On April 1st we got the first of our flock. Over the next 10 days we named them all. Josh and I sat down and drafted a long list of women from fantasy and science fiction novels. I’d suggested naming them after herbs like lavender and chamomile, but Josh wasn’t as enthused about that. I love the names we decided on.
I spent the weeks before getting our chicks frantically researching. It’s all I would talk about. I spoke to everyone I knew who had raised chickens before. I was scared something bad but preventable might happen.
I carefully chose the breeds we would get. Buff Orpingtons are docile and friendly, but very productive layers of light brown eggs. Black Australorps are known for the cold hardiness, calm, and for laying roughly 250 eggs per year. Easter Eggers (Americauna/Aracauna) lay beautiful bluish eggs, are very friendly, and have these fluffy cheeks that are so endearing. I decided on 2 of each.
I called the feed store several times in anticipation of the date we’d get our flock. I called to find out roughly when their next shipment would arrive, then the day before the shipment to confirm, and finally the morning of to make sure I knew when the chicks would be put on the floor. I took a long lunch from work and raced to the store as soon as I was able, arriving just after 1:00 pm. There weren’t many chicks in brooders when I got there. Didn’t they tell me there would be 600 chicks put out around noon? When I was able to speak with an employee I was met with a chuckle that I should’ve seen the place an hour ago. We weren’t the only household to decide to finally get chickens during a global pandemic.
They had less than 100 birds of fewer than 6 varieties available(and some ducks!). I walked around and memorized the names of the breeds I wasn’t familiar with. I decided to walk out to my car, take a deep breath, and do some googling. Should I change the breeds I’d selected? Would I be able to find the breeds I’d originally chosen later? Could my excitement wait?
I started googling. “Leghorn Chicken about” Productive, adventurous, not cuddly, independent, flighty, prolific egg layers, white eggs. Flighty isn’t ideal since we have trees in the backyard, but for the most part that actually sounds good. “Blue Andalusian chicken” Active, gentle, capable, white eggs, a rare beauty, enjoys it’s freedom and foraging, doesn’t like being picked up but friendly. I do want to have a couple friendly chickens. I raced back into the store, find a different employee, and ask for 2 Blue Andulusians and 1 Leghorn. Maybe I can still get the 3 breeds I’d chosen, later. These varieties sound like they are actually a good fit for chickens who will free range around our property.
The 3 little chicks peeped unhappily the entire drive home. I quickly got them into my homemade brooder (a plastic box with pine shavings and heat lamp), got them water, probiotics, and food, then let them be.
They were so fuzzy, small, and incredibly fun to watch. On the first day, I tried to reach my hand slowly into their space and let them nibble food off my palm. They felt so small and fragile I was nervous to do much more. Everyone pooped! Everyone was eating. They seemed warm enough. All was well.
The next morning I met first hand what I had already read. Chicken care is all about the vent. One of the chicks had a partially pasted up vent. She needed to be cleaned in order to prevent her from getting sick from being blocked. I think I’ll spare the details here, but that was the beginning of daily butt checks and near daily rinsing of squawking chicks in warm water for a week.
On April 3rd I went to a different feed store that was expecting a shipment of chicks. They couldn’t tell me what breeds would be available over the phone. I arrived right as the feed store opened, and all the breeds they’d received were still available. They didn’t have Easter Eggers, Australorps, or Orpingtons. Trips to the feed store for these chickens and their supplies were the only times I had left the house for several weeks at this point. We were self isolating due to the coronavirus, and had anticipated the government restrictions sufficiently enough to be well stocked on all our necessities. Leaving the house again in order to find the breeds I had selected was not a great option. At home we had all white egg layers, and so I quickly narrowed my googling to the brown egg laying options. They had Marans; I had heard of those. They have dark brown eggs, cold hardy and fairly friendly. That was an easy selection. Wyandottes were already on my list of possibilities too. They are easy going, cold hardy, docile, but they are pretty large. That should be fine. I still wanted at least one chicken that is exceptionally friendly, and so I chose a Cochin. They are friendly birds with feathered feet and a tendency toward getting fat. Perfect.
Early on, I had decided I wanted a mixed flock. I didn’t know at first if that was responsible; was I opening myself up to potential issues by having multiple breeds of hens together? For the most part, my research confirmed that a mixed flock would be a good fit for us. Having different breeds will certainly impact the pecking order of our hens, smaller birds will likely be lower than larger ones. Some of our hens will have different needs than others, but for the most part those obstacles are manageable. The benefits will be greater than the risks, in our case. We will be able to tell all our birds apart at a glance, which will make it easier to monitor ongoing health concerns and injuries closely. Most of our layers will have different egg types, and so we will be able to monitor their production health and abnormalities better. Their personalities also seem more distinct because they look different.
We had our mixed flock! It was more mixed than I’d anticipated. The first week I spent worried I wouldn’t keep them all alive. We were fortunate that no bird had serious obstacles to overcome in order to live. The Maran chick, who we later named Denna, was a little lethargic for the first couple days. We watched her closely, and fed her a little bit of egg yolk. Having days old chicks helped me to better educate myself on chicken life cycles. There’s a small white spot within the egg yolk. That spot is the egg cell, and it develops into the chicken. The yolk is what provides food for the chick while it grows within its shell. Within a few days of some extra care, Denna perked up.
Every day I notice changes in them. Their feathers grow, they get heavier, and they eat more.
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| Malta 1 Week Old |
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| Bee 1 Week Old |
 |
| Vin 1 Week Old |
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| Denna 1 Week Old |
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| Auri 1 Week Old |
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| Luna 1 Week Old |
I carefully chose the breeds we would get. Buff Orpingtons are docile and friendly, but very productive layers of light brown eggs. Black Australorps are known for the cold hardiness, calm, and for laying roughly 250 eggs per year. Easter Eggers (Americauna/Aracauna) lay beautiful bluish eggs, are very friendly, and have these fluffy cheeks that are so endearing. I decided on 2 of each.
I called the feed store several times in anticipation of the date we’d get our flock. I called to find out roughly when their next shipment would arrive, then the day before the shipment to confirm, and finally the morning of to make sure I knew when the chicks would be put on the floor. I took a long lunch from work and raced to the store as soon as I was able, arriving just after 1:00 pm. There weren’t many chicks in brooders when I got there. Didn’t they tell me there would be 600 chicks put out around noon? When I was able to speak with an employee I was met with a chuckle that I should’ve seen the place an hour ago. We weren’t the only household to decide to finally get chickens during a global pandemic.
They had less than 100 birds of fewer than 6 varieties available(and some ducks!). I walked around and memorized the names of the breeds I wasn’t familiar with. I decided to walk out to my car, take a deep breath, and do some googling. Should I change the breeds I’d selected? Would I be able to find the breeds I’d originally chosen later? Could my excitement wait?
I started googling. “Leghorn Chicken about” Productive, adventurous, not cuddly, independent, flighty, prolific egg layers, white eggs. Flighty isn’t ideal since we have trees in the backyard, but for the most part that actually sounds good. “Blue Andalusian chicken” Active, gentle, capable, white eggs, a rare beauty, enjoys it’s freedom and foraging, doesn’t like being picked up but friendly. I do want to have a couple friendly chickens. I raced back into the store, find a different employee, and ask for 2 Blue Andulusians and 1 Leghorn. Maybe I can still get the 3 breeds I’d chosen, later. These varieties sound like they are actually a good fit for chickens who will free range around our property.
The 3 little chicks peeped unhappily the entire drive home. I quickly got them into my homemade brooder (a plastic box with pine shavings and heat lamp), got them water, probiotics, and food, then let them be.
They were so fuzzy, small, and incredibly fun to watch. On the first day, I tried to reach my hand slowly into their space and let them nibble food off my palm. They felt so small and fragile I was nervous to do much more. Everyone pooped! Everyone was eating. They seemed warm enough. All was well.
The next morning I met first hand what I had already read. Chicken care is all about the vent. One of the chicks had a partially pasted up vent. She needed to be cleaned in order to prevent her from getting sick from being blocked. I think I’ll spare the details here, but that was the beginning of daily butt checks and near daily rinsing of squawking chicks in warm water for a week.
On April 3rd I went to a different feed store that was expecting a shipment of chicks. They couldn’t tell me what breeds would be available over the phone. I arrived right as the feed store opened, and all the breeds they’d received were still available. They didn’t have Easter Eggers, Australorps, or Orpingtons. Trips to the feed store for these chickens and their supplies were the only times I had left the house for several weeks at this point. We were self isolating due to the coronavirus, and had anticipated the government restrictions sufficiently enough to be well stocked on all our necessities. Leaving the house again in order to find the breeds I had selected was not a great option. At home we had all white egg layers, and so I quickly narrowed my googling to the brown egg laying options. They had Marans; I had heard of those. They have dark brown eggs, cold hardy and fairly friendly. That was an easy selection. Wyandottes were already on my list of possibilities too. They are easy going, cold hardy, docile, but they are pretty large. That should be fine. I still wanted at least one chicken that is exceptionally friendly, and so I chose a Cochin. They are friendly birds with feathered feet and a tendency toward getting fat. Perfect.
Early on, I had decided I wanted a mixed flock. I didn’t know at first if that was responsible; was I opening myself up to potential issues by having multiple breeds of hens together? For the most part, my research confirmed that a mixed flock would be a good fit for us. Having different breeds will certainly impact the pecking order of our hens, smaller birds will likely be lower than larger ones. Some of our hens will have different needs than others, but for the most part those obstacles are manageable. The benefits will be greater than the risks, in our case. We will be able to tell all our birds apart at a glance, which will make it easier to monitor ongoing health concerns and injuries closely. Most of our layers will have different egg types, and so we will be able to monitor their production health and abnormalities better. Their personalities also seem more distinct because they look different.
We had our mixed flock! It was more mixed than I’d anticipated. The first week I spent worried I wouldn’t keep them all alive. We were fortunate that no bird had serious obstacles to overcome in order to live. The Maran chick, who we later named Denna, was a little lethargic for the first couple days. We watched her closely, and fed her a little bit of egg yolk. Having days old chicks helped me to better educate myself on chicken life cycles. There’s a small white spot within the egg yolk. That spot is the egg cell, and it develops into the chicken. The yolk is what provides food for the chick while it grows within its shell. Within a few days of some extra care, Denna perked up.
Every day I notice changes in them. Their feathers grow, they get heavier, and they eat more.
 |
| Vin Breed: Buff Wyandotte 2 Weeks Old |
 |
| Luna Breed: Cochin 2 Weeks Old |
 |
| Bee Breed: Brown Leghorn 2 Weeks Old |
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| Malta Breed: Blue Andalusian 2 Weeks Old |
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| Auri Breed: Blue Andalusian 2 Weeks Old |
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| Denna Breed: Maran 2 Weeks Old |
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