Checking-In On Peeps - Post Here To Say Hello!

[Eightacrestn]

We have such a vibrant community here at BYC... tons of active friendly members. Of course, life gets busy, so I was thinking it would be fun to start a thread welcoming some of our peeps we haven't heard from in a while.

If that's you, come say hello and let us know what you've been up to.

(if that's not you, feel free to invite peeps you haven't seen in a while and say hi to those that post here)

I have been busy taking care of our 11 chickens. I am trying to figure out what to do about the hens being overmated. I have some that have lost so many feathers they have bald places. I was sent two roosters by mistake in the last order of chickens. I only ordered one. I keep one rooster at the time separated from the hens, but they still look rough. I have contemplated using hen saddles, but don’t know which are the best. Any suggestions? I have tried to find a home for one of the roosters, but so far no one wants a rooster.

 

[Hondo7]

We have such a vibrant community here at BYC... tons of active friendly members. Of course, life gets busy, so I was thinking it would be fun to start a thread welcoming some of our peeps we haven't heard from in a while.

If that's you, come say hello and let us know what you've been up to.

(if that's not you, feel free to invite peeps you haven't seen in a while and say hi to those that post here)

Just checking in with our update. We've had chickens for nearly 10 years now. Our flock is primarily Black Australorp, Buff Orpington, and Golden-laced Wyandotte.

Last summer we built 8 8'x32' chicken paddocks attached to the coop (enabling rotation for plant recovery). We are now in the process of seeding the paddocks with a very wide variety of perennial plants (alfalfa, anise hyssop, birdsfoot trefoil, Russian comfrey, white clover, dandelions, echinacea, red fescue, tall fescue, Good King Henry spinach, oregano, broadleaf plantain, narrowleaf plantain, rye grass, sage, sea kale, thyme, timothy grass). I am looking forward to all that sprouting up for the chickens to graze and reducing our chicken feed costs somewhat.

The last paddock is a double-wide and we planted only really tall grasses there (3'-4' tall). The plan is to keep the grasses tall so when the chicken have access to that paddock all we will see is the grass wavering as they move about. We are calling it the Velociraptor paddock.

Because of the paddocks, last fall we were finally able to "grow our own" chickens with hens brooding and hatching chicks. Our flock is up to over 50 birds now, so we need to cull it a good bit to get it back to our optimal # given our facilities (<30). We've had to learn how to inspect the hens to see which ones are laying.

We still enjoy having the chickens a lot ... and love the fresh eggs!

 

[Hondo7]

I have been busy taking care of our 11 chickens. I am trying to figure out what to do about the hens being overmated. I have some that have lost so many feathers they have bald places. I was sent two roosters by mistake in the last order of chickens. I only ordered one. I keep one rooster at the time separated from the hens, but they still look rough. I have contemplated using hen saddles, but don’t know which are the best. Any suggestions? I have tried to find a home for one of the roosters, but so far no one wants a rooster.

I heard the ratio is 1 rooster / 8-10 hens. Maybe it's time to cull a rooster and have some nice rotisserie chicken?

 

[Dakar2009]

@Nifty-Chicken Great idea for a thread! And thanks for the bump. Got bogged down with life, a new puppy last year, a car project, house projects, etc. No excuse for not checking in!

Still have 3 of my initial 5 girls going strong. We had a rough molting season. Between that and the constantly overcast skies up here, the laying slowed down a lot. But sun is out lately and the eggs are flowing! We're looking to add another 5 or 6 to the coop really soon. Probably go with some Barred Rock hens.

 

[Mistress-with-birbs]

Hi! Right now I'm glad to say that the ladies are doing really well!! I gave one of my oldest ladies (6 years old now!!) Some eggs from a neighbor to set on and she hatched them and is bobbing around with her little chicks. The chicks are Golden Comet and New Hampshire mix which is a new breed for me so I am excited to see how they grow!!
I've got two other hens that are dead set on having babies but I'm trying to break them rn because I don't have the facilities to raise more chicks than the ones I've already got going! So they are in broody jail lol.

 

[woolyrunnerlady]

Oh goodness it's been a while. Our chickens grew out of their awkward teenager phase, and the one I was afraid was going to be a rooster is indeed a hen. They are 2 years old now and laying pretty well still, plus we let them out for a few hours a day and they are excellent at keeping the local tick population down.

Front to back in the picture we have Big Girl, Dunny, Red & Janet. Big Girl and Dunny are Austrolorps, and Red and Janet are SLWs. Big Girl is the ruler of the coop while Dunny is lowest on the pecking order and gets bullied by Janet a bit. Honestly Dunny just is not that bright and doesn't realize that she is bigger than Janet and doesn't need to take it.

We had just had a fenced in run with t-posts and chicken wire, but we decided to do them something a bit nicer with a roof since they hate the rain and snow, so we built them this lovely run. Yes, I know the chicken wire doesn't go all the way up. No, we haven't had any issues with predators or rodents. This season I'm working on training grape vines up to grow along the top headers.

Debating what to do when the girls slow down their laying, and if we want to refresh the flock when that happens, and if so how to do it. Only one of them has gone broody (Big Girl) and she was pretty easy to break out of it, so I don't know that fertilized eggs wouldn't be abandoned. I also don't know that we would want another 4 (2 would probably do), the minimum purchase of chickens in the state.

Anyways, there is the update. Have fun chicken tenders!

 

[Tlu]

We have such a vibrant community here at BYC... tons of active friendly members. Of course, life gets busy, so I was thinking it would be fun to start a thread welcoming some of our peeps we haven't heard from in a while.

If that's you, come say hello and let us know what you've been up to.

(if that's not you, feel free to invite peeps you haven't seen in a while and say hi to those that post here)

Mighty fine here outside Asheville NC with 4 healthy hens, 4 geese, 2 of which 10 days old and 2 ducklings! Lots of fowl play

 

[Carolminifarm]

We have such a vibrant community here at BYC... tons of active friendly members. Of course, life gets busy, so I was thinking it would be fun to start a thread welcoming some of our peeps we haven't heard from in a while.

If that's you, come say hello and let us know what you've been up to.

(if that's not you, feel free to invite peeps you haven't seen in a while and say hi to those that post here)

We have such a vibrant community here at BYC... tons of active friendly members. Of course, life gets busy, so I was thinking it would be fun to start a thread welcoming some of our peeps we haven't heard from in a while.

If that's you, come say hello and let us know what you've been up to.

(if that's not you, feel free to invite peeps you haven't seen in a while and say hi to those that post here)

Have 4 giant pekins driving me crazy. They are just so dumb. Laying a ton of eggs but not with the system. Won't go in coop, Auto closing door, at night. Won't even go in the pen around the coop. Have to chase them in and do everything but walk thru gate. Omg. Frustrating. May be time to sell.

 

[sals_chicks]

I am still here too!! 2 years in with my flock & still loving it every day! Survived another New England winter, and everyone is doing great and looking forward to having green grass to scratch around in soon!

 

[kayla43]

We have such a vibrant community here at BYC... tons of active friendly members. Of course, life gets busy, so I was thinking it would be fun to start a thread welcoming some of our peeps we haven't heard from in a while.

If that's you, come say hello and let us know what you've been up to.

(if that's not you, feel free to invite peeps you haven't seen in a while and say hi to those that post here)

Hi! I was a first time chicken owner when I joined two years ago and this site has been so helpful! We still have our original flock minus one (rip Bea, my sweet pea). Losing your first chicken is hard and I had lots of anxiety after that over keeping them all safe and healthy but have been able to learn a lot and made tons of improvements along the way. I definitely still scour the threads when I run into issues but haven’t needed to post in a while. Still love the site and this community!