Chickens. We've had chickens for 8, maybe 9 years now. Our oldest brought home a couple of chickens that her friend didn't want anymore. That was the beginning of our journey. We made a coop out of an old Pepsi delivery truck box. The next couple of years we added a few chickens from the local farm store in the spring. We also added some from an Uncle and Aunt to mix up the breads a little. About 5 years ago, we bought an incubator. That was the beginning of having lots of chickens. Two years ago our neighbors dog took out almost all of our flock. It looked like a war zone. Horrifying really. They never took any responsibility. It was spring thankfully, so I went to the farm store and bought a couple dozen chicks. We added all of the eggs we had to the incubator, twice. Now we are back to having somehwere around 100 chickens. Why 100? I don't know. We live on a farm, the coop is a mansion, and we can. They lay the best, brightest yellow yolked eggs. They are well taken care of. Good quality feed in the winter, bugs, grass, water, food scraps from the house and garden, sun, fresh air, and all the running room a chicken could possibly ever want. We've never had the eggs tested, but I'd be willing to bet they are 100% better than the nasty white store eggs. We clean the coop and make compost out of it that I use in the garden the next year. If we ever need to, we could butcher some. But we haven't gone down that road yet. We are thinking about incubating and selling chicks too. We've done that in the past. It really isn't cost effective, but if the economy doesn't do well, and people want more chickens, we will do it again.
The first and second photos are the oldest chickens. We recently sold all of the roosters but one. I think there are 20 hens and 1 rooster.
These boxes are temporary. They get all fixed up and more added in June. The ladies sitting in the boxes at the moment are hatching their own eggs. They are a couple of weeks out before we know how many they will hatch. They annoy me when they do this. But my husband wants to let them do the hatching work for free and see what happens. After we get the new boxes all done there will be room for broody ladies to sit on their own eggs and not be in the way of hens that just want to lay eggs and run.
One of these birds is not like the others.....
These guys are just a little over a week old. They stay pretty close to the heat lamp still. They are mail order hens. It’s good to introduce new, unrelated chickens into the flock every couple of years. With the coronavirus year, we ordered 25 hens. One died. So we have 24 of these gals.
Well hello....
These guys are in the basement. Just hatched yesterday and today. These could be hens or roosters. 22 doing good so far.
These boxes are temporary. They get all fixed up and more added in June. The ladies sitting in the boxes at the moment are hatching their own eggs. They are a couple of weeks out before we know how many they will hatch. They annoy me when they do this. But my husband wants to let them do the hatching work for free and see what happens. After we get the new boxes all done there will be room for broody ladies to sit on their own eggs and not be in the way of hens that just want to lay eggs and run.
One of these birds is not like the others.....
These guys are about three weeks old I think. I forgot to mark their hatch date. Their pens are pretty big so they have lots of room. I tried to count them and got 28? but I think that’s about right. They got let out this morning to the floor. Generally they don't go out of the coop for a bit. They're not big enough to jump the step out the door yet. They get to know the coop and still get sun and fresh air until they're ready to make that jump over the step.
There is one random duck. We've had ducks before but they always get caught by preditors. One of the girls had a friend who bought a duck and had no where to keep it. So it came to the farm. We've always just kept them with the chickens. So it probably thinks it's a chicken. Not sure of it's gender yet. I'm hoping it's a girl and will lay eggs. It will be fall before the duck and these chicks will start to lay eggs.
There is one random duck. We've had ducks before but they always get caught by preditors. One of the girls had a friend who bought a duck and had no where to keep it. So it came to the farm. We've always just kept them with the chickens. So it probably thinks it's a chicken. Not sure of it's gender yet. I'm hoping it's a girl and will lay eggs. It will be fall before the duck and these chicks will start to lay eggs.
These guys are just a little over a week old. They stay pretty close to the heat lamp still. They are mail order hens. It’s good to introduce new, unrelated chickens into the flock every couple of years. With the coronavirus year, we ordered 25 hens. One died. So we have 24 of these gals.
Well hello....
These guys are in the basement. Just hatched yesterday and today. These could be hens or roosters. 22 doing good so far.
*Three more hatched over night. So we are up to 25 in the tub now. They'll go out to the coop in the pen next week. For now they stay warm under a heat lamp in the basement.*
And the eggs left to hatch. Some have pips so they’ll be hatching Unless they’re not alive. Then we just have a bunch of smelly eggs to throw out. Sometimes we get a whole bunch to hatch and then others some don’t. We do the same things every time. So it’s a waiting game to see what each batch does. These would have been after we sold the roosters and only kept one. He’s an old rooster so these may or may not all be viable. Well know in a couple of days for sure. This year we will keep a couple of younger roosters.
And the eggs left to hatch. Some have pips so they’ll be hatching Unless they’re not alive. Then we just have a bunch of smelly eggs to throw out. Sometimes we get a whole bunch to hatch and then others some don’t. We do the same things every time. So it’s a waiting game to see what each batch does. These would have been after we sold the roosters and only kept one. He’s an old rooster so these may or may not all be viable. Well know in a couple of days for sure. This year we will keep a couple of younger roosters.
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