We have adopted 10 new family members, we have 10 baby chickens currently pecking and scratching away in my dining room. They are in a box of course but it sounds like a wood pecker is loose in my Kitchen.
I have been begging Mountain Man for Chickens since 2005 when we bought our first home. He has resisted and ignored my requests and for some unknown reason this last weekend he says to me, So I have a chicken coop lined up for you if you want it. hmmmmmmm what has he done? hehe. Seriously though what the hell? I have been begging for chickens for years and now he decides is as good a time as any to fulfill my fantasy of chickens.
So before he changed his mind we loaded up a trailer and headed over the mountain to pick up this lovely coop from a friend of mountain man’s grandpa. His grandpa built it, but we had to pick it up at the uncles house. Whatever it is now mine and I was so excited. I made him stop at the hardware store on the way back down to pick up some paint.
Just starting to get paint on this beauty
Please ignore the messy yard and leaves everywhere it is early spring and the snow has only been melted for a week or 2 and I haven’t gotten to the yard yet.
Mountain man even cut me a tin roof and put it on for my new pals.
My daughter helped her dad with the whole project and painted all the white on the house as well.
We got it all painted and she looks beautiful.
I need to get some old tin signs for the sides and stuff to spruce it up a little.
My tiny red barn.
Maybe a weather vain on top that would look great right?
The next day I decided to get my chickens. I went to my local Cal Ranch (tractor supply feed store) and picked up ten little ladies. Well I hope they are all Ladies although truth be told I kind of would like to have a rooster around. Anyway my theory was that if I bought 10 that I would end up with 5 because I figured at least half of them would die, because of multiple reasons but mostly because I am a pessimist.
However they are all still here and seem to be healthy and happy so now I have 10. Now to keep the cat and the two trained to find bird dogs out of them
I chose a variety of breeds based on their cold heartiness since our last winter was just awful, egg production, and temperament.
This is what I came up with.
2 Black Sex-Link (this is a Hybrid Breed)
2 Barred Rock (also a Hybrid Breed) These are absolutely beautiful black and white striped Birds.
3 Golden Sex – Link ( again a Hybrid) I am looking forward to these birds
1 Australorp – I did not choose this bird my daughter did but still a good choice
2 Buff Orpington Which is a cross breed I believe and thus is also a Hybrid.
Why Hybrid ? Well it basicially is a fancy term for a mut bird, haha well kind of it is a specific cross breed of Chicken made to produce maximum eggs and grow to maturity at max speed. These birds should start to produce eggs at 20 weeks.
I know that seems fast but they have changed so much in just the 4 days we have had them I’d say they were about 1-2 days old when we got them.
This is a day old chick above.
3 Days old (Aprox) in my old wrinkly hand.
And now here they are today
The two front yellow ones are buff orpingtons the one behind them with the copper head is a golden sex link And that big beauty in the front on the right is My little Jessie’s Astralorpe.
Barred Rock hens and Buff Orpingtons
Just look at how they are loosing their fluff and getting feathers. This is called Molting. I have been studying.
I got these mostly for the egg production however if all 10 of them live and they all start producing eggs at the low average rate I figured that I will have about 2200-3000 eggs a year. Gah I may have to thin out a bit or get a big fridge and start selling them, but also because I think they are a fun animal to have around. I really hope I end up with one rooster otherwise I am going to have to find myself one big Americana(they are beautiful) to keep these ladies under control .
Thats all I’ve got from the sticks this week. I’ll keep you updated on my experiences as the weeks go by.
TTFN
Kimmy
( The Sticks)
From the Suburbs to the Sticks 