Chickens, and lots of them! that's what i wanted so i set out to make it be. We live in a residential neighborhood but not in the city limits so their aren't many restrictions concerning animals and livestock, plus we have about an acre to play with! I asked my trusty man servant to build me an enclosure in the back quarter of our backyard and we fashioned a shelter from scrap materials. Since North Carolina has mild weather, and it was only spring, i was confident that a simple shed would suffice until we had hens of egg-laying age,at which point we would build an actual coop. Then the fun part - searching for chicks. Now, one would not think this to be too difficult, but i found out there was more to it than just getting in the car and coming back with chickens. First roadblock was the lack of availability in the immediate area, i had no wish to drive two hours to buy chicks. And i didn't really think we needed 25 of them either! That's the minimum order requirement from hatcheries - and they clip their beaks!!!! Definitely not for us. I also must point out here that i am extremely impatient, when i want something i want it NOW! With that being said, i turned to craigslist and voila! a jaunt to the other side of town to visit this nice man with Rhode Island Red, Blue Orpington, and Black Jersey Giant pullets. A bit of chickenology here....pullets are female chickens that aren't laying yet, but are almost full grown, usually around 5+ weeks of age (they usually begin laying eggs around 5 months of age). Now, i don't consider myself a city girl by far, i like to think that those visits to my mom's house while growing up helped me learn all about animals, since mom had chickens and gardens galore! So, back to the pullets......this nice man asked what we wanted. Overwhelmed by the number of birds running around i hesitated. I was pretty sure i wanted a couple of each i said, to which he replied "how about a male and female of each?" Perfect thought i, until we were driving home with these birds in a box in my lap (very smelly by the way, i recommend the trunk or pickup bed if you have one). The thought that dawned on me was......"what am i going to do with THREE roosters?" Lesson learned that day: do your homework first. Hens can lay eggs without a rooster, only one rooster is required per flock of birds, and more than one rooster means fighting. And be prepared to lose some of your birds, whether it be natural causes or your dog...... A couple of months after we got our first 6 birds, i was at the feed store and found out they had just gotten some chicks in. I was so excited! we had plenty of room for more (and at this point i think we had already lost one of them, a girl of course....sigh, still three roosters) so i happily asked for 11. Looking back i don't exactly remember why 11, but it may have had something to do with the amount of cash i had in my pocket. The kids and i rushed home with these cute little yellow puff balls and plopped them into the pen with the others. No big issues there, however i have learned since that its best to introduce new birds early in the morning at feeding time, or late at night during bed time. (Think 50 First Dates....do they start each day like its a new one, literally?) Oh, and another thing, those little bittie baby chicks can walk right through regular livestock fencing! I had to do a quick improvisation to things by running poultry fencing along the bottom of the fence line. One of our dogs considered anyone outside of the fence hers. The chicks lasted less than a week anyways. The next day we found the leftovers of a few of them, partially pulled through the fence. Horrified we turned to the internet and began searching what type of critter could pull chicks through a fence, was it a racoon, snake, owl, fox? I called animal control to inquire about trapping but was told that it's illegal to trap wild animals and the city/county is not allowed to trap anything not rabid. How do i know if its rabid i ask? you get bit she replies. nice. so, my next step is to call a professional trapper, yikes! that's some serious money they wanted to catch our unknown chicken killer and me being me, i thought surely i can do this myself. i bought a trap from our feed store, and again i must point out - it's not legal to trap animals without a license and to get a license you must hire a Trapper. I did have a guy come out to the house and take a look around, he said it looked like a grey fox was feeding her young at our expense. He helped us set up our trap and gave us a 30 day license, and he would buy the fox once trapped to sell for training purposes to local hunters. We never did catch that fox and lost every one of those chicks. Lesson learned that day: Build a coop with a locking door if you wish to keep baby chicks alive. Trusty man servant, I said, please build me a coop out of these pallets i have collected. And so it was:
Cost: less than ten bucks for a box of screws and some caulk. Perfect!
Inside we have 4 nesting boxes and roosts for the 1 remaining hen (one dead one turned out to be a roo) and the remaining 2 roosters (one dead one donated to a friend) to sleep on. I know you are thinking that the math doesn't add up so let me clarify quickly. Our Rhode Island Red Rooster died by dog, our Blue Orpington hen died by dog also, and our Black Jersey Giants turned out to both be boys, so that leaves us with a Rhode Island Red Hen and two roosters. so, now the quest for more chicks...only i didn't want to wait for chicks to grow up and lay eggs, i wanted those eggs NOW! Our remaining hen, Daisy, had just begun to lay and one egg a day wasn't cutting it! I found a guy about an hour away who was selling Golden Buffs which are a red-sex link bird. In chickenology that means that they are a cross breed that hatch female birds of one color and male birds of another color. This takes the guesswork out of things since you cant tell otherwise what you are getting. (hence our two roosters) They were raised on organic feed and cost $12 each, so i bought 7, and we now have three left. I would like to take this time to add that tying a chicken that your dog killed to its neck and making her
"wear" the dead chicken does NOT make said dog not want to eat chicken again. I would also like to say that cross breed chickens are not very smart. Chickens aren't bright to begin with, but the cross breeding of birds makes them even dumber. I swore off anything other than Heirloom breeds, which are the original hardy stock that have survived because they are bread to survive, not to lay more eggs, grow quicker, or be easier to tell apart as babies. I was very excited to see an add about 4 months ago for some Black Jersey Giant girl chicks (sexed at the hatchery, guaranteed - i wasn't taking more chances). These were actually about 4 weeks old and normally you would know by now what sex the bird was, but Jerseys are such big birds that they mature slower. The minimum order was four and i was okay with that, he even threw in a bunny for free (another story for another day). We lost one bird the first week (dog) and the other three came down sick. Their eyes were closed and runny and they were lethargic so i brought them inside, set up a dog crate for them and began an antibiotic treatment for 14 days. I took them back outside at 13 days.....three of those girls inside was too much, they make messes, lots of messes, peck at you, and they smell, and i mean really smell. But, they did get better, and last week i found the cutest little eggs nestled in with the others. We are now getting around 6 of the most delectable eggs a day! I have always shared with friends and family, but i now wanted to venture into the market with them. I sold my first two dozen eggs for $3 a dozen, which is really good considering they are fed an organic feed and free range around the back yard during the days when the dogs are inside. And i also have acquired an incubator, minus the power cord, but hey, it was free! I am anxiously waiting for the mailman to arrive with a brown box inside which will be the replacement cord, because in 21 days i hope to be selling baby chicks...but i leave that for another story...maybe a part two of Lessons in Poultry, we shall see.
Cheers, Nyn
