Chix!

[paintponylvr]

SO... A few years ago, the friend that I got into the ponies drug me into chickens... SORTA. She'd been working on me. Then I visited someone else and they had all these newly hatched (well maybe a week old?) bantam chicks with a bantam broody hen... She said they all needed to go and the chickies would be fine w/o the "mother". She gave me some chick feed, and wrote out some instructions for the first night and handed me the box with 15 little chicks in it.

The all made it thru the nite and I went to TSC to get a book, feed, feeders, waterers etc etc etc. and I think that Christmas week of 2010 an addiction was born... I started with the various banties that arrived that nite. I now know that I had all different types, including some silkies and seabrights! I'm still learning the breeds/varieties that I may have had. 3 of the little hens eventually had fertilized eggs and I had 3 separate hatchings. Lost several - and the roos were all quite irritating. Enter Vicki and her hubby James - and now I know how to butcher those "bad boys"... LOL YUM! No plucking - just skin them and clean them out.

Decided needed larger eggs - bought my first 6 Production Red pullets. They all made it into egg laying age. Then started doing more studying on the internet and in my books and when the feed store got in some Marans and "Ameraucanas" - I bought 2 and 4 (I seem to be stuck on the number 6??). Found out my "Ameraucanas" are EEs, but that's ok... pretty blue, blue/green and darker brown eggs. A resident hawk showed up (of course) and I lost many of the silly banties, 1 Cuckoo Maran, 1 EE and 2 Production

Reds... BUT.

I went to a chicken show that was somewhat local this past Christmas and was FASCINATED by some of the birds! I found I gravitate towards some of the bantams and Ameraucanas. LIKE SPLASH, BLUE and LAVENDAR - of course not accepted (yet) varieties. THEY are beautiful. Came home with a trio of "super layers" (white leghorn x ameraucana).

The girls had just started laying when they disappearred a couple of weeks ago.

But still have the Roo - "Din-Din". Also, got a banty Roo - whom we call "ROO". He spent part of Christmas Day in our house with the kids and us...

SOOOO fast forward some more! 2 weeks ago, while the farrier was trimming hooves in the barn - we heard little cheeps. A search showed that one of my last banty hens had hatched eggs that she and one of the larger hens had been setting off and on (I didn't think they were viable!). What a surprise! All little yellow balls of cheeping fuzz! Think 11 hatched out, lost 1 that first day then lost a 2nd one but today still have 9 little cheeps!! I wanted to track this bunch - figure out who becomes a roo and which ones may be larger birds (2 arrived out of Production Red eggs and 1 out of an EE egg - the rest are banty sized eggs- don't know which is Daddy).

The permanent markers didn't work real well - so yesterday I used little colored zip ties to mark our little birds. I also found a breeder of Blue Ameraucanas - not 20 miles from me (backyard chickens dot com) and bought 4 that had hatched on 19 May and 4 that hatched on 26 May... Grafted them onto the Banty hen.

These guys are sOOOOO fun and addictive! I want to build a real chicken coop now...and maybe get even more birds!! I like both the bantam and LF - Orpingtons. Pretty birds - lots of colors/varieties! I saw some Frizzle Chicks at the feed store the other day... NO, NO MORE BIRDS right now...

Here's a link to the album - Chickens & Ducks O, yes. Hubby got ducks when I was on the road in 2012. Some have been butchered, some "jogged" down the road (s). Have a drake, 2 hens and eggs ready to hatch. No longer have the last (named) Peking duck (butchered the 1st 2)...

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

You have lovely birds.

I struggle with myself when it comes to chickens, there are only 2 of us so I don't need a dozen eggs a day (or even a week) but somehow am always tempted to increase my flock. I have only 6 hens and a rooster now. The hens are red sussex crosses except one that I swear is a red leghorn even tho thats not what I ordered from the hatchery. She is much smaller/thinner and lays more eggs altho they are palest cream instead of brown and only a medium egg. The rooster is supposed to be a purebred something but the neighbour who gave him to me couldn't recall what. He's a handsome guy tho and treats his hens well even tho he will attack me occasionally. We call him Lucky, because when we first got him he flew out of the pen and my rotti made a toy of him. She never broke the skin but she plucked all his tail feathers and he was pretty sad for a few weeks. He is lucky she plays pretty gently or he'd have been toast (also lucky I haven't put him in a stew for attacking me) I get an average of 4 eggs a day from them and give most of them away since we only eat at most 2 or 3 eggs a week. Maybe I should consider switching to banties, we could eat 2 eggs instead of one bigger one and not be so overwhelmed by eggs.

 

[paintponylvr]

Thank you!!

Well, I know what to do with the extra eggs! Since I didn't properly coop mine - I am always having to find the new placement of nests and a lot fo the time don't trust them to be "good"... When they were all first laying and I was getting A LOT of eggs - the extras would get boiled and broken up and fed to the dogs (who then went outside because their "happy scent" was WHEW!). My dogs are wimps - throw a raw egg into their pen and they will run and hide! They don't eat/like them raw... never seen the like, LOL.

If I toss the eggs into our burn/bonfire pile - the hens will attack them. Making better eggs. OR you can toss them into your garden compost. They sure add good things to the compost....

US - we eat a lot of eggs! Should have astronomical cholesterol levels, but neither my hubby nor I do, for which I'm thankful as I love eggs. We eat the duck eggs too, but I find them to be a little "rubbery" if they are done over easy or "hard"... Those are HUGE.

And when I was collecting them - I took them into work every so often - just giving them to my boss or my co-worker (both of whom reciprocated with berries!!).

Now I have to go look up Red Leghorn and Red Sussex crosses... I want to get some other colors - all the "red" ones I've got are enough right now...LOL.

 

[paintponylvr]

Cleaned up the barn, tossed most of the eggs (cold) that the Cuckoo Maran has been setting on. Tried to do a regular nest box for her up on top of our shelves - but she kept falling out of it. I bet her eggs will be broken tomorrow - if not, I will try turning the nest box around... I know one of the cold eggs had a partially developed chick in it. SAD... That would probably have been an "Olive Egger" (olive green egg layer) if a hen....

It was kinda fun to "freak out" the young lady helping me today. I picked up and carried KooKoo while I was trying to clean and do things. She was amazed!

Eventually I will have a proper coop for them all. And will have a couple of different types that are kept separate...

 

[sfmini]

We don't have chickens but our neighbor does and we are the lucky recipients of the extras. So nice to open the front door and find a dozen eggs waiting for us in the mornings!

 

[Miniv]

Yes....I understand....LOL. It all started for us when our now grown foster daughter was moving from the country into "the city" and GIFTED us her chickens. Larry built a nice coop with 6 nest boxes and we set up a large pen around it. We also rescued a couple of domestic mallard ducks to add to the bunch.

A Raccoon managed to find a way into the chicken area two years ago and killed several of our bantie hens, so, since the rooster was a Buff Orbington, I decided to buy four Buff Orb hens. One of the hens and one of the ducks went broody on us and we now have five chicks and nine little ducklings!

They sure are a lot of fun.

 

[Kendra]

Love my chickies too! I have Partridge Chanteclers mostly, one Ameraucana and now a few chicks who are a cross between the two. I got a trio of the PChants 3 years ago, now have 12 adult birds and 13 chicks with more to come ... Partridge Chanteclers are notoriously broody.

Also have recently added four ducklings ... they're so cute!

I love the Partridge Chanteclers - good layers, so pretty and very winter hardy. In all the time I've had them they've been in an unheated coop (though their new one is insulated) and only one night - the third in a row of 30 below - did they act cold and need a little supplemental heat from a heat lamp. I also get eggs through most of the winter with no added light.

 

[MindyLee]

I love love love my breeds of bantams I raise here.

I raise Cochin bantams, silkies, frizzles, and bantam chocolate English orpingtons. My numbers are about 100 currently and am totally addicted.

 

[paintponylvr]

Kendra - funny you mention Chanteclers - as the fellow who breeds LF & Bantam Ameraucanas also has those! Wow, that's impressive to go that cold in an unheated coop.

Mindy - You have Choc Bantam Orps??? We might have to have a talk. I want some!!! You wouldn't have a trio already started would you?

I am looking to do some bantam Ameraucanas in Lavender and Buff for next year - have to order now if I want some from John Blehm (Ameraucana breeder - both large fowl and Bantam). Also, think there are a couple of other breeds I might like to do in Bantam sizes! Have more to learn and want to see what other types there are.

 

[MindyLee]

Just getting into the chocolate orphingtons. I bought 6 that was imported from the UK. 2 roos and 4 hens. Lost 1 too and 2 hens. So working to get my #s back up from my trio. I have 3 more pullets and gonna start collecting eggs soon to hatch out. Then will find a new too for bloodlines and hopefully can get a nice lil flock going. I want to cross them onto my Cochin's to get chocolate Cochin's. So far I have had no luck BUT I sold eggs and a buyer informed me she got one and its color and type was perfect and show quality. I'm so jelouse! LoL.

Otherwise I focus on the Millie and calico pattern and have about 100. I just purchased a doz of eggs from SC of blue mottled frizzled show quality to add my type to my flock.

And also have a beautiful show quality blue splash paint silkie too coming next week for my 17 silkie gals.

Also have 19 quality calico/Millie Cochin 2 month olds in my Juvenal coop that are my future breeders. So lots of projects and birdies going on around here!

 

[MindyLee]

Here's some old pics. I have tons of new ones on my phone but wont let me post.

 

[Kendra]

Kendra - funny you mention Chanteclers - as the fellow who breeds LF & Bantam Ameraucanas also has those! Wow, that's impressive to go that cold in an unheated coop.

Mindy - You have Choc Bantam Orps??? We might have to have a talk. I want some!!! You wouldn't have a trio already started would you?

I am looking to do some bantam Ameraucanas in Lavender and Buff for next year - have to order now if I want some from John Blehm (Ameraucana breeder - both large fowl and Bantam). Also, think there are a couple of other breeds I might like to do in Bantam sizes! Have more to learn and want to see what other types there are.

I have a John Blehm hen in my flock!

 

[paintponylvr]

Mindy - I remember some time ago when you posted that pic of the little hen (I think?) on your shoulder. I really wasn't into chickens then and my thought was ... " ewww.... ugly hen and WHY OH WHY on her shoulder...." ...

:rofl

Seems me thinking has changed. MY OWN chickens sometimes now perch there. AND my thinking on chicken types/varieties/colors have changed, too. Can't really tell the color on that one - but do like the speckled roo with the "solid red" hen (they are both cochins, right??). Also like the two speckled ones down below - the "yellow, black, white" and the .... "jubilee" (??). So educate me on those colors, Im not sure what they are.

I like the bantams - flightly little birds, but they are sooo much smaller and easy to butcher (if you do that) and you can have more (kinda like miniature horses!)...

***************

And I had 2 ducklings hatch the other day! I believe they are Rouens' but we aren't sure. The originals were purchased in 2012 at TSC. They flap their wings but unlike the Mallards, they don't get too much "airtime"...

 

[MindyLee]

All my birds here (96 total) are either cochins both smooth and frizzled, silkies, a couple millie duccles, and english chocolate orphingtons. Any speckled cochin is either a calico or a millie cochin. And all are bantams.

The one on my shoulder was a lil blind hen named Candie. She was a lavander splash and soooo cute! She since has been killed by a hawk but I have a daughter from her that is a spitting image of her. All my bantams (except the chocolates) have feathered feet.

#1 sizzle (silkie cross frizzle)

#2 chocolate orphington and 2 buff barred cochins

#3 mille cochin

#4 barred laced cochin

#5 blue mottled cochin

#6 silver laced cochin

#7 blue splash cochin

 

[MindyLee]

#1 red cochin

#2 Blue millie cochin

#3 calico cochin

#4 barred cochin

#5 chocolate mottled cochin

#6 lavander cochin

#7 salmon faverolle

#8 white frizzle

#9 calico cochin

#10 mottled cochin

Cochins are far from the other bantams when it comes to the "flighty" part. They are one of the most friendy breeds out there. If I site down, they are all over me! If I lay down, they are all over me! Where I go, they go and oh boy if I step into the coop with bread... They smoother me in love to get it! None are mean and I have a dozen roos that all get along too and none attack me. all boys are just as friendly as the hens.

Anyone who comes to the farm are drawn to the birds as they are super neat and soon as they see someone, run to them to say hi and look for treats. I can sit for hrs and destress from a long day at work hanging out in the coop. or even watching them peck and scratch the ground when i free range them.

Im locally known at work (TSC) as the crazy chicken momma!

 

[MindyLee]

Check out the website backyard chickens. I play there all the time.