See that old hay wagon that my littlest ones are sitting on? That is supposed to become a new chicken coop. A chicken coop that can be moved around, that will always stay stationed far enough away from our house so that I don’t have chicken poop on my front porch. I probably should have waited to order new chicks until the new coop was finished, or at the very least started, but I didn’t. So for now, the new babies are living in our old coop. The one that is pretty great, but too close to the house.
In case you are wondering here’s the breakdown: We have mainly Buff Orpington pullets along with a Buff Orpington rooster. I have an irrational (or actually maybe it’s rational) fear of roosters, but they are useful, and I am hoping to raise our own buffs in the future. For variety I also ordered a few Welsummers and Easter Eggers. And yes, once again, Silas is wearing Beatrix’s clothes!
We’re all pretty excited to have chickens again!
Molly says
Silas is hilarious! My little sister tries to wear her brothers clothes. I wonder if they think wearing their older siblings clothes makes them somehow ‘big’ like them?:-!
marj harvey says
Ginny, Can’t get over how fast and how far your kidlets are growing. Pretty soon you’ll have a house full of teenagers. Bless your not so little family. … Marj
Jessa says
I’m raising my very first pair of chickies right now and would be totally overwhelmed with your numbers. 🙂 Good luck!
Mellisa says
Oh Ginny, such sweet childhood memories you are creating for your children. I have some of the fondest memories of “chick day” when I was a kid. The excitement!!! I can not get over how much Job looks like Silas in these pictures. Thank you for sharing.
Mellisa
Marty says
I love our hens – we have Rhode Island Reds and Black Sex Links – all girls, no roosters. But since they all look basically the same, we haven’t been able to name any of them – they’re all just ‘Marty’s Girls’! We just want eggs, not chicks! We didn’t get new chicks this year, we opted for a puppy! Glad you have chickens again. You just can’t beat fresh eggs for breakfast every morning! Blessings to you and yours.
Fran Stafford says
My flock is Buff Orpington hens and Romeo. This spring I ordered 4 Americauna pullets from a local farmer and one of them has developed clearly into another rooster. He will be culled. For the first time, my gals are raising Buff chicks, the first brood was 6 but an Opossum got 4 of them at 3 weeks. Their brooder tractor has been made more secure and yesterday, 6 more hatched. We still have 19 eggs under hens due in the next day or two. All of the cockrells will be culled in the fall along with some older stewing hens to be replaced by some of this year’s pullets. It is such fun watching them and reaping the benefits of their eggs.
Robin B says
We have all three of those varieties as well. We were not planning to get a welsummer, but my daughter wanted one. I’m so glad she chose our Isabel. I think she is absolutely beautiful. Chickens are so much fun! We spend so much time with ours.
Dawn says
That’s a lot of chicks! We replenish our flock every other year but I think the most we have ordered at a time was 24. We don’t have a rooster. We had one once and while he was okay with my husband and I, I didn’t appreciate him charging at my children and flying into them, sometimes leaving bruises, so we gave him away.
We have Welsummers and while I LOVE the rich brown color of their eggs, they are NOT rule followers and are the first to fly over our movable fence every morning when the coop door goes up. For this reason we have lost a few Welsummers to a fox.
Iris says
Aww, aren’t they lovely! We have chickens, but we got them when they were already grown, so we never saw them when they were that little. 🙂
You may find that no matter how far you move the chicken coop away from the house they will follow you there anyway. I know ours do. They are obsessed with us, and with cat food, and both of these things mean that as soon as they are free to do so they run over to the patio as fast as they can (which looks pretty funny). If we don’t keep the doors shut they come inside too, which wouldn’t be as bad if their metabolism wasn’t quite so… active. In the end we had to build a big enclosure for them. They still escape, and the kids still let them out a fair bit too, but at least it keeps the poop problem near the house to a minimum.
Tracey says
They are so sweet. I have a great respect for roosters myself, except for my little Bantam rooster, Lannister. He has a crow that sounds like a teenager during puberty which makes me laugh and while he ‘thinks’ he’s tough he really isn’t.
Josie says
Me too on the roosters! I was so afraid of our RIR rooster at our old house. We ended up with a austrolorpe (sp?) roo that I love this time, but his big beautiful self is second in line to our little loud bantam rooster. Not sure how this will go with two of them. We only have 6 hens, but no one has started laying yet so we will see if it ends up being too much for the girls. I like them having a rooster though, I think they must feel more safe. I’m not sure the neighbors who will eventually build a house on the empty lot next door will appreciate the bantam’s “bock-a-doos” (2 year old version) though, so we had better find a friendly farm just in case!
Lauren says
Oh my gosh- YAY!
Olivia says
Best investment ever! I can’t wait to have chickens again, very soon. 🙂
tara says
Yay!! I want chickens so badly but can’t where we live currently. I’m glad I can live vicariously through you again 🙂