We'd been discussing getting chickens for awhile, but hadn't made any firm plans. Yesterday I had planned a trip to see Lila, but it got canceled for unforeseen reasons and the Logger showed up shortly afterwards for donuts for the Boy. His friend (The Crabber, because again that's what he does) has been working to fix up the chicken coop, and the Boy and I went along with them to town to get some supplies. We stopped at the feed store to look around, and they had just gotten a couple batches of chicks. Before we knew it, we somehow were walking out of the feed store with 15 chicks and all the various supplies.
We got 8 white egg layers, and 7 brown egg layers. 8 are white, 6 are yellowish and one is black (so the boy can easily identify his). I'm not sure which breed they are because we forget to ask, so if you know, please let me know. Their names are Chicken (the Boys), LouAnne, Turtle, Drumstick, Noodle, Poopbutt, Scramble, McNugget, Omelet, Benedict, Poachy, Shelly, Huevo, Yoko and Dark Meat.
The chicks are staying in my garage for a bit until the weather gets warmer and we've finished the coop. It's actually sort of sweet to go in the garage and hear "peep peep peep-peep-peep". They have all survived so far (have I mentioned I'm pretty adept at killing things completely on accident?) but I figure since none of us know much about chickens it'll be a little trial and error least for a while.
Keep your fingers cross, and I'll pray to the Chicken Gods.
At least we come up with cool names, like Helga the Commie, or Maggie... The Logger? Is this a 1960's serial superhero cartoon?
ReplyDeleteYou are doing better then I am. Ryan makes creative names and yours are really their occupations. I choose random names for people then they are stuck with them....MUAHHHHHHH.
ReplyDeleteWe've had almost 3 dozen in the kitchen for the last few weeks. They've been on the back porch for about 2 days now.
ReplyDeleteWe've got another 30 eggs in the incubator scheduled to start hatching Thursday. We'll see what we get from that experiment.
Ryan the 2L: Helga is not a good name. And you didn't come up with Maggy so there. You don't even spell it right.
ReplyDeleteTOR: Your random names are fine. Ryan's just mad because he thinks he's cooler then he actually is.
Bitmap: I'm really hoping these 15 make it and are enough for my purposes. I'm paranoid enough about these ones, I don't want to worry about more of them.
Chicks can't keep themselves warm until they're fully feathered out, and they're susceptible to respiratory illnesses if exposed to cold temperatures too early. If you're new to chicken keeping, I highly recommend "Chickens in Your Backyard" by Rick & Gail Luttman. It was a life saver for me when I lived in the country and got into chicken keeping back in the day.
ReplyDeletePS: Found you via The Hermit!
It will be easier to know what you have after they get theri adult feathers. If you really want to know just call the store & ask.
ReplyDeleteMiz Minka: I actually ordered that book and it should be here tomorrow, so I'm glad I picked a good one. I figure to have them in my garage for at least another few weeks. Pretty soon I'm going to have to be more creative about their living situation, but other then that they seem to be enjoying themselves.
ReplyDeleteStephanie: I'm probably heading to the feed store in the next couple days (flu spread permitting) so I will probably just ask then. I think the whites were Americanas? I'm mostly just horrible with names, I should have written them down.