The Rookie - Chicken Owner in Training

[Mandallah]

Hello all!

Looking for some anxiety reduction and thought I'd start a thread documenting my experience as a rookie chicken owner with a new flock.

These gals are destined to be pets who will be with us all their days. And we tend to spoil our pets. So they should be very happy.

The fiance and I knew we wanted to start raising chicks once we had a home of our own. After we purchased a house in a chicken-allowing city last July, we knew we wanted to get started this Spring.

Our plans were kicked quicker into action in February when we discovered the local Farm and Fleet had chicks for individual sale for the first time ever this year. This solved our problem of only being allowed to have four but most hatcheries required a purchase of five or more. It was even more a sign when they happened to have the two breeds in stock that we wanted - Easter Eggers and Black Australorps. So we seized the opportunity while we were there and brought home our chicks ahead of plan on February 25th.

I've never owned chickens before myself. but I've got several friends that have - including my VP and my manager. So they offered advice about how to handle and how they ended up with friendly, tame chickens.

I named my Black Astralorps Melbourne (Mel) and Adelaide (Ade) in honor of their breed's heritage. I think I have a pretty good rapport with them, but they do have a funny quirk. Maybe it's just a chicken thing that this rookie is learning?

Codependency.

Melbourne makes the loudest, shrillest cries whenever I have her out without Adelaide. Even now when they're pullet size, she has a complete meltdown if her sister isn't nearby. Ade can take it or leave it as can the two eggers (Sue and MicroRaptor). But Mel is a huffy mess until I take Ade too.

The girls are all doing well and growing like weeds. They've outgrown their indoor brooder and are now officially in their garage wire run until our coop is complete. Our builder said he planned to start this last week on ours; but he wasn't sure how long he'd be open with the pandemic. He does work by himself so I'm hoping he isn't impacted too badly - I know he has a bunch of orders. But health before work, always! Our girls have a place to run around in the interim.

More to come in the future... this is probably absurdly long.

 

[TwoCrows]

Enjoy this new journey you are on! I am sure they will bring you great joy.

 

[BY Bob]

Hello all!

Looking for some anxiety reduction and thought I'd start a thread documenting my experience as a rookie chicken owner with a new flock.

These gals are destined to be pets who will be with us all their days. And we tend to spoil our pets. So they should be very happy.

The fiance and I knew we wanted to start raising chicks once we had a home of our own. After we purchased a house in a chicken-allowing city last July, we knew we wanted to get started this Spring.

Our plans were kicked quicker into action in February when we discovered the local Farm and Fleet had chicks for individual sale for the first time ever this year. This solved our problem of only being allowed to have four but most hatcheries required a purchase of five or more. It was even more a sign when they happened to have the two breeds in stock that we wanted - Easter Eggers and Black Australorps. So we seized the opportunity while we were there and brought home our chicks ahead of plan on February 25th.

View attachment 2073558

I've never owned chickens before myself. but I've got several friends that have - including my VP and my manager. So they offered advice about how to handle and how they ended up with friendly, tame chickens.

I named my Black Astralorps Melbourne (Mel) and Adelaide (Ade) in honor of their breed's heritage. I think I have a pretty good rapport with them, but they do have a funny quirk. Maybe it's just a chicken thing that this rookie is learning?

Codependency.

Melbourne makes the loudest, shrillest cries whenever I have her out without Adelaide. Even now when they're pullet size, she has a complete meltdown if her sister isn't nearby. Ade can take it or leave it as can the two eggers (Sue and MicroRaptor). But Mel is a huffy mess until I take Ade too.

View attachment 2073555

The girls are all doing well and growing like weeds. They've outgrown their indoor brooder and are now officially in their garage wire run until our coop is complete. Our builder said he planned to start this last week on ours; but he wasn't sure how long he'd be open with the pandemic. He does work by himself so I'm hoping he isn't impacted too badly - I know he has a bunch of orders. But health before work, always! Our girls have a place to run around in the interim.

View attachment 2073561

More to come in the future... this is probably absurdly long.

I love it! What are the EEs names? 4 is a great size for a flock. Mine was well balanced at 4.

 

[Mandallah]

The Easter Eggers are Sue (named after the T-Rex at the Chicago Field Museum) and MicroRaptor (I call her Mimi). The Fiance picked them out and got to name them so they are named after their distant ancestors.

Here's Sue when she was a little smaller (though, she's always been the largest).

And here is MicroRaptor (Mimi) when she was smaller. She's always been the runt of the flock, but she is the most outgoing and leads the pack in trying new things. She's also the fastest!

 

[TwoCrows]

Cute!

 

[Mandallah]

Well, the month of Social Distancing has been interesting. The coop hasn't arrived yet, but I've got my fingers crossed for this weekend or very very soon. He just needed to paint it and drop it off. So the girls are still in their pen in the garage right now.

I like to think of good things daily. One of those is that I've gotten to spend time with the chickens as they're growing up. So we have our daily routine.

Every morning, we get up early to take the fiance in to work (reduce his exposure by taking public transit). When we head out the door, the girls are usually shaking the sleep from their eyes since it's so early the sun isn't up. But they immediately run to the door of their pen expectantly and we give them their morning worms.

In the afternoons, after I'm done with work, I make a point of going out and sitting with them. I let them out to stretch their wings and peck around the garage. I used to have to coax them out with popcorn; but now they pop right out in hurry to flutter their wings around and find new things to peck at.

When we first put them in the garage, they got skittish about being held and touched. So I've been trying to go slow with them. Sit quietly in my chair and toss them treats while chatting with them. Our first breakthrough came with Sue - our brown Easter Egger.

Sue loves popcorn. They all love popcorn. But Sue is the "clever girl" who has figured out how to suck them down whole and get the next piece in her beak. AND - she has a talent. To obtain her popcorn treat, Sue will fly up to the branch and take it from our fingers. I call it her "Chicken Trick".

The second breakthrough came from Melbourne, one of my Australorps. Mel didn't run away as wildly as the others in the garage. So I was a bit persistent with her. She now lets me scoop her up with only mild complaint - though, she insists on perching on my shoulder rather than on my leg. I have an indoor shoulder-cat, and an outdoor shoulder-chicken. Bgok!

But the best surprise of all - the one that made my heart just flutter - was this evening. While hanging out in the garage with the fiance (he in the chair and me standing by the pen), out of nowhere (no treat in hand), Micro Raptor fluttered up and roosted on my hand and let me pet her belly. I feel like a Chicken Whisperer suddenly... though I'm sure it's just a dumb luck and mood that she was in.

So those are the good things happening in our lives around "quarantine".


I do have one question from the fiance, which I'm hoping you all have a way of telling by some photos. He has a fear that Micro Raptor may be a rooster. She moves faster than the others - actually very raptoresque. And she's started to make some noises unlike the others. But she could be maturing faster and God-knows neither of us has chicken experience to know what's a normal chicken sound.

None of the gals have big combs coming in. And I'm not seeing any droopy, fancy feathers. I feel pretty certain she's a she. But... any confirmations? We got them in February so they're well over 8 weeks old now.

 

[Mandallah]

The coop arrived the first Sunday in May! It turned out spectacularly and I am so grateful to Red Rooster Coops. He did a wonderful job putting together the girls' new home.

The girls took a few tries figuring out their new ladder, but now it's old hat to find them cuddled up in the roost by sundown.

I look forward to greeting them every morning, even when it's raining out. But all the better when it's sunny and I have these cheery faces to greet me.

They're all officially clucking. No more peeps. Which is sort of sad. But I enjoy how they talk to me. Especially when they get excited because it's sunny and the dog is inside - so they know that I'm going to let them run around a bit and chew on tall grass and other fun things in the yard.

When the fiance and I first talked about getting chickens - it was more for him. But I'm finding myself outside with them after a long day on the computer working remotely. While the world is spinning and I'm trying to get things done while I've got all these emotions bubbling up inside me... it is a meditative moment of stillness and happiness watching our flock. And they make me laugh with their shenanigans.

Over the weekend, I bought a mixture of sand to put down on the ground under the roost box. They'd pecked it clean and it was getting all poopy down there. So we read up on the different types of mixtures to lay down. Thinking this plan was ingenious, I let the girls out in their grass pen while I laid the new floor down. And I forgot that chickens need time for change and new things.

You would have thought the ground was made of lava. How they ran around and around their pen - but not in it - no, not once they noticed something had changed. And I picked up my big girl Mel, carried her inside and sat her down - she clucked at me like I was the devil and ran right back out. I got extra exercise getting them back into the coop while my neighbor got a good laugh at my misbehaving girls.

BUT. They know what sand is now. And while reluctant, they seem to have accepted their change.

 

[drumstick diva]

Please continue - want more, more , more

 

[Jessie_james]

My Easter eggers still make weird noises. I thought they were Roos. I was convinced I had a lot of Roos but now that my two oldest started laying, I realized I have all females! I got my eldest chickens in February too. The first two are laying now as of a week or so ago. I bet yours are too!