Coop Scoop

Again, time has slipped through my fingers. I haven't posted all spring/summer. My bad! Anyways, back in March I decided to take on chickens. Yes you heard right, chickens! I have always wanted to do some kind of hobby farming, goats was going to be my first venture, but decided on chickens. I just wanted to have them for the eggs, not for meat. Raising them for meat just makes no sense to me, not worth the money in my opinion. Unless I was going to do the butchering myself, then I could see it being worth while, but I REALLY have no interest right now for that.
So Darren cleaned up a corner in the old pig barn and made it into a room for a coop! He did awesome! We got our first batch of chickens from friends of ours, six leghorns and a roo. I was pretty excited! We then got another batch from the same friends, six ISA Browns! So much nicer looking than the leghorns!
So time went by, egg production was okay. I was selling eggs to a few people for $2 a dozen. Then the chickens started dying, not sure if from old age or something else. Egg production slowed down of course so we need more chickens.
Went to the Odd and Unusual sale in Thorsby in the spring looking for Americaunas. They lay the blue/green eggs! Saw a couple there I wanted but they went for over $20 a chicken! Way too expensive.
Then a friend told me about a woman selling chickens for $7 each. So we went to her place and picked up a mix of 7 chickens and another roo (half Americauna!!) There were a few Americauna hens in the mix too! (future plan is to hatch these eggs and sell chickens at auction)
The original rooster I had didn't like the new one we got, he bullied him hard! lol He wasn't letting him eat or drink. The new one was getting pretty weak and could barely walk, so we decided to kick the old rooster out of the coop. He lasted a couple days before he disappeared. I was a little upset about that. I loved his personality and his pretty colors. Oh well. There will be others I guess.
So I had a pretty good flock! Summer flew by and I was getting about 9 eggs a day. A few more chickens died late summer. I picked up a couple more customers!
Then this fall with the less daytime light egg production dropped to only 2 or 3 eggs a day. More chickens were needed!
Found a lady selling 8 Rhode Island Reds for only $1 each!! We picked them up on friday. I was so excited! They are beautiful birds!! And so friendly. Everytime I go in the coop two of them hang around me the whole time and peck at me a bit. It's too funny. So we were at 19 hens and the roo.
Then we found more ( yes more!lol) just on the next road from us! Just some white leghorns. I was kind of shocked when we went to pick them up. It was a little room with about 300 chickens in cages, 3 to each cage. They have no neck feathers because of them reaching through the cages to eat their food. We bought 15 for only $10! Brought them home and incorporated them into the coop with the others. Well, these leghorns have never been out of their cages so they all just huddle together in a corner. They don't know how to use nesting boxes so they just lay eggs wherever they are standing. Some have gotten squashed and eaten by the other chickens. Not sure if they will learn the nesting box behavior or not. I'm hoping so! The roo is picking on them quite a bit, but I'm sure he will simmer down soon. So now we have 34 hens and a roo! Yesterday 13 eggs!
So there is a quick overview of the coop. Pictures will come soon!
Chow for now! Gotta go gather some eggs! : )