Introducing our girls

I thought after talking about my girls in the pasta blog I would introduce them too you.

one of my babies only a day old

We have 15 girls of 1 year old and 19 pullets (babies I call them). At this stage we have no fully grown roosters but there is a rooster amongst the babies. We look like we are going to keep him.

Our Rooster - still a baby

One of our 1 year old Girls

Our only white girl (kids call her Snowy)

When you start thinking about getting chickens you can't just go to a market, select the cutest and bring them home. Oh no, there is allot more too it.

Firstly you need to check with your local council for rules and regulations regarding back yard chickens so I suggest you do your research first!

Professional set up

Home at last

My set up (we sit the light on top)

Time to bring them home? If there young you will need a light, a good sized home (old fish tank if its big enough) or just a cardboard box. You will need to cover the top with wire so the air can flow freely and you will need water and food containers. You also need to look around and choose a produce you are happy with for food and any questions you have (and you will have plenty!) I am not going to go into all that too much as I am more about the cooking than the research on chickens.

Our coop, it started as an old playground

Our girls and there perches

When they're older they will need a decent place to live outside with plenty of room for scratching and roosting.

Not to mention the laying boxes where they will lay their eggs. As it turns out they will happily share (sometimes laying in one box at the same time!). 

Homemade laying boxes

Oh and they will make allot of mess. You will need to clean out the coop at least every few weeks. If you keep it clean they shouldn't smell too much but after allot of rain or hot weather it may very well start to get on the nose.

Checking out the adults cage

One of the babies feeling the freedom!

I use a dog kennel for the baby's at night

Collecting the eggs. I personally do this every day. If I am home I will go down a few times in the day to collect them. I don't like to leave them there as we have had the occasional problem with eating there own eggs.

See the difference?

Fun with eggs

Some of our collected eggs

 This seems to happen mostly when the egg is not viable (for example it is rubbery instead of hard) but to be honest I really am not sure why they do it.

Sorry not edible, but great for the worm farm!

  

Do be aware if you have older girls and you bring in new girls or younger ones, you must let them get use to each other before you put them together. If you don't you may have trouble on your hands. 

My poor baby. I can report she has fully recovered and has feathers!

They don't like new friends. I have left my babies in the coop beside them for a while and they will be there for 4 months before I let them together permanently. They have been introduced a few times but not for long amounts of time and not all the adults with all the babies.

Our girls love getting out and about

And then you have to decide, am I going to let them out into my yard? Personally I prefer them to get out and roam around. They dig up the weeds, find all sorts of good things to eat, and it is much better for them and there eggs.

As you can see I love my girls, they were even at our wedding!