Chick n Hen’s

We knew that we wanted chickens when we moved to our new home. I mean who does not want CHICKS!!! They are sooo cute. The lure of fresh eggs was exciting and overall we wanted the kids to have a project and business long term. We were slowly starting to research how to house our chickens in a horse barn stall. After doing some online research we came up with a plan. We wanted to start the coop before getting chicks even though they were going to be housed in our basement until they had their full feathers. Our plans all changed when our sweet friends, the Martin’s brought us a “house warming gift” of 6 baby chicks and some supplies for their brooder. We were so excited and so began our chick raising fun.

We decided 6 was not enough so we got 6 more so we could each choose a few. Joe wanted the hearty + big egg laying ladies and I choose a variety. Gwyn liked the cute ones and Walker chose all the special needs ones, as we say. The runts, the ones with “crusty butt”, as they call it or the outcasts. What a tender heart he has. We ended up by May owning 20 chicks. We figured there would be some attrition.

The chicks were so cute. Walker would read to them some nights and we all took turns cleaning the cage, providing water and food and some treats such as grapes, cantaloupe or spaghetti as they got a bit older. They lived in their tub in our basement might I add, until they were 6-8 weeks or they had their adult feathers in. I would prefer the chicks were in our garage or in the barn next time. They contributed a wonderful layer of wood chip and feather dust all over our basement storage room and sometimes smelled. We were very happy to graduate them outside.

 Joe and our long time family friend Timmy started the coop this spring. They converted a horse stall to a coop. Prior to moving them outside full time we brought them out in our yard for short periods of time to adjust to the cooler weather. They also met our Holland Lop bunnies and enjoyed socializing with them. They transitioned into their new coop with a heat lamp to help them acclimate as it was May in Colorado, which means occasional spring blizzards. We had to teach them to climb the ladders to their nesting boxes and it was fun to see them explore.

Much to our surprise we started to have a sense that we had a rooster in the bunch. When you buy chickens it is hard to indentify the sex at the store. It turns out Gwyn chose TWO roosters in her pickings and we had to decide if they would be a good fit for our ladies. They were both beautiful but frankly having a rooster crowing at 6:15 am everyday was just about killing me. They liked to make themselves known. We also noticed that they would single out some hens and bully them. We had to make the hard decision to get rid of them. We found a friend of a friend who has an amazing ranch in Sedalia that we could relocate the roosters to. At the ranch they free ranges goats, sheeps, ducks, turkeys and chickens. So on a cold rainy day in June we brought them to the ranch and introduced them to their new flock. As roosters do they fought for a few minutes to establish territory but then immediately moved on to enjoy their new surroundings.

 Later in the summer we lost a white chicken named “Hene Hene” she was quite the character. She was unusually huge even as a young chick and as she grew could hardly walk. She would waddle 4 steps and then have to rest. Turns out she was sick.. she gave us lots of laughs and smiles in her short life. A few weeks later my 1 year old Labrador got a hold of 2 chickens and killed them. I was so devastated and he was in big trouble. Needless to say he learned his lesson and knows our expectations of him now in the barn. How can you blame him though??? He is a “bird dog.” Since then we have lost 2 chickens to our neighborhood bobcat. He is very smart and sneaky and we are working to fully secure the chickens so he has no chance. We are down to 11 chickens and love them all. Their names are Red, Goose, Taziki 1 and Taziki 2, Lop, Wynona, Wonder Woman, Strawberry, Asian, Lightening and Hawk. We are hoping to add more in the spring. They kids have created a business of selling our eggs to neighbors and enjoy delivering fresh eggs. We have also started free ranging the chickens once or twice a week to get them fresh foraging and some freedom.

We are learning how to help them though winter. They don’t love the snow but when the weather changes they tend to become more active. We are using a heat lamp to try to increase egg production this winter. They have decreased production due to less daylight and produce about ½ to ¾ of their typical amount of eggs. It’s always an adventure and a learning curve but we have loved the addition of chickens to our family.