Hello Everyone,
We bought chickens just about a year ago and we quickly realized what we did not know. We have been through some changeling times for sure. It started with our chickens arriving 5 weeks early. We had ordered them out of state and one day we get an email saying they were being shipped. Not ready! No coop no place to put them but in the garage. Stressful but quite entertaining. My husband designed a gorgeous coop (previous cabinet maker) and run but had an issue with his foot that got progressive worse. We had to hire a handy man to build the coop and run.
So now they are in and getting large and we noticed that we don't have all girls as ordered. The boys started getting a bit aggressive. If I had know about this site I would have reached out to the group first. We got luck and gave out beautiful roosters away. One Polish and one Appenzeller.
Well the girls start laying eggs and we have a new problem one is egg bound. Being the great researcher my husband is, we went though a very comical process on the first chicken, the second one was far more intensive and not so funny. We were successful and they are all still alive.
For anyone just embarking on this journey, research your costs carefully, plan and build your coop and run prior to buying the chicks. There is Tractor supply that sells but there is a minimum and a place on Blagg that sells some more exotic chickens.
Since we really never had time for pets we find that having chickens makes it harder to get away for a few days. I am wondering if others have that problem as well. Maybe forming a group that would trade off feeding and watering while one is away. I do not know you may already have that in place and I just have not seen it. I now hire a chicken lady at $35.00 a day to care for our chickens and that gets expensive if you want to leave longer that a week.
Looking forward to hearing from you all
We bought chickens just about a year ago and we quickly realized what we did not know. We have been through some changeling times for sure. It started with our chickens arriving 5 weeks early. We had ordered them out of state and one day we get an email saying they were being shipped. Not ready! No coop no place to put them but in the garage. Stressful but quite entertaining. My husband designed a gorgeous coop (previous cabinet maker) and run but had an issue with his foot that got progressive worse. We had to hire a handy man to build the coop and run.
So now they are in and getting large and we noticed that we don't have all girls as ordered. The boys started getting a bit aggressive. If I had know about this site I would have reached out to the group first. We got luck and gave out beautiful roosters away. One Polish and one Appenzeller.
Well the girls start laying eggs and we have a new problem one is egg bound. Being the great researcher my husband is, we went though a very comical process on the first chicken, the second one was far more intensive and not so funny. We were successful and they are all still alive.
For anyone just embarking on this journey, research your costs carefully, plan and build your coop and run prior to buying the chicks. There is Tractor supply that sells but there is a minimum and a place on Blagg that sells some more exotic chickens.
Since we really never had time for pets we find that having chickens makes it harder to get away for a few days. I am wondering if others have that problem as well. Maybe forming a group that would trade off feeding and watering while one is away. I do not know you may already have that in place and I just have not seen it. I now hire a chicken lady at $35.00 a day to care for our chickens and that gets expensive if you want to leave longer that a week.
Looking forward to hearing from you all
Glad you joined.
to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
