who has chickens

Thanks everyone

The chicks are outside today in their play pen under our son's tree house to get out of the rain......they don't look impressed with their first adventure dealing with our PNW weather......

Ace on the other hand could care less about the rain.... never leaving the girls for to long ......standing guard along with her buddy Krypto who is not that interested in  the girls..... but decided to photo bomb my pictures......  




Krypto thinks the girls are good for something though, as he also likes to eat dried meal worms and chicken scratch at the same time as the girls.....  

hugs
rose

Looks like Krypto got a bad worm!

ha ha ha......I think he was trying to disguise his laughter by a *yawn*   

our chicks are sure growing fast and clearly out growing their inside brooder!



Hubby's WhyNot, our daughters Zapheir and hubbys Red



our son's girl Thunder



MY Big Bird & Penny



Hugs
rose







hugs
rose

They are adorable Rose!

GG

Love them at that age Rose and I remember mine at that stage about this time last year. Right now I am having to deal with a broody hen.... NOT FUN!

our girls are growing up.....still no eggs yet   



Thunder.....our son's chicken whom I have fallen in love with...she is the BOSS of the chicken yard and my friend LOL she will follow me around the yard, peck at the other girls to keep them away from me.....she will snuggle on my lap and take a nap....she is the first one to greet me and will start hollering to me the min she hears the back door open.....



Penny who is at the bottom of the pecking order and boy she is LAUD about it too!



Zaphyr who is our daughters chicken is very fast, has a funny talking voice and can fly really high and far.....she looks like a pheasant flying thru the air.....she is always on the move doing something.....she is an investigator



Big Bird is mine....doesn't want to be my friend...gives me and others scary glares....Red next to her is my hubbys....she is very meek and sweet.....she always walks by with her head down low and a soft little voice....as to say excuse me....she will nap in my lap.....



Last is DumbNot that use to be WhyNot.....she is not friendly....is Zaphyr best friend and has to go everywhere she does.....its funny to watch her following Zaphyr around....DumbNot has a big girls voice but prefers to sound like a baby chick....LOL



hugs
rose

Very enjoyable post describing the wide range of personalities.  I had to smile just as much as looking at your other post with veggies.   You really do have a garden of Eden   

Amazing that they have such different personalities. And fun.

Rose, how old are you chickens? Our white leghorns are 5 months old, and have been laying an egg a day for about a month! The Wyndottes, ONE egg between the 6 of them!! I don't know what made me want to get "pretty" birds lol. If anyone gets broody, I think we'll get some WL eggs for them to hatch out. Your hens are so pretty!! Our Wyndottes aren't very friendly either, they run for the hills every time you walk up to the coop!! Silly birds! Hope yours start laying soon!!

Thanks for the lovely comments   

SG...... our hens are about 19 weeks old.....we are hoping for an egg any day now   


hugs
rose

Three of our girls have been making what we call the Egg song for the last few days with no eggs......but.....last night while hubby was in the back garden he heard someone singing the egg song and went and took a peak before heading into the house for the night.... and to his surprise he found a tiny treasure   



one of our girls eggs next to a store bought large white egg





and since all six of the girls were up in their house getting ready for bed he doesn't know who gave us our first golden egg

happy gardening
rose

Congrats on your first egg!  Aren't they cute little things   
Soon she will be laying full size for her type.

Thanks Turan.....the children.... hubby and I....are so excited and are planning on eating the eggs once we get 6 of them.....  ....funny how fast the children we up today to go check for more eggs....they even been out there a couple of times today checking.....  my son even dragging a foot stool and all so he could get a good look....  

happy gardening
rose

I read somewhere that the first eggs are small and get larger as they continue to lay til they are normal-sized.
How lucky you are to have your own hens.  Hooray!

yay Rose!! how exciting. We got our first one from the Golden Wyndotte today too!! must be egg day!!

Congratulations!  Soon you'll have more than you know what to do with...!

quiltbea wrote:I read somewhere that the first eggs are small and get larger as they continue to lay til they are normal-sized.
How lucky you are to have your own hens.  Hooray!

I call them practice eggs.

Mini omelets!

ok we have 3 little eggs so far and still do not know who laid them .....

I have a question:

Today our Barred Rock Hen decided to go up to the nesting box inside their house after we let them out of their coop and into their run.....she sat there for a long time....I took a peak and she purred at me and let me watch her for a bit....she moved around and it looked like she was going to lay an egg....I shut the door to give her some privacy as not only was I standing there looking at her....but the rest of the girls were too LOL....she sat up there for at least 30 mins and then came down the stairs and out to the run area talking away to me like she does everyday....no egg song....just reg chatter......with no egg laid.....is this normal in a young hen who is just about 5 months old?

thanks
rose

Yup, it is normal.  Even older hens will go check out nests with out necessarily laying anything.  Maybe to the hen sitting in the nest is the important exercise she does, like yoga or meditation, and an egg is a sometimes by product.

I know many of you are not in the region but thought you would want to be aware of this situation.
http://nhpr.org/post/cluster-salmonella-infections-nh-linked-national-outbreak-backyard-chickens

Hello all you poultry keepers,

I do not know if this book would be of any help to anyone participating in this thread.  I saw this listing as a free book, so I thought I'd pass along the link:

The Complete Backyard Chickens Guide for Beginners: How to Raise Healthy Backyard Chicken: Backyard Chickens for Dummies, Backyard Chickens Handbook, Raising ... Raising Livestock, Livestock, Homestead)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LCLQVSG/ref=pe_385040_117923520_TE_M1T1DP

As always, this free offer can go away at any time.

camprn wrote:I know many of you are not in the region but thought you would want to be aware of this situation.
http://nhpr.org/post/cluster-salmonella-infections-nh-linked-national-outbreak-backyard-chickens

Thanks, Camp.  I agree with the speaker that a pre-reality check is very important when taking on any animal.  Chicken and dumplings, or "old ladies" coop.

Thanks for the links and info on chicken raising   

our girls are doing well and we make sure to implement good hand washing...I believe that is the key to keeping healthy while enjoying having chickens....

hugs
rose

sanderson wrote:

camprn wrote:I know many of you are not in the region but thought you would want to be aware of this situation.
http://nhpr.org/post/cluster-salmonella-infections-nh-linked-national-outbreak-backyard-chickens

Thanks, Camp.  I agree with the speaker that a pre-reality check is very important when taking on any animal.  Chicken and dumplings, or "old ladies" coop.

I'm confusing myself. My comments were in response to a link where the speaker talked about the future fate of elderly hens.