Introducing...us!

Hello and welcome to Chicken Crazy in Oregon!

We are what some would classify as an "urban homestead" if one would consider Brownsville to be urban.  LOL

Our family of five is working towards becoming more and more self-sustaining all the time so last year we decided to get few chickens so that we could enjoy some fresh eggs and then also have the chicken poo for compost and eventually our garden.  This is where the craziness all began...

We had so much fun with the three chicks (Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, Buff Orpington) that each of the kids picked out and then one turned out to be a rooster.  How disappointing!   So, we thought we need to replace that one rooster and get another chick about the same age.  Well, by that time in the summer nobody seemed to be selling chicks.  We found one man selling a pullet so we bought it and then another lady contacted me saying she had chicks. Yeah!  We then purchased 3 chicks from her and low and behold a few months later, 2 turned out to be roosters!  Geez....

By this time, we were loving the chickens, their individual personalities and of course the eggs we were getting every day.  So, we added 2 more hens from a friend, 6 more chicks from another friend and a month later purchased some more hens and chicks.  At this point, we wondering how crazy we were and how much crazier this chicken thing was going to get!

A friend inspired us to incubate and hatch out chicks and that has been a truly amazing experience.  Watching them work their way out of the egg and wobble around for a few hours is fascinating every time.  We STILL get excited for each chick when hatching and the whole family goes to watch it come out into the world.

So, that is where we currently are on our crazy journey.

In the hen house we have the following hens:
Rhode Island Red
Buff Orpington
Black Sex Link
Turkens
Black Copper Marans
Blue Copper Marans

 Turkin and Perry

Black Sex Link hen and Perry eating cabbage

Buff Orpington hen

Blue Copper Marans and Black Copper Marans hens

Our rooster Perry is a Birchen Marans

We have the following "teenagers" in another coop:
1 Black Orpington
1 Splash Orpington
3 Blue Orpingtons

In the "chick" coop (4 weeks old) we have:
1 Black Copper Marans
1 Birchen Marans

I know the one in this picture has really odd coloring, but I'm really curious to see how it turns out.  I'll have to put an updated picture up in a few weeks.

In the "nursery" we have:
1 Turken mix
3 Easter Eggers
5 Birchen Marans
6 Mixed Breeds