A.M. Eggs
Songster
Almost three years ago, my mother decided to rescue six older hens from someone who, if they weren't bought, would kill and eat them. We built them a quick coop and pen out of an old horse stable and introduced them to their new home. We named them Henrietta, Baldy, Red, Green, Yellow, and Domino. Two of them were cornish game, three were rhode island reds, and one was an ancona. It wasn't long afterwards that our local predators knew they were there after the disappearance of Henrietta, Green, and Yellow. We decided to travel to our local Atwoods after school got out and pick out some baby chicks. We originally only wanted five or six, but instead took home eleven! For the month of their lives, they lived on our porch in an old house trough that was about 5 feet long by 2 feet wide. Eventually, they got too big for the trough and we built them their own coop out of another old horse stable. Red, Baldy, and Domino got to know them through the fence that separated them. As they grew up, we were able to name them, know their breeds, and their genders. We ended up with seven hens and four roosters. Their names were Sparkles, Mandy, Sprinkles, Misty, Peanut, Coconut, Mira, Browny, Miago, Chip, and Tanner. Four were barred rocks(all females), one was a silver-laced wyandotte(female), and the rest were EE's(two female, four male). When The Eleven(that's what we called the group) were three months old, a friend of ours had ordered 25 EE's from MurrayMcMurray Hatchery. They did not need that many chickens and gave us three of their new chicks to care for. They were named Joy, Merida, and Lucy. The Eleven, at the age of four months, had finally outgrown their coop and were ready to be moved in with the older hens. After about a month, we had lost two of The Eleven (Sprinkles and Tanner) to a hawk that had been stalking out my birds. After about two weeks Joy, Lucy, and Merida had outgrown their home in a small chick cage and were ready to be moved to the coop that The Eleven had left two weeks prior. The next day we enter their pen to find Lucy and Merida's lifeless bodies and Joy not to be found. After I finally was able to calm down my sister who absolutely loved those chicks, I heard a chirp, and then another chirp. I stood up and saw something that was nothing short of a miracle. Joy had escaped the pen and survived the attack, that we later found was a hawk attack. We buried joy's sisters under our pecan tree where all of our favorite pets are buried and returned her to the small chick cage, which she could still fit in. We could tell that our little miracle(as we called her) was sad and needed some friends. We contacted our friends who ordered them and they agreed to send us three more of their chicks to us. Joy now had three new friends named Sandy, Abby, and Peaches. After a few weeks, we decided to convert the old horse stall for the juveniles to the chicken coop for the adults. It took a few days, but with determination, we finished our new coop and moved all of our chickens into it. That winter, all of our hens were laying and getting along with each other perfectly. To add to the happiness we had for them, Peanut(one of our EE's) decided to go broody the following spring. Twenty days later we had six new chicks named Cindy, Midnight-Blues, Bella, Stephane, Sailor, and Prezal. During the three weeks of their incubation, we lost Chip, Sparkles, and Sandy. Sandy was taken by a hawk, and Chip and Sparkles by a rogue coyote. We also built a new chick coop in the original chicken coop for Peanut and her new babies, all while listening to the new Sirius XM Beatles Channel. After the death of Sandy, Sparkles, and Chip, we built a huge pen around the coop with an overhead poultry net to ward off hawks. Three weeks after the new chicks were born, Peanut pushed them away and returned to the adults. The six chicks were taken care of by us until June of 2017 when we had to move them to the adults at two months because we were leaving for a few days and our Grandpa could not keep them from escaping when opening the door to their pen. When we came home, we were devastated to find that all but two of our chickens had been killed by a pack of coyotes by them digging a hole under the fence. The only two to survive were Red and Coconut. We moved them into the chick pen for a week so that we could patch up the hole and move them back in. I fell into a slight depression for a few weeks until I had to leave for an entire month to go to camp. While I was gone, apparently another coyote came by, re-dug the hole, and killed them too. On August 13, 2017 we ordered 29 baby chicks from MurrayMcMurray Hatchery. We ordered five barred rocks, five buff orpingtons, eleven EE's, two black stars, two speckled sussex, two blue andalusians, one welsummer, and our mystery chick was a silver spangled hamburg. They grew up in our chick coop until they were a month and a half old. While they were still in the chick coop, we researched and built a whole new pen that was coyote, hawk, and dog proof. When we finished, we moved the 29 chicks into their new home. About two months later, we knew which ones were roosters and which ones were hens. We had five roosters and twenty-four hens. Around the same time, we lost four of our hens to a possum who entered the coop one night through an open hole used for ventilation. That same day, we buried the chicks named Bolva(Buff Orpington), Fella(Barred Rock), Dia(Blue Andalusian), and my prized chick Roxy(Silver Spangled Hamburg). We now have covered that hole with a piece of wood and we have had anymore fatalities since. Soon their true nature started to show. Our Buff's Scuffy, Honey, Blossum, and Lei Ming are cuddly and sweet natured. My barred rocks are special. We got my all time favorite and the most cuddly rooster, Zinger(featured in my profile picture). The three girls are Brandy, Ms. Swells, and Halo. My EE's have three roosters named Ori, Diablo, and the other rooster I love, Delgado. The hens are Picky Chu, Drisella, Anastasia, Ella Rose, Viva la Vida, July, Lavender, and Chessy. My black star's are Marge and Pauly. The Speckled Sussexs are Polka and Dot. My blue andalusian is bluesy and my rooster welsummer is Deputy. Even through the sad moments and happy moments, I have not stopped my love of chickens and can't wait until later this month when we order another batch of chicks to care for. Thank you for reading this long story about my experience with chickens up until this moment! ~ A.M. Eggs
shake your tail feathers 
you'll fit in no problems 
