# New chickens!



## themacpack

LOVE them!!! I have been working on DH for several YEARS now to have chickens and I finally found the key to his final bit of resistance -- my son has decided that for next year he wants to do chickens as a 4-H project (this was his first year and he did rockets and fish), guess who has already started plans for a chicken coop, lol.


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## Indyhorse

I love my chickens. :lol: They are great to have around. There are a lot of benefits to having chickens!

They cut down on the household trash because they get all the scraps. They have taken my local bug population down to a minimum - quite a chore when you have so many horses on such a small property! They more than pay for themselves with their egg production, and they help keep the manure in the pasture broke down. I currently have 10 Rhode Island Reds and 6 Buff Orpingtons. Wanted to start out with "easy" breeds because I had been out of chickens for so long when I got them again last year. Now that we have made it through the first year, I'm ready to start adding some more faces to the flock. 

Depending on where in the state you are, and what breeds you will be on the lookout for, I can put you in touch with the lady I got these two from, she has high show quality birds and is NPIP certified.


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## Delfina

Very nice!

We've got 8 chicks right now (quite the motley assortment of breeds as the kiddos picked them based on looks), they're starting to spend their days outside and I am looking forward to seeing a reduction in bugs.


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## themacpack

Preaching to the choir on the virtues of chickens -- I had a wonderful flock as a child (I did 4-H with them - must be where my DS got it, lol). We had cochins, polish (loved their funny hair-do's), and a bunch of barnyard "mutt" chickens that were pieced together via this farmer or that wanting to cut their flock and knowing I never turned down a chicken.
I thought I had DH sold when I mentioned their love of eating ticks (he hates those little buggars with a passion), but it took the sad eyes of a child to do the trick, lol.


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## Deslumbrar

I loooooved my chickens... I had 60+ through high school... Black Giants, Buff Orpingtons, Cinnamon Queens, RI Reds, Red laced Wyandottes, some Auracanas. 

My parents still have a few but nowhere near the numbers I kept. Dad wont let them hatch out anymore, total bummer. Theyre a neat mix now... lots of laced feathers with hens layng mostly green/blue/olive colored eggs. Alot of the hens have muffs and the roosters have rosecombs.

Miss them!


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## pintophile

Indyhorse said:


> I love my chickens. :lol: They are great to have around. There are a lot of benefits to having chickens!
> 
> They cut down on the household trash because they get all the scraps. They have taken my local bug population down to a minimum - quite a chore when you have so many horses on such a small property! They more than pay for themselves with their egg production, and they help keep the manure in the pasture broke down. I currently have 10 Rhode Island Reds and 6 Buff Orpingtons. Wanted to start out with "easy" breeds because I had been out of chickens for so long when I got them again last year. Now that we have made it through the first year, I'm ready to start adding some more faces to the flock.
> 
> Depending on where in the state you are, and what breeds you will be on the lookout for, I can put you in touch with the lady I got these two from, she has high show quality birds and is NPIP certified.


Don't forget that they're also great desensitization tools for any horse owner


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## Beauseant

My two horses live with a flock of 22 chickens. They are a mix of buff orpingtons, leghorns, barred rocks, Australorps, and Rhode island reds.

We played with the chickens when they were small:




 
so they are very well desensitized to humans....well, most of them. 

The leghorns were generally mean as toddlers, and are wild and flighty now.

The friendliest and less afraid are the Rhode Island Reds .....then the barred rocks....


the orpingtons are not friendly, the leghorns are downright mean.


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## Brighteyes

I love chickens! I use to breed show birds. Sebrights, Silkies, and Wyandottes. I currently keep egg bred birds. I have Marans too! Cuckoos. My Marans are my sweeties. <3 I have three full sized and one bantam I got by accident. The bantams is my favorite. Her name is Milk Dud. 

My blue eggers (mutts, but interesting mutts) are flighty and nutty. My brown egg mutts are only slightly more tame.

I have one rooster of unknown breeding called Nico. He's the friendiest rooster around. My old English game roosters were mean as hell! I had lost faith in nice roosters until I got him. I'm glad he's so nice. His favorite hen, Martha, is a sweet old girl as well.


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## QHriderKE

Awe! I want more chickens. We used to have at least 15, but they all passed away, and we're down to 7. Heheh I remember when I was little playing "cutting horse" and chasing chickens.


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## maura

Another chicken fan here! 

Currently we have 35; 25 laying, 10 that we raised from chicks this spring and will start laying this fall. 

We have Buff Orps, Barred Rocks, RI Reds, Sicilian Buttercups, Black Stars and Amarucanas. The Buff Orps are the sweetest and most hand tame, but also the most broody. We have a big welding glove we use to gather their eggs because they can be pretty fierce. Next would be the Barred Rocks for hand tame. I love the look of the Buttercups and the Amarucanas. 

Tried to get Austrolorps this spring because we heard such good things about their productivity, maybe next year. 

Selling the eggs does pretty much pay for the feed, and this time of year they eat all the over ripe produce from the garden. Sadly, we can not let ours free range for the bug control, but I love them anyway. We may have to get a "chicken tractor" so we can move a few around the garden and pastures.


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## A knack for horses

CHICKENNNN!!!!

I'm practically clueless when it comes to chickens, so all I can say is they have pretty feathers :lol:


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## Golden Horse

A knack for horses said:


> CHICKENNNN!!!!
> 
> I'm practically clueless when it comes to chickens, so all I can say is they have pretty feathers :lol:



They have feathers??, I thought they just came with a crispy coat of a secret blend of herbs and spices:wink:


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## Delfina

If I see one more chicken running through my kitchen with a squealing child in pursuit, I'll be trying my hand at figuring out the recipe for the secret herbs and spices.

I like chickens, but they do NOT need to come inside to say hi!!


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## A knack for horses

Golden Horse said:


> They have feathers??, I thought they just came with a crispy coat of a secret blend of herbs and spices:wink:


The KFC breed does :lol:


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## Squeakbar

Aww I love chickens! That last photo looks like my Black Star


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## Indyhorse

Maura, I'd like to get my flock up to about 35, that's what I am aiming for. I had a few of the buffs and 2 RIRs go broody earlier in the year, but none actually stuck with it long enough to hatch a nest out. That's part of why I want the cochins, since from what I hear they will sit about any nest, including those that aren't their own. It was get them or a few banties, and I worry about mixing the banties with the larger birds, since everything else I have will fall under the LF side of things. My new roo's dad was 17 lbs. :shock:

Delf, **** about chickens in the house! I have to chase them off the porch from time to time, but only had them sneak in my house once, thankfully.


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## DustyDiamond

Chickens are cute


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## maura

Indy, in re: chickens in the house:


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## Delfina

LOL Maura!!

Oh these chickens aren't "sneaking" in, more like small kiddo CARRIES them in, chicken makes a break for it and then runs for it's life with kiddo squealing and running after. 

Is there a way to tell a bantam from a regular chicken? I specifically requested no bantams as I want to let them free-range around the 10 fenced acres around the house. One of our chickens is much smaller than all the rest, very bright, alert, active and catches way more grasshoppers than the rest but it's tiny!


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## Indyhorse

Maura, when I ordered mine, I thought it was still like so many years ago (the last time I had chickens) that when you ordered pullets, you got 6 week old young hens. I had no idea they could sex tiny babies now and was shocked when my order came full of tiny day old chicks, had to scrabble to set up for them because I had thought I was getting older birds that could go right in the henhouse. So I had them in a make-shift brooder made out of a dog bathtub in the closet in my bedroom. lol


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## Allison Finch

I love my chickens. All of them (nine hens) have a distinct personality and each has a name. Several of them are extremely people oriented. I respect the wishes of those who don't want handling. They will provide me eggs, until they are too ole. Then, they will have a nice long retirement on me. No stew pot for the hens who gave me their all for so long.

A few of my favs;

My cochin silkie crosses










My boss hen, Hannah, giving me the stinkeye!










Phyllis (as in Diller) having a bad hair day










My "Coop Diem"


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## Beauseant

Phyllis is gorgeous!!!! What kind of chicken is she.

The 22 chickens we board our horses with are all soooo fearless of the horses. The fly up on their backs and sit there. It's so cute. 

The Buff Orps are very much loners, they go off by themselves and do not like to be handled. The leghorns are insane, all squawky and flapping wings if you even LOOK in their direction. 

The friendliest are the Reds and the Barred rocks. We have one red and one rock that have NO fear of humans.....of course that means that when you try to shoo them away from something, they don't move. If you want to move them, you have to pick them up and carry them....cause stomping, shooing, running at them does NOTHING. They were handled since they were chicks, and have no fear of humans. Which is very annoying some days.:-x


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## JumperWithFire

Ah. I LOVE faverolles! Very jealous!


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## Indyhorse

Beauseant, answering for Allison here but I believe her Phyllis is a Polish Crested. My best friend used to have one she kept here named Trixie lol

Jumper, have so say I'm pretty fond of Pierre. I may be getting a couple faverolle hens, I like the roo so well. He's easy going and super hand tame. Of course, he's immature yet, so we'll see how it goes, but I do really like him so far.


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## JumperWithFire

If I remember correctly arnt favorolles eggs tinted with blue or green?


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## Indyhorse

Nope, faverolles lay lightly tinted eggs in the brown family, ranging from cream a pale brown eggs. 

Araucanas, their crossbred cousins Ameraucanas, and various other crosses of those 2 breeds with whatever (called Easter Eggers) are the only ones I know that have blue/green eggs.


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## ilovesonya

My dad has always always had chickens. My mom has told me that at one time he had close to 100 hens, along with 50 or so Turkey.
He got out of them for a few years, but I got him back into them. We raised Bantams and RIRs for a few years. 
We had originally bought 20 RIR hens in the spring from a local auction. They were probably around a year old. We were keeping them for egg production. That summer a neighbours dog got loose and chewed threw the wire and squeezed into the coop threw a 10 inch wide door we had for the hens. The dog killed all but 3 hens.  
A few weeks later we went to the auction we had bought the RIRs from, but all they had was Bantams. My dad was dead set on bringing home chickens, so we brought home 2 hens and 18 week old chicks.
The Bantams were the best mothers. We never lost a chick from that batch, even with having them free roam. Once one of the hens went broody, you could put anybody's eggs under them and they would treat them as their own, even the RIRs eggs.
We had to sell them all unfortunately due to moving, but I know that when I get chickens again, I want some Bantams.


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## Indyhorse

ilovesonya said:


> The Bantams were the best mothers. We never lost a chick from that batch, even with having them free roam. Once one of the hens went broody, you could put anybody's eggs under them and they would treat them as their own, even the RIRs eggs.
> We had to sell them all unfortunately due to moving, but I know that when I get chickens again, I want some Bantams.


That's the same thing I have heard about the Cochins, which is why I wanted some. Since my hens are free rangers and all on the big side of LF breeds, I am hesitant to run bantys out there with them. I'd worried they would get picked on too much. But Cochins are supposed to be the best brooders out of LF breeds, and same thing, will sit other nests. I brought a pair home last night, a blue laced cockeral and a black pullet. Hopefully going to get a dozen more in a week or two. After that, come spring I will probably segregate the cochin hens with the cochin roo and raise a few broods. Pictures of the two new kids coming shortly!


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## ilovesonya

We didn't have any trouble with the bants get picked on. Everybody got along right away. If there is trouble the bantams stuck up for themselves. Although we only had 3 RIRs, you have more of the big guys.


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## themacpack

ilovesonya said:


> We didn't have any trouble with the bants get picked on. Everybody got along right away. If there is trouble the bantams stuck up for themselves. Although we only had 3 RIRs, you have more of the big guys.


Yeah, if anything the bants we had suffered from "little dog syndrome" and if there was any bullying to be done, it was done by them -- cheeky little buggars.


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## Indyhorse

Here's the new kids (not named yet) The little blue is the new roo and the little black is the new hen. They have their fluffy butts starting to grow in, and they have their darling little pantaloons. Can't wait until they are fully feathered out!




























Also another pic of Pierre, cause he's getting awfully pretty.


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## ilovesonya

Found some pics of the Bantams that I had.
My dad was so proud of those spurs. I made him trim them after he showed me the pic though. I thought it wouldn't be very fair for the hens, since the other one was straight and I'm sure was hurting the hens backs.


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