Happy Monday friends! Today I wanted to kick off a new series on my blog where I share in more detail what raising chickens for the first time has been like. I try to keep everyone updated via Instagram stories but I wanted to share my journey via blog posts. I look at these as more journal entry like so they will be very casual!
When I decided to buy chickens I never imagined how much I’d learn and how much I’d enjoy it! I’m the type of person that if I’m going to do something I try to give it my all. Raising backyard chickens is no exception. I have now read countless articles, listened to podcast and invested hours on Pinterest trying to better understand my newest hobby. I want to share my newfound knowledge with you and maybe help someone that is also new to raising chickens.
In these chronicles I will update you on what I’m currently reading, what I have purchased for my chickens, and lessons learned the hard way. In my six months of owning chickens I have already learned SO MUCH!
I hope you enjoy my chronicles and maybe, just maybe, you learn something new about backyard chickens!
Lesson Learned: Chickens Get Into Everything
This past week we learned yet a new valuable lesson- nothing is safe from chickens. I always knew chickens were curious little things but I never thought they would be straight up destructive! Rose recently got diarrhea again and we think we figured out why….foam insulation. This can be very dangerous for any animal so it makes sense why she got sick. As you can see in this picture they ate down to the brass pipe! Our temporary fix is to cover it with chicken wire until we figure out what to do.
Another thing they have been destroying lately is my small herb garden. They already destroyed our vegetable garden but now they moved onto my herbs. They weren’t necessarily eating my herbs but more just taking dirt baths in them! I decided to re-home my herbs on our covered, outdoor porch where they will be safe from the chickens.
Predator Spotting: Hawks
One of the good things about where we live is we have very little predators. We might see the occasional opossum but other than that we don’t really have any dangerous predators. Or so I thought.
A couple months ago we saw a pretty big hawk in our yard standing over something it had killed. At first my heart sank because all I saw were gray feathers so I immediately thought the hawk got Sophia. I ran outside as quick as I could and scared the hawk away. The hawk took whatever it had killed with it so I didn’t get to see what it was BUT it was not Sophia. Turns out it was a mocking bird that was his victim. I was a little nervous about the hawk but figured it was only hunting small birds and my chickens were far too big.
Fast forward three months later. Drew and I usually leave the girls out all day and not worry about anything. That was until a few nights ago when we heard the girls going crazy so we ran outside to see what was happening. Everyone was hiding and we saw a huge hawk on our fence. We immediately ran at it but it took us getting pretty close for it to finally fly away. We saw some feathers behind the coop but quickly found all 4 of our girls. We don’t know exactly what happened but all the clues lead us to believe one of them was attacked.
Since that happened we’ve been paying very close attention to hawk activity in our neighborhood. Just today, as I was sitting on the back porch drinking coffee, I saw a hawk land on the chicken coop! It almost seemed like it fell from the tree above the coop and accidentally landed on it but regardless, I started yelling at it to leave! Our poor neighbors probably think I am a crazy woman!!
Unfortunately there is not much you can do to deter hawks from coming after your chickens. That of course does not stop me from taking every possible precaution! I added a big scarecrow to our yard and an owl to hopefully help but hawks are very smart birds. The only thing that can truly scare a hawk away are crows so I bought some realistic looking crow toys to put around the yard. Hopefully they will fool the hawk into thinking crows just like to hangout with us!
Alvin the Chipmunk
This is non-chicken related but two weeks ago we rescued an orphan chipmunk from our yard. I have no idea where it came from but I think my chickens might have dug up its nest. He was in the middle of the yard when my dogs found him. He looked in really bad shape- malnourished, dehydrated and weak. I quickly called various wildlife centers but none were accepting chipmunks. I was advised to feed it puppy replacement milk and keep it warm.
I am happy to update you that the orphan chipmunk, Alvin, is doing great! We have now had him for two weeks and he is almost ready to be released. I have moved him into a large plastic container and created a realistic home for him full of straw, leaves, sticks and seeds. I am still giving him formula once per day to make sure he is getting enough nutrition. He is SUPER fast and hard to catch so that is also why I had to cut back to one feed per day. But he is doing great and getting stronger each day!
I hope you like reading my new chicken chronicles! If you ever have a specific chicken related subject you’d like me to write about, please let me know!
Xo,
Can you please tell me if you are happy with your watering/feeding system and how long the water/food lasts for how many chickens? You are still using those white tubes…right????