Greetings fellow BYC members!
Long time lurker, first time signer-upper and poster. I live on the Eastern shore of Maryland with my hubby, peeps, and two cats – Draco and Piper (who we usually call another, not-so-nice name).
I’ve wanted chickens for the past year or so, but as my hubby and I have been rehabbing our house (my childhood home), we’ve had more important priorities. We stripped the house down to the studs, redid all the electric, plumbing, HVAC, etc. So the chicken project has taken a while to get started.
I recently started a new job, so I can’t take vacation for a while, plus our house is finally starting to come together. I decided it was a good time to get serious about the homestead. I guess what finally snapped in me was that I was thinking, “Gee, all those kids get Easter peeps and then don’t want them afterwards. It should be easy to find chicks after Easter!” I called around to a bunch of TSC’s in the area, with no luck finding anything. Finally, I found a woman on Craigslist who had 5 black star pullets left. SCORE! I wanted more like 6-8 hens, but decided that five would do it for a first-timer. The weekend after we picked up our chicks, we stopped at the TSC for more supplies. Lo and behold, they had more chicks. I thought – Great! Now we can pick up 3 more and I can have a more varied flock. Oh wait. You can only buy six at a time. I looked at my husband… he said, “Let’s do it!”
They had a straight run bantam bin and I thought “oh how fun, we should get two bantams.” I wasn’t sure what they were when we were in the store, but I figured if we weren’t happy with them that we could always give them away later. So we picked up 2 of the bantam chicks and 4 of their “red pullets”, two from each bin. One of the workers at TSC claimed that one of the bins were golden comets. I think we have 2 golden comets and 2 Rhode Island or NH reds. Our bantams turned out to be silkies! Or at least one of them is a silkie, she has five toes and feathered feet. Our other “silkie” has five toes on one foot, four on the other, and no feathered feet. So… I’m guessing that he’s (I keep saying him, watch “him” lay an egg one day!) either a low-quality silkie or a cross of some sort. I love him because he’s kind of a misfit.
Almost all of our babies will be ready to go outside in the next week or two, but my hubby hasn’t built their coop yet. He’s an expert at building, so he should be able to get it up in a few days. We’re planning to have a temporary run, and I’m planning to make their permanent run my own project. I keep seeing all of the cool things that people do with pallets and I think I should be able to build something for my flock.
Anyway, I probably gave you way more information than you needed. Thanks for all the great info!!
Here are a few pics of my chicks!
Long time lurker, first time signer-upper and poster. I live on the Eastern shore of Maryland with my hubby, peeps, and two cats – Draco and Piper (who we usually call another, not-so-nice name).
I’ve wanted chickens for the past year or so, but as my hubby and I have been rehabbing our house (my childhood home), we’ve had more important priorities. We stripped the house down to the studs, redid all the electric, plumbing, HVAC, etc. So the chicken project has taken a while to get started.
I recently started a new job, so I can’t take vacation for a while, plus our house is finally starting to come together. I decided it was a good time to get serious about the homestead. I guess what finally snapped in me was that I was thinking, “Gee, all those kids get Easter peeps and then don’t want them afterwards. It should be easy to find chicks after Easter!” I called around to a bunch of TSC’s in the area, with no luck finding anything. Finally, I found a woman on Craigslist who had 5 black star pullets left. SCORE! I wanted more like 6-8 hens, but decided that five would do it for a first-timer. The weekend after we picked up our chicks, we stopped at the TSC for more supplies. Lo and behold, they had more chicks. I thought – Great! Now we can pick up 3 more and I can have a more varied flock. Oh wait. You can only buy six at a time. I looked at my husband… he said, “Let’s do it!”
They had a straight run bantam bin and I thought “oh how fun, we should get two bantams.” I wasn’t sure what they were when we were in the store, but I figured if we weren’t happy with them that we could always give them away later. So we picked up 2 of the bantam chicks and 4 of their “red pullets”, two from each bin. One of the workers at TSC claimed that one of the bins were golden comets. I think we have 2 golden comets and 2 Rhode Island or NH reds. Our bantams turned out to be silkies! Or at least one of them is a silkie, she has five toes and feathered feet. Our other “silkie” has five toes on one foot, four on the other, and no feathered feet. So… I’m guessing that he’s (I keep saying him, watch “him” lay an egg one day!) either a low-quality silkie or a cross of some sort. I love him because he’s kind of a misfit.
Almost all of our babies will be ready to go outside in the next week or two, but my hubby hasn’t built their coop yet. He’s an expert at building, so he should be able to get it up in a few days. We’re planning to have a temporary run, and I’m planning to make their permanent run my own project. I keep seeing all of the cool things that people do with pallets and I think I should be able to build something for my flock.
Anyway, I probably gave you way more information than you needed. Thanks for all the great info!!
Here are a few pics of my chicks!
from Ohio. So glad you joined. Congrats and have fun. 
