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| Yummy birthday treats for our girls |
We have had so much fun and have learned so much throughout our first year with chickens. So grateful that we survived a year without any major setbacks or predator attacks. Everyone is alive(!), healthy and happy. And we love having these pets that also provide us with eggs for breakfast!
They arrived in the U.S. Mail (yes, the mail!) as baby chicks and it's been great to watch them grow.
Here are some flashback photos....
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| The box they arrived in thru the mail, and the brooder we set up for them. |
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| Such cute and tiny babies! |
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| Teenagers. Old enough to live in the big coop, but not laying eggs yet. |
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| All grown up! Our original seven hens. Such good girls. |
1. Reese
2. Minerva Louise
3. Gertrude
4. Mayzie
5. Daffodil
6. Penelope
7. Buttercup
What a difference a year makes! Now the pecking order is:
1. Buttercup
2. Gertrude
3. Mayzie
4. Reese
5. Penelope
6. Minerva Louise
7. Daffodil
Buttercup has had the biggest transformation. She started off as one of the shyest, meekest chicks (in fact, we were worried that she wasn't going to survive her first night here) and now she is the biggest, loudest chicken in the bunch!
And Reese started off as our tiny chick with a big attitude and now she's grown into a very calm, no drama kind of hen.
I'm so glad we started off small, and really got to experience the personalities of our hens. Ryan always comments when he sees videos of those big factory chicken farms, "Do you think they all have different personalities like our chickens do? It's so sad that no one ever gets to know them." Very sweet.
I've also been really happy that we chose lots of different breeds. I love having colorful eggs and being able to recognize who's laying which eggs.
Which actually brings me to Glen Hill Farm's next big news....
We were very happy to welcome 3 new chicks to our flock last Saturday! We got 2 Silver Grey Dorking chicks (who will lay white eggs) and 1 more Easter Egger chick (whose eggs will be a shade of green or possibly light blue.) They have been doing great, and are very happy in our brooder.
This Friday, we are planning to add 2 more chicks who will be Welsummer chicks (they will lay dark brown eggs.) These 2 chicks we may try to let our very broody hen, Mayzie, adopt as her own. She's been brooding for a few weeks now, so the timing is really good. The chicks we just adopted were a bit too old to sneak under Mayzie. I think she would know that they weren't from the (fake) eggs she's sitting on now, and I didn't want to take the chance that she would reject or harm them. But we're very excited to see if she will accept the Welsummer chicks next weekend. Fingers crossed!
What a difference a year makes! Now the pecking order is:
1. Buttercup
2. Gertrude
3. Mayzie
4. Reese
5. Penelope
6. Minerva Louise
7. Daffodil
Buttercup has had the biggest transformation. She started off as one of the shyest, meekest chicks (in fact, we were worried that she wasn't going to survive her first night here) and now she is the biggest, loudest chicken in the bunch!
And Reese started off as our tiny chick with a big attitude and now she's grown into a very calm, no drama kind of hen.
I'm so glad we started off small, and really got to experience the personalities of our hens. Ryan always comments when he sees videos of those big factory chicken farms, "Do you think they all have different personalities like our chickens do? It's so sad that no one ever gets to know them." Very sweet.
I've also been really happy that we chose lots of different breeds. I love having colorful eggs and being able to recognize who's laying which eggs.
Which actually brings me to Glen Hill Farm's next big news....
We were very happy to welcome 3 new chicks to our flock last Saturday! We got 2 Silver Grey Dorking chicks (who will lay white eggs) and 1 more Easter Egger chick (whose eggs will be a shade of green or possibly light blue.) They have been doing great, and are very happy in our brooder.
This Friday, we are planning to add 2 more chicks who will be Welsummer chicks (they will lay dark brown eggs.) These 2 chicks we may try to let our very broody hen, Mayzie, adopt as her own. She's been brooding for a few weeks now, so the timing is really good. The chicks we just adopted were a bit too old to sneak under Mayzie. I think she would know that they weren't from the (fake) eggs she's sitting on now, and I didn't want to take the chance that she would reject or harm them. But we're very excited to see if she will accept the Welsummer chicks next weekend. Fingers crossed!
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