New chickens!

[Indyhorse]

Yay, new chickens is like Christmas. Lol Two new yesterday:

Pierre, 4 month old Salmon Faverolle cockerel.



Penny, 3 month old Black Copper Marans pullet.



Coming (hopefully saturday) to add to the flock - 10 Australorp pullets, and 6 Blue Cochin pullets and 6 Silver Laced Cochin pullets! Will update pictures when they arrive. :)

[themacpack]

LOVE them!!! I have been working on DH for several YEARS now to have chickens and I finally found the key to his final bit of resistance -- my son has decided that for next year he wants to do chickens as a 4-H project (this was his first year and he did rockets and fish), guess who has already started plans for a chicken coop, lol.

[Indyhorse]

I love my chickens. They are great to have around. There are a lot of benefits to having chickens!

They cut down on the household trash because they get all the scraps. They have taken my local bug population down to a minimum - quite a chore when you have so many horses on such a small property! They more than pay for themselves with their egg production, and they help keep the manure in the pasture broke down. I currently have 10 Rhode Island Reds and 6 Buff Orpingtons. Wanted to start out with "easy" breeds because I had been out of chickens for so long when I got them again last year. Now that we have made it through the first year, I'm ready to start adding some more faces to the flock.

Depending on where in the state you are, and what breeds you will be on the lookout for, I can put you in touch with the lady I got these two from, she has high show quality birds and is NPIP certified.

[Delfina]

Very nice!

We've got 8 chicks right now (quite the motley assortment of breeds as the kiddos picked them based on looks), they're starting to spend their days outside and I am looking forward to seeing a reduction in bugs.

[themacpack]

Preaching to the choir on the virtues of chickens -- I had a wonderful flock as a child (I did 4-H with them - must be where my DS got it, lol). We had cochins, polish (loved their funny hair-do's), and a bunch of barnyard "mutt" chickens that were pieced together via this farmer or that wanting to cut their flock and knowing I never turned down a chicken.
I thought I had DH sold when I mentioned their love of eating ticks (he hates those little buggars with a passion), but it took the sad eyes of a child to do the trick, lol.

[Deslumbrar]

I loooooved my chickens... I had 60+ through high school... Black Giants, Buff Orpingtons, Cinnamon Queens, RI Reds, Red laced Wyandottes, some Auracanas.

My parents still have a few but nowhere near the numbers I kept. Dad wont let them hatch out anymore, total bummer. Theyre a neat mix now... lots of laced feathers with hens layng mostly green/blue/olive colored eggs. Alot of the hens have muffs and the roosters have rosecombs.

Miss them!

[pintophile]

Originally Posted by Indyhorse    

I love my chickens. They are great to have around. There are a lot of benefits to having chickens!

They cut down on the household trash because they get all the scraps. They have taken my local bug population down to a minimum - quite a chore when you have so many horses on such a small property! They more than pay for themselves with their egg production, and they help keep the manure in the pasture broke down. I currently have 10 Rhode Island Reds and 6 Buff Orpingtons. Wanted to start out with "easy" breeds because I had been out of chickens for so long when I got them again last year. Now that we have made it through the first year, I'm ready to start adding some more faces to the flock.

Depending on where in the state you are, and what breeds you will be on the lookout for, I can put you in touch with the lady I got these two from, she has high show quality birds and is NPIP certified.

Don't forget that they're also great desensitization tools for any horse owner

[Beauseant]

My two horses live with a flock of 22 chickens. They are a mix of buff orpingtons, leghorns, barred rocks, Australorps, and Rhode island reds.

We played with the chickens when they were small:

‪Spring equals baby chickens‬‏...

So they are very well desensitized to humans....well, most of them.

The leghorns were generally mean as toddlers, and are wild and flighty now.

The friendliest and less afraid are the Rhode Island Reds .....then the barred rocks....


The orpingtons are not friendly, the leghorns are downright mean.

[Brighteyes]

I love chickens! I use to breed show birds. Sebrights, Silkies, and Wyandottes. I currently keep egg bred birds. I have Marans too! Cuckoos. My Marans are my sweeties. <3 I have three full sized and one bantam I got by accident. The bantams is my favorite. Her name is Milk Dud.

My blue eggers (mutts, but interesting mutts) are flighty and nutty. My brown egg mutts are only slightly more tame.

I have one rooster of unknown breeding called Nico. He's the friendiest rooster around. My old English game roosters were mean as hell! I had lost faith in nice roosters until I got him. I'm glad he's so nice. His favorite hen, Martha, is a sweet old girl as well.

[QHriderKE]

Awe! I want more chickens. We used to have at least 15, but they all passed away, and we're down to 7. Heheh I remember when I was little playing "cutting horse" and chasing chickens. :P