who has chickens

welp. spoke too soon. Someone left the coop open, and the gate TO the coop and one is missing. I see my dog burying a white "puff"..................Ever think you're not supposed to have chickens??

  oh NO SG   

so sorry to hear this!  I sure hope you find the little missing baby, and the puff you seen wasn't it!   

I have been so worried too about our little ones being out side, but I know they can not stay in our home for ever....

today was on and off again rain....so hubby rig the green house with a little extra protection and the babies are all doing fine......we dug up some dirt and added some worms from our compost and they seem to be enjoying it.....

they are just to funny....if the see the worm wiggling around on the ground they get real intense staring at it....but wont pick it up....but if hubby or I pick it up and dangle it In front of them, then they snatch it and run around crazy singing mine, mine, mine until either they drop it or figure out how to swallow it....some of the chicks are more head of the game then others....but they are learning.....  

Our green house is not just for plants any longer   





some up close pics   



Big bird loves sleeping in our daughters hands!



having fun on the kitchen floor....so much for putting down paper!



hugs
rose

welp, the PUFF what a dead chicken darn it!! Hubby put stuff in the compost pile and forgot to cover it back up and also forgot to close the gate, so double forgetful and the dog got it
Your pen looks soooo fancy! I'd never wanna leave either! The chicks are adorable! My goldens are really getting pretty.
We have several pigs ready for the 4H'rs too, so my feed bill will go down! lol

Have a great nite, and TY for the update

I'm so sorry, SG.  Unfortunately it's a hard way to remember.

Hope your other babies do fine.

I'd love to have chickens, but our neighborhood won't allow it...   

AtlantaMarie wrote:I'm so sorry, SG.  Unfortunately it's a hard way to remember.

Hope your other babies do fine.

I'd love to have chickens, but our neighborhood won't allow it...   

Thank you AtlantaMarie. What's so upsetting is, he was feeding the chickens!! meant to go back and put more in and got distracted. Oh well. stuff happens, right?

There is a big "trend" going on to support back yard chickens, so maybe your neighborhood needs a little nudge? Chickens are quiet for the most part, and if you clean up their pens are not smelly! BUT no roosters! lol

Yeah...  Know about that one...

I suggested it to DH, but he doesn't want me to rock the boat more than we do already, lol.

Okay, I give up.  Call me dumb or naïve or something.  I have been reading this thread for almost 2 years and every time I am reading a new post, I think to myself, "I guess they are raising chickens for the eggs, but how do you get eggs without a rooster??"

Roosters do not make eggs, they just can fertilize them. Hens make eggs, they lay them whether or not they get bred. They do not menstruate, they just lay an unfertilized egg.

yolos wrote:Okay, I give up.  Call me dumb or naïve or something.  I have been reading this thread for almost 2 years and every time I am reading a new post, I think to myself, "I guess they are raising chickens for the eggs, but how do you get eggs without a rooster??"

Yup, no rooster is necessary! As women, (hens lol) we make eggs whether a man is around or not. We don't have babies unless there IS a man "around" lol. Same with the chickens!!

Oh...  Okay.  I have always wondered about that myself.  (Sad part is, I used to work for a poultry company vet and never asked him...)

Rose be careful about letting your chickens out when they get older.  They won't just peck off the top of the grass, they will scratch it all up and dig holes to keep cool.  I would let them out every day to go find bugs and leave them out longer and longer because we had earwigs and I felt bad they were in their coop.  The run that they had was taken apart and the new one that was being built was not finished for quite awhile.  Between the chickens and the dogs, my back yard grass is gone.

Chickens are just so fun to watch and my only one left comes running when I call "here chick chick chick" and sometimes just when I open the back door.  I just love that!

yolos wrote:Okay, I give up.  Call me dumb or naïve or something.  I have been reading this thread for almost 2 years and every time I am reading a new post, I think to myself, "I guess they are raising chickens for the eggs, but how do you get eggs without a rooster??"

Oh, and you're not dumb! People ask me that quite a bit!

Triciasgarden wrote:Rose be careful about letting your chickens out when they get older.  They won't just peck off the top of the grass, they will scratch it all up and dig holes to keep cool.  I would let them out every day to go find bugs and leave them out longer and longer because we had earwigs and I felt bad they were in their coop.  The run that they had was taken apart and the new one that was being built was not finished for quite awhile.  Between the chickens and the dogs, my back yard grass is gone.

Chickens are just so fun to watch and my only one left comes running when I call "here chick chick chick" and sometimes just when I open the back door.  I just love that!

Thank you!  don't worry, they are going to have a 4x6 chicken house and a 6x12 chicken pen to play in and only out in the back yard once in awhile while we are out with them....the other times they will be in what I call un upside down wagon   where they will forage in garden boxes that are not in use and other parts of our yard.....

the chickens will be moved around a lot so not to damage our back yard.....we have 2 children home still that play in this area and 3 young grandchildren who also play in our yard....so keeping it clean and healthy is important to us.....we were thinking that perhaps the day before we know we want to mow the lawn we could let them out with us for awhile, and then the next day or latter that day mow the grass and hopefully the chicken poo with it.....  

happy gardening
rose

You have sure thought things through!  I hope I didn't sound bossy, just wanted to let you know my mistakes.

Triciasgarden wrote:You have sure thought things through!  I hope I didn't sound bossy, just wanted to let you know my mistakes.

Bossy?? for sure.... NOT   I love the suggestions!!

Keeping chickens is new to us.....I grew up on a small farm of about 2 acres.....we had chickens, ducks, geese, some other type of chicken that was not really a chicken....is it a Ginny hen?? something like that LOL.....rabbits, pigs, cows, horses, and 1 goat

we never viewed our animals as pets, (except the horses).....my dad and older siblings did the work taking care of them....and when it came time to butcher them, my momma took me in to town for the day.....so never seen that side of it.....the garden was taken care of by my father too.....I don't even remember harvesting anything with him.....just ate it at the table....they did do any canning either....

I do remember when we would get new baby chicks as they were kept for a while in the house in a cardboard box with a heat lamp....but we were not allowed to pick them up.....I remember thinking they were cute and smelled LOL....and I remember throwing some scratch treats into the pen when ever I got my horse out to ride.....

so I appreciate any and all suggestions and help with raising our new hens!

Hugs
rose

southern gardener wrote:My little grand daughter got to see the new additions today! She was so excited, wanted to name them Elsa and Anna after the "Frozen" movie. I HOPE you can see them behind her. They're so cute, and so is she :)hehe, said the proud Gramma!!

We have Elsa and Anna chickies too lol.

Wow Rose, you sure had a lot of farm animals and even though you didn't take care of them, per se, I am sure you learned a lot about them!

Southern gardener your grandkids are sure cute!

It is nice seeing you back posting, Tricia. It has been a long winter!
Hurrah for chicks and grandkids and thawing gardens!

Triciasgarden wrote:Southern gardener your grandkids are sure cute!

Thank you tricia....i posted one of the youngest in "moved our beds". He's eating one of today's strawberries. OMGOSH...they're so good!!

Ace is taking her job seriously watching over the girls....she follows them all day long as they get a few hours of chaperone free range in our back yard  





she also lays next to their play pin while they go in for naps and something to drink    


hubby is almost done building the girls their coop and then we get to paint it and move them in .......

hugs
rose

That's some guard dog you've got! Hopefully she'll keep the predators away.

What a good dog. Period.   

+1!  And pretty to boot!

Gosh, I love German shepherds.  They are such good dogs, caring for the other animals and the kids in a family.  Have had 3 thru my life and other breeds just can't compare.  I love the photo.  Sweet!