Rooster Chat: Development A Flock From Humble Beginnings

My adventure with chickens started when my husband and I moved out of suburbia and onto 6 tree-filled acres in rural Tennessee, mid-2021. After repurposing an previous doghouse right into a really nice hen coop, we headed to the native farm-supply retailer and got here house with six Easter Egger pullets. My granddaughter in moderation named member of the brand new hen flock: Brownie, Cherrybit, Elfaba, Graybeard, Littlefoot and Penelope. 

After 8 weeks within the storage, we presented the flock into our gorgeous apartment of a hen coop and anxiously waited for eggs! After in moderation guarding and coddling them, we slowly allow them to free-range. 

At the first day, two mysteriously disappeared, and we learned we weren’t the most productive hen oldsters. We didn’t allow them to out for every other 3 weeks till we felt that permitting them to out for brief sessions all over the day was once more secure.

Rookie Errors

I nonetheless take into account our wonder once we were given our first eggs in December of that yr. We have been instructed they wouldn’t lay eggs within the lifeless of iciness, so consider our pleasure once we found out our first gorgeous blue and brown eggs round Christmas on the age of 26 weeks. 

The next spring, I headed again to the native retailer and collected 4 extra pullets. I additionally couldn’t withstand the newborn ducklings in a bath within sight. That was once undoubtedly a mistake! The 2 Peking geese have been cute however briefly grew fats and truly didn’t have compatibility into the hen coop global. 

They have been large and likewise made an enormous mess within the coop. They waddled, honked and truly weren’t really nice, even if they appeared to assume they have been a part of the hen circle of relatives! 

Our egg manufacturing plummeted, and after two months, I used to be able to relocate the geese to a within sight farm with a pond. They instantly took to the water, and I spotted they have been in a a lot better position. Afterwards, some normalcy returned to our coop!

In the meantime, we would have liked extra chickens, and the egg manufacturing was once now not going smartly. I discovered any individual promoting 12-week-old pullets at a close-by farm and got here house with seven younger hens and a chicken for our hen flock! Our coop was once flourishing.We have been truly feeling like irresponsible hen house owners by way of now, however we have been decided to make a contented and protected position for our chickens. We coated the coop with a 2nd layer of cord which we was hoping would raccoon-proof the outdoor. All over this time, we additionally trapped and relocated two raccoons that have been stalking where each and every evening (stuck on our path cam). They’d open the food-can lids and just about terrorized our chickens at evening. I felt like this truly contributed to the deficient egg manufacturing, plus we saved discovering shell-less eggs. 

After relocating the meals, we set about seeking to resolve the rubber egg drawback. We at all times supplied beaten oyster shell, however our chickens weren’t too . That is once we made up our minds to introduce the shells of the few eggs we have been coming into their nutrition. We’d dry the shells in a single day, pulverize them in a mortar and pestle, after which sprinkle this of their meals on a daily basis. It appeared to do the trick, as over the following couple of weeks, the shell-less egg phenomenon subsided!

Time for Extra

Now we have misplaced many chickens over the past two years because of encounters with foxes, raccoons, unknown predators and sickness, however our chickens are happiest when they are able to free-range. Confidently our chicken, canines and cats will stay them protected and satisfied sufficient to stay giving us eggs.

What a amusing and egg-citing journey maintaining chickens has been. We will be able to’t wait to look the place this takes us. Having a chicken has gotten us into the trade of hatching our personal eggs. Out of six incubated, 5 eggs have hatched. We have already got plans underway to magnify our coop and support our run for our expanded circle of relatives of chickens to securely free-range. 

Lifestyles with chickens has plenty of ups and downs, however total, we suggest it to any individual who has persistence and time. Whilst it’s been a studying curve, we all know we’ve so a lot more to learn! 

Alison Davis is a retired scientific technologist, mother
of 4 and “Nana” to 3 grandchildren. She and her husband just lately moved from Nashville, Tennessee, to six acres nestled on a ridge in Kingston Springs, Tennessee, the place they experience tending their lawn, orchard, chickens and canines.