This is a long lived dream come true. I have wanted to live on a farm, have livestock, and grow my own crops for as long as I could remember. We are a military family and have lived 'on post' for several years. We finally got tired of the hussle and bussle of living so cramped. This past summer we made the plunge and moved 'off post' to the county. We now have no neighbors and live in an area that allows us to farm and have our animals. We started in July with our first group of Ladies: Buella, Opal, Bettye, and Pearl. They are Sussex hens.
As time passes, and people find out that you have accommodations for animals you'll find people offering you animals. I find this extremely exciting and fun because you never know what you are going to get. For example, I got two super cute miniature roosters. They were about 8 inches tall at full size! Poor little guys had no idea that they are small.
Then I acquired a peachick! It took us some time to figure out what it was!
In October we decided to purchase more hens. I really enjoyed the birds and the fresh eggs are amazing. We did what most do and started looking locally and hit the jack-pot with Craigslist. I found a man who could no longer care for his birds due to health issues and had a huge flock that I could choose from. We got 8 more ladies: 2 leghorns, 1 Rhode Island Red, 1 polka dotted bird (I still have no idea what she is), 1 Wyandotte hen (who was my pride), 3 Rhode Island Whites. They were a little older than I wanted, but still dependable layers.
After all the excitement of new birds, we had tragedy, we were raided by bears. There was a momma and 2 babies. They got Pete (our peachick) and Mac (white miniature rooster).
After much debate we decided that we wanted to go all out and start a chicken farm, not a big commercial production, but a nice small natural farm. I want to have an establishment with healthy, friendly, and loving birds. I want people to be able to meet the hens that their eggs are coming from. I also want to have a regular rotation of birds for people to purchase and for meat. With all this said now the decision to make was to figure out which breed was best suited for all this and whether to purchase or build a barn. We live in upstate New York so the weather is a HUGE factor. After much research we chose the Wyandottes. They are beautiful, friendly, winter hearty, reasonable layers, and good meat. They are also a Recovering Breed. They are hard to find, but are worth it.
In November I found a lady who bred Wyandottes and was wanting to weed out a few roosters. She would not sell me bird, she wanted to trade hens for the rooster. So we drove to Mexico and traded Pearl and Opal. I was devastated to lose 2 of my original ladies, but when I saw him I realized he was completely worth it.
You are smiling, aren't you! I know I am! I love this rooster and smile every time I see him.
Then came the issue of a barn. We looked at several options, and could not find anything that suited our needs so we built one that gave us the options we were wanting. I needed one stall for my chickens that had storage above for hay and my travel cages, one stall with open rafters for peacocks for perching, and a storage area and shelving for chick boxes and incubators. After much work and pain it is finally up!
It may not look like much right now, but it will when we are finished. It still needs more paint and cosmetic work, but that will have to wait till the snow melts in the Spring. It took longer to build than we planned, but I guess that's how everything goes. It is 12 feet by 22 feet and 12 feet tall.
The orange chicken pictured is the Buff Orpington rooster.
I am so excited about this barn!
After we finally moved the chickens from the small coop to the barn, I found a lady who was needed to re-home a Buff Orpington rooster so I got him to put with my odd ball lot of hens. Now they had a rooster, and I had a rooster in the other stall for my future Wyandotte flock.
I started looking to build my Wyandotte flock when I learned you can order day old chicks online and have them delivered. The only problem was that it is so cold here, the shipping was going to be an issue. A few weeks ago Husband and I were standing in Tractor Supply looking at chicken stuff and picking up feed when a little man randomly walked up and asked if we were in the market for buying more chickens. He said he had over fifty and they were all still laying even though it's winter. We agreed to follow him to him to his home and see what he had, because he had no idea what breed they were, but we can always use layers no matter what breed. When he opened his coop door I thought I was to going to dance with joy. He had a coop full of WYANDOTTES! I was so stoked! There were 16 total, but one of the Wyandottes was a real 'spirited' rooster so we bought all 15 hens. My opinion is the only good 'spirited' rooster is a dead rooster. There is no sense in being rude, especially because I feed, love, and take care of you. Some of the hens are a little beat up and need some extra love, but they are so beautiful.
After a few days of being in their new home they started laying, and I put the new eggs in my new incubator. I have never hatched eggs before and am hoping for the best. I will definitely keep you updated.
So now you are up to speed with my chicken history. I'm hoping that this new year will bring lots of chicken fun and love.
Happy New Year!
