. You don't know how much we appreciate all the information we have found here! Until we meet again - John and Deanne
