Back in CA before we moved to Idaho I had built a coop and we had some laying hens. I absolutely loved them! Since we've moved to Idaho I've kept wanting to get chickens again and we finally made it happen!
I bought a small coop for myself as a birthday present. It was a really small coop, so it was only big enough for 2 chickens. I bought two Easter Egg hens that laid blue/green eggs and I was happy and the kids were thrilled! Ryker named his Grasshopper (white) and Brodie named his Soft Hen-Weed Eater (brown) Both of his names were so awesome that he couldn't pick between both of them, so the chicken had 2 names. My name of "Hen"rietta was denied. The boys LOVED collecting their eggs and feeding them worms.
Then about a week later we went to some Hot Springs near Twin Falls to meet up with my parents. We tried to explain to our dog sitter that our dogs would eat the chickens if left unattended, but somehow it didn't sink in and he let them out to go to the bathroom and ran back home. By the time he got back, 5 minutes later, the dogs had killed one chicken and eaten the other. Sad day.
When we got back home I bought 2 more hens, some Cuckoo Morans, aka Grasshopper #2 and Soft Hen #2 (thankfully, the name Weed Eater seems to have been forgotten) They lay these beautiful dark brown eggs and I absolutely love them! They are nice and big too! But... I wanted more. I always want more chickens. If I had the property and coop I would probably have like 20 chickens and it still wouldn't be enough. So I bought 4 more chickens from a guy in Utah. A Buff Orpington - Henrietta, a Black Sexlink - ShellShe (Brodie's), another Easter Egger - Pinkie (Ryker's) .... but instead of laying blue eggs the little stinker lays pink eggs, which is a stretch, because they are more like light brown eggs, and a Golden Sexlink - No Name. The Golden Sexlink kept getting picked on by the other hens and kept getting feather picked, so I rehomed her. Turns out the Golden Sexlink was actually an Easter Egger and she was my one laying blue eggs, so I was pretty sad!
Then we went to the feed store to get some chicken food and saw these cute little meat chicks....
Who could resist, right? Here they are experiencing a food coma. They are Cornish Cross chicks, so you only keep them for 8 weeks and then butcher them. I thought this would be a fun project to do with the kids and they were only a little over a $1 each, so if something happened to them, it wouldn't be a big deal. One of the chicks ended up dying (it got paste butt) so we are down to 2, but the kids love them --- especially Brodie! He is going to be a chicken farmer for sure! The first thing he does when he wakes up is go and check on the chicks and the hens.
Anyways, after I got the newest hens, their little coop was not going to be big enough, so my neighbor and I got to work on building a chicken coop. They got 4 chicks at the beginning of chick season too, so she was also going to need a coop. Figured we might as well do it together! We ended up taking the back wall of a shed and adding some doors as a wall to make a little coop. Then we were lucky enough to snag a large dog run from some neighbors who were moving. Score!
This is the view from Mari's window. I love checking on them and seeing how they are doing.
The chicks were able to fit through the chain link fence of the dog run, so we put my smaller chicken coop into the run. It works out perfect because the little chickens can't be pecked by the older ones, but they can see each other so they have plenty of time to get used to each other. We'll also put our 2 meat chickens out there once they have all their feathers. It's the perfect little brooder coop!
Once the coop was finished, I bought two more Easter Eggers because I wanted to have blue eggs again. One is called Naked Butt (Ryker's) because her bottom was picked a little from her previous home and Brodie named the other one Swirl. Then later that evening I was talking to another gal who was trying to get rid of some hens because she had just bought some new chicks and one of them was a Silver Laced Wyandotte (black and white pictured below) and that breed was on my chicken list, so I was so excited!! Bo told me that I needed a limit, so I asked my neighbor how many chickens was too many and she told me to tell Bo 50, so that when we had 20 it didn't seem like that many. I love her thought process!! So I went and bought Lacey as well as another Easter Egger from her flock so she would have a friend.
If you've lost count, we now have 9 hens, 4 chicks, and 2 meat chicks. I love it!! And they are all getting along! It is always stressful to introduce new hens to the flock because they can be so mean to each other, but I've been letting them free range around the yard and they have gotten used to each other and established their pecking order really quickly.
And look at this!
Aren't those beautiful!? I love having fresh eggs!
The other day we added one more chicken to the flock... his name is Ryker. He's a rooster that lays dark rainbow colored eggs.
He even eats bread when you throw him pieces... just like the other chickens.
He's fallen right in line with the flock and the other chickens love him! Especially when he helps them find worms in the garden.
No comments:
Post a Comment