My girlfriend and I had talked about getting chickens for a while, and we finally decided to take the plunge and do it after browsing this site becoming jealous of all your chickens on here (and reading a few books) When I was a kid I lived on an 87 acre farm and my grandma had a small flock of her own, but other than that, this is our first experience with chickens. So, we got our own little flock of chickens from a local place C&L farms in Oregon City, the guy was really nice and delivered them to my house. They arrived on June 9th and at the time, they were about 6-8 weeks old. Here is a picture of them on their first night here.
We ordered:
2 Gold laced Wyandottes (Indica and Sativa)
2 Sliver laced Wyandottes (Silvia)
2 Polish (Layne, and Roz)
1 Blue Maran (Sissy)
1 Splash Maran (Opal)
and 2 mixed breeds (trying to figure out what they are) (Buttercup and Daphne)
We were also gifted one Delaware by our neighbor who also keeps chickens.
One of my girls was unfortunately eaten by one of my dogs on the second week of June, I had the brooder box indoors because it was still cold outside, especially at night. She jumped out of her brooder box in the middle of the night. We woke up one morning, she was missing with not a trace other than a few feathers on the ground. Here is the only picture I have of her, R.I.P. "Silvia" (#1) I had not yet named the other silver laced Wyandotte, so I named her Silvia in honor of the one that perished. I kept one of her feathers as a memorial.
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Here are some more recent photos of them now at 10-11 weeks in their new coop and run and free ranging the yard.
This is Indica's close-up
Opal
Sissy!
Here's an older pic of Sissy when she was a baby
Here's my girlfriend holding our Baby of the Flock, Snowflake, she's a Delaware- this is the one we got from our neighbor who said they were part of a 4H project. She's our most affectionate girl- runs right up to us and loves to be held and petted.
This is Buttercup, she's a mixed breed, we aren't sure what she is.
This is Daphne, we don't know what breed she is either- she's also very friendly, here she is eating some of her Organic Fermented feed. (We use Scratch & Peck, it's awesome food)
Layne, running away after rummaging through the garden....
Roz! I don't really like her much, she's kind of mean, pecks at my baby Snowflake- and hates being held, I'm surprised I was even able to get this close for a picture
Here's our coop, it was made by The Chicken Gardener here in Portland, OR he did a great job, it's made of cedar and has two windows and a 30 year roof!
The inside
The entire length of the run, including the space under the coop is 18 x 4, the coop itself is 6x4 and has room for 15 chickens, we have a blanket over the top for shade, and an oscillating fan. it was over 100 last week. We will have a proper roof on it by the time the rainy season starts. Slightly outside of the picture, we have the brooder box connected to the run, set off to the side for when we add more chickens to the flock.
Here is a pic of the Run while we were still working on building it. After making the run we decided that carpentry and light construction projects are harder than it looks and decided to have the coop made for us instead of trying to do it ourselves. We also don't have a car so getting supplies was tricky. We also discovered that 2x4's aren't actually two x four inches.The hardest part was putting on the hardware cloth. That stuff is not fun to work with, lots of sweat, and profanities went into that part, even blood. If you are planning on building a run, just remember that stuff is sharp, be careful!
Here's a video of them a few weeks back hanging out in their run on the Summer Solstice, they were still living in their brooder box at the time. they had just gotten over a serious battle with Coccidosis, but we didn't loose any thanks to Corrid! Great stuff.
I took another video the other day of them running around I will upload it on here as soon as I put it up on YouTube.
Questions, comments, tips and suggestions all welcome! We are wondering what breed Buttercup and Daphne are if you have any ideas, let me know. Also, does Opal look like a Splash Maran to you? She's definatly a splash something but looks way different than the Blue Maran in almost every way.
Also we are looking for a few more to add to the flock, a Cream Legbar, Croad Langshan, Americauna, and Olive Egger. If you are in, or near Portland with baby chicks please contact me!
Thanks everyone for peepin' my peeps
We ordered:
2 Gold laced Wyandottes (Indica and Sativa)
2 Sliver laced Wyandottes (Silvia)
2 Polish (Layne, and Roz)
1 Blue Maran (Sissy)
1 Splash Maran (Opal)
and 2 mixed breeds (trying to figure out what they are) (Buttercup and Daphne)
We were also gifted one Delaware by our neighbor who also keeps chickens.
One of my girls was unfortunately eaten by one of my dogs on the second week of June, I had the brooder box indoors because it was still cold outside, especially at night. She jumped out of her brooder box in the middle of the night. We woke up one morning, she was missing with not a trace other than a few feathers on the ground. Here is the only picture I have of her, R.I.P. "Silvia" (#1) I had not yet named the other silver laced Wyandotte, so I named her Silvia in honor of the one that perished. I kept one of her feathers as a memorial.
.
Here are some more recent photos of them now at 10-11 weeks in their new coop and run and free ranging the yard.
This is Indica's close-up
Opal
Sissy!
Here's an older pic of Sissy when she was a baby
Here's my girlfriend holding our Baby of the Flock, Snowflake, she's a Delaware- this is the one we got from our neighbor who said they were part of a 4H project. She's our most affectionate girl- runs right up to us and loves to be held and petted.
This is Buttercup, she's a mixed breed, we aren't sure what she is.
This is Daphne, we don't know what breed she is either- she's also very friendly, here she is eating some of her Organic Fermented feed. (We use Scratch & Peck, it's awesome food)
Layne, running away after rummaging through the garden....
Roz! I don't really like her much, she's kind of mean, pecks at my baby Snowflake- and hates being held, I'm surprised I was even able to get this close for a picture
Here's our coop, it was made by The Chicken Gardener here in Portland, OR he did a great job, it's made of cedar and has two windows and a 30 year roof!
The inside
The entire length of the run, including the space under the coop is 18 x 4, the coop itself is 6x4 and has room for 15 chickens, we have a blanket over the top for shade, and an oscillating fan. it was over 100 last week. We will have a proper roof on it by the time the rainy season starts. Slightly outside of the picture, we have the brooder box connected to the run, set off to the side for when we add more chickens to the flock.
Here is a pic of the Run while we were still working on building it. After making the run we decided that carpentry and light construction projects are harder than it looks and decided to have the coop made for us instead of trying to do it ourselves. We also don't have a car so getting supplies was tricky. We also discovered that 2x4's aren't actually two x four inches.The hardest part was putting on the hardware cloth. That stuff is not fun to work with, lots of sweat, and profanities went into that part, even blood. If you are planning on building a run, just remember that stuff is sharp, be careful!
Here's a video of them a few weeks back hanging out in their run on the Summer Solstice, they were still living in their brooder box at the time. they had just gotten over a serious battle with Coccidosis, but we didn't loose any thanks to Corrid! Great stuff.
I took another video the other day of them running around I will upload it on here as soon as I put it up on YouTube.
Questions, comments, tips and suggestions all welcome! We are wondering what breed Buttercup and Daphne are if you have any ideas, let me know. Also, does Opal look like a Splash Maran to you? She's definatly a splash something but looks way different than the Blue Maran in almost every way.
Also we are looking for a few more to add to the flock, a Cream Legbar, Croad Langshan, Americauna, and Olive Egger. If you are in, or near Portland with baby chicks please contact me!
Thanks everyone for peepin' my peeps
