Congrats! We got our first egg this morning too...which is way cool since we only got the girls about 24 hours ago. I was pretty impressed. The woman we got them from said they hatched in January and starting laying in May and haven't missed a day since. I figured that, with the move and new surroundings and our dogs they'd likely take a day or two to get back to "regular".
We're pretty jazzed...been talking and thinking about it for several months. I did a lot of research and decided that the SexLinks are the birds for us...either Red or Gold probably. I was leery about getting chicks though. Hubby has a lot of chicken experience but when we transferred them to the cage to bring them home was the first time I'd ever even touched a live chicken! Must have been fate, though. I check the "free" part of Craig's list every day (cuz ya just never know what treasure you might find) and for some reason, yesterday morning I looked under farm and garden. Lo and behold there was a post for 6 Red SL's! I called and we went out and brought 'em home.
Kinda got the cart before the horse, tho...or perhaps the chickens before the coop is a better expression, LOL. She had a nice good-sized cage she let us borrow till Hubby gets the coop made. We tarped it over and put some portable fencing around it, so it'll be great for a temporary home. We've since been madly scoping out plans for a coop and have settled on one. We're going to get started on it today. Fortunately Hubby spent most of his working life in remodel and construction, so he really knows what he's doing.
Update...he just brought in egg #2! Woohoo! I'm thinking that might be why they're a bit more vocal today than yesterday
Do I have to say that I'm fascinated?? Five of them seem to be pretty calm and just one is a bit skittish. The moment you step into the pen they all come running to see what's up. They won't let me touch them yet, but I'm confident that'll come when we get to know each other. When I put 'em to bed last night, I just opened the cage and 5 of them went right in. I had to catch that skittish one but it wasn't a big deal...I just moved slowly and caught her before she took more than 2 steps. Took them some broccoli and yogurt this morning and we all had some fun. The yogurt was a BIG hit and the broccoli seemed to provide a lot of entertainment for them, tho they did eat some of it too.
The first egg was just laying on the straw in the bottom of the cage, but they seemed restless and noisy. I found an old Rubbermaid wash basin and had Dave pop a couple holes in it and zip tie it to the cage so they wouldn't knock it over. When Dave went to check and found the second one, it was in the "nesting box".
Unfortunately we have a grumpy neighbor who thinks we're off our rockers
It's taken him a while to finally come to the conclusion that we're lost causes, LOL. When we tore all the sod out of our front yard to xeriscape it, he had a fit. A month or so ago, we found rabbit manure for free on good ole Craig's list and he flat refused to let us borrow his pickup to fetch it. I think he was hoping we'd give up the idea, but we just tarped the van and made several trips for it. Bringing the chickens home yesterday was the last straw, I think. He hasn't talked to us directly (yet) but told my brother to tell us to keep the coop on the side of the yard away from his! Sheesh.
So, that's our "First Day of the Chickens" saga. I'm jazzed! Sure would be great to hit the dang lottery and get a big place in the country and be able to have more chickens, goats, donkeys, etc, but...from what I hear you have to buy a ticked even to have a chance at that!
Have a great day, y'all!
Mickey
