Chicken adventures

We started our backyard chicken adventures about 6 years ago. Our grandson and I had went on a field trip with his class to a farm, and he fell in love with the baby chicks. He begged us to get some too, and over time and a move to a house that had a yard that could accommodate back yard chickens, we took the plunge. We started with 6 baby chicks. I knew basically NOTHING about chickens and raising them, not even what you call them when they are newly hatched. We had told our grandson this is his project, but as life turned out, a few weeks after we had the coop all set up and the chickens in the coop, he broke his foot and he couldn't really be in the coop for the rest of that summer. The chickens were mine to take care of after that; and while he still loved the chickens, he didn't end up 'owning' the venture as we had planned that he would.

I learned so much that year; I learned that female chicks are called pullets. Being the naive new chicken keepers that we were, we bought 6 pullets. Or so we thought. In reality, we got 3 females and 3 roosters. In our township, we are not allowed to have ANY roosters. When they were a few months old, I heard the first rooster crow and I was completely shocked! How could this be???? After all, I had bought pullets! ha ha. Well, when I heard it, I ran out to the coop and kept saying...oh no....oh no....and I tried to figure out which of my chickens was a rooster. It took awhile, but eventually I figured it out, and it wasn't ONE, it was THREE. A friend of ours from church keeps chickens and they have 40 acres so they willingly agreed to take my roosters. I couldn't bear the thought of killing them, or sending them away to be killed. Our friends had plenty of space and plenty of hens, so getting 3 roosters wasn't a problem for them.  

We had a lot of fun watching the chicks grow. We had a small chicken coop that I had purchased, and a metal fenced in area that we attached to the coop and that was our first chicken 'run'. As they grew, we could not wait for them to start laying eggs! When the first hen started laying egss, I was SO excited! I posted pictures of them and told everyone we knew that we have EGGS. As I look back, I giggle at how that simple thing brought such joy to me; especially because I was not the one who wanted the chicens in the first place. That said, I have definitely become the chicken lady of the house. One of our daughters bought a sign that hangs above the door of our laundry room, it says "The Hen Den".

Our first coop

It didn't take long for me to get more knowledge and experience; and with that, came more chickens and better coops. We switched from this small coop, to a revision of the back part of our back garage, and made a bit of a bigger coop, and a couple of years ago, my dear, sweet husband got me a rolls royce of a coop and run for my girls. Since we started this endeavor, I have had about 3-4 different sets of chickens (I buy new chicks about every 2 years, and find good homes for the 2 year olds) As of today, I have a beautiful coop and run for my hens. Currently, I have 11 hens and they are great at giving us plenty of eggs. Considering there was a huge egg shortage over the past year, it was a blessing to have no shortage of eggs for our family and several friends. I could tell lots of stories about our chickens and all I have learned, but I will leave it at this for this time. I am open to questions any time. I don't proclaim to be an expert by any means, but I will gladly share what I have learned by trial and error if anyone is thinking of getting backyard chickens. It truly is very enjoyable!

Our current coop and run.

Until next time.....

Judy