Oh, and I guess I didn't introduce myself. We live in NE Houston, almost to Dayton, and I have a large family, well, I guess technically, just a lot of small people--6 kids.
We used to live in Mason (central Texas) about 10 years ago and had I think one of every Bantam there is, and a few "regular" chickens. The bigger chickens were from older, down-home country friends at church, and when I asked them what kind of chickens they were, they looked at me like, "Duh! They're black! Can't you see that. They're for eatin'!" Lol.
We also had some lovely Rhode Island Reds that were hand raised by my kids till they were eaten by the fox, some other chicks till they were eaten by the hawk (snatched from a few feet away in front of our very eyes!), and some larger chicks that were eaten by a determined raccoon that pulled their head through the chicken wire! It's like everything in the world were after my babies!
When we moved from there we haven't had any chickens since, and just recently started back up. A friend (an elderly man at church) gave us some fertile eggs to hatch when he found out we had chickens, and Oh, boy! it's like he's a drug dealer of fertile hatching eggs now. Every time my daughter goes up to talk to him, she comes home with some new eggs. First it was EE, then it was Leghorn crosses, then it was duck eggs, now he's talking goose eggs! LOL! Now I've got guinea eggs in the incubator too, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with a flock of guineas! .
So, anyway, HOWDY to all you lovely Texans!!
We used to live in Mason (central Texas) about 10 years ago and had I think one of every Bantam there is, and a few "regular" chickens. The bigger chickens were from older, down-home country friends at church, and when I asked them what kind of chickens they were, they looked at me like, "Duh! They're black! Can't you see that. They're for eatin'!" Lol.
We also had some lovely Rhode Island Reds that were hand raised by my kids till they were eaten by the fox, some other chicks till they were eaten by the hawk (snatched from a few feet away in front of our very eyes!), and some larger chicks that were eaten by a determined raccoon that pulled their head through the chicken wire! It's like everything in the world were after my babies!
When we moved from there we haven't had any chickens since, and just recently started back up. A friend (an elderly man at church) gave us some fertile eggs to hatch when he found out we had chickens, and Oh, boy! it's like he's a drug dealer of fertile hatching eggs now. Every time my daughter goes up to talk to him, she comes home with some new eggs. First it was EE, then it was Leghorn crosses, then it was duck eggs, now he's talking goose eggs! LOL! Now I've got guinea eggs in the incubator too, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with a flock of guineas! .
So, anyway, HOWDY to all you lovely Texans!!