Another Chicken Hobby Entry* Tim, Faith, First Babies

Now it is time for a more upbeat entry. Lets talk chicken! :)

Ian has a friend at work that had an extra incubator he never used anymore. He asked Ian if I would like to use it. I had never thought about hatching my own, but this might be the start of something big, I really liked this idea. Ian brought the incubator home and I put egg after egg in there that I collected from Faith. The babies hatched in the wintertime so after they were about two and a half months old I put them in the garage in huge wooden boxes that Ian had gotten from work. They throw away all kinds of good stuff at his work, so I was happy to get these crates. With heat lamps and the shelter of the garage they were just fine over the winter. I hatched with the intention of selling them after they had filled out nicely. That was harder than I expected. This was my first hatch, my first babies. I did manage to sell all of the boys and kept some of the girls for line breeding with their father. You can do that with chickens. No brother sister breeding, but put the offspring with the parent and you actually can get some good birds out of it, sometimes better than the parent itself. I kept one young roo and put him with his mom. Now I could get a more diverse line and more eggs when it came time for another hatch.

Here are the first babies. I dont know why, but for some reason I didnt ever take pictures of them as little tiny things.

Here are the girls...

 

The next picture is of all the boys...

 

I put an ad in the Market Bulletin and within a few hours of that farm newspaper going out they were all spoken for. It was so hard to see them go. Since then other hatches have been easier for me as I dont keep them for months before selling them. Selling them as chicks keeps me from getting too attached.

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February 2006...my first Poultry Show. I knew nothing about showing...but I read up on it and found lots of tips on showing. This opened up a whole new door of chicken ownership for me. There were so many breeds, so many birds...it was just fantastic, a poultry lovers paradise.

Here is Tim, I took these pictures before the show that morning I believe.

 

Below is Faith all pretty for the show...

 

and one more of them in their show pens during the show.

 

Now I realize that some folks have been around here or known me before here and have seen and heard this story...and seen these pictures...but I lost that old journal and I want a full account of all my gals and guys on this journal, so pardon me if you have seen this before.