New Chicken Owner!

[gemtheblonde]

hello everyone, i was on these boards a few months ago talking about getting chickens and im proud to announce that i am now the new owner of 3 lovely lohman browns hens! Gloria, Stella and Elizabeth have been settling into their new home and have already laid 2 eggs for me! Gloria made a right fuss over it tho and was so loud i gave my first 2 eggs to my neighbours by way of apology for her loudness!!

Hope they settle in well and the eggs keep coming! need to sort out a good flooring for them at tho. what all do you put on the floor to their runs? our run is on concrete slabs with a whole load of dirt thrown on the top at the min till i find sumthing better to use. they seem to be quite enjoying it tho - been scratching about and dusting themselves down.

not very cleanly tho are they? one did a MASSIVE poop earlier and walked right thru it trailing it everywhere. i can tell she will need a manicure by the end of the week! lol

gxx

[MrsC]

Hi Gem

Congratulations on the new girls, where are the pics????

Can you pull up some of the concrete slabs? Just a thought. You will spend lots of time watching them and just a word of warning, they are addictive! Ask anyone on here and they'll tell you

[gemtheblonde]

i have a few pics but im not very clued up with msg boards!! lol i havent a clue how to post them! if sumone tells me then ill stick them up!! i only have a wee coop and run cos we live in a built up area, not much room but we are hoping to get the veg patch fenced off so we can let them free range in there a few hours a day (under close inspection that they are not eating my veggies!!)

i spent about an hour staring at them when we got home and watched gloria go mental in the run. she was rubbing her beak up and down the wire and looking all stressed out. felt awful and i went away in to go and get my lunch feeling all deflated to be interupted by her making a right racket! i then went out to see what was going on and my fiance looked in the nest box to see 2 lovely eggs!!! she was all stressed out cos the min we got them out the box and in their new house stella had gone straight to the nest box and i think gloria was raging that she'd nowhere to lay! but i think they will figure it out with time and hopefully she will not make such a racket in time! i had to give away my first eggs to the neighbours so that they didnt come after me with pitchforks at dawn!!

am very pleased they have settled in so well tho, iv just been to check them and they have taken themselves off to bed! very clever girls!!

i could lift the slabs but my fiance had laid them thinking it would be easier to clean the run out if the slabs were there. they seem to enjoy kicking the dirt and muck about so far tho, will see how it goes and if its rubbish then ill ask him to lift the slabs.

[janeyo]

Give the first ones away! Sacriledge!

Enjoy your girls... they will give you HOURS of pleasure

[gemtheblonde]

i know! i was gutted but i kind of felt it was the right thing to do as they are being very good about us keeping them!!

i think i may have discovered how to post a pic!! go me! lol if it goes wrong tho i do apologise!

i only have pics of Elizabeth as Stella and Gloria were squabbling on first dibs of the nesting box in the coop at this point. would it be worth while getting a big plant pot and fill it with bedding for them to nest in too? since there are 3 but only one nest box? the run isnt the biggest to be honest so we are going to buy the extenstion for it on next pay day and hope the girls can make do witht he veg patch in the mean time!

[frias]

Well done on getting your girls and even more well done on posting a piccie. I've been on here 2 years and haven't done that yet! They will certainly enjoy a bigger run but will make the most of your veg patch in the meantime. I wouldn't be too worried about more next boxes. Even with several nest boxes they still all want the same one anyway.

[gemtheblonde]

lol i was very proud of myself for that! ill have to get sum more piccies up! preferably one with all three ladies in it! im still finding it hard to tell them apart!

yes im sure they will - they seem to all have bit of a character about them so far! they are very funny! xx

[gillian62]

Yes, congratulations on getting your chickens. Everyone on here has great advice, and 2 things are for sure - chicken keeping is addictive, and chickens have great personalities and will keep you amused for hours and hours.

[Nicos]

Hi there!
I'm really pleased you managed to get your chooks!
It won't be long before you can tell them apart.

I love it when I call to mine ( treat in hand) and they drop everything and madly race over to me! ( well....I do realise it's the treat which is the initial incentive).....strangely even my 2 boys leg it over with the gals when I call " Come on girly gals"

[Flummery]

Flooring - wood chippings are good. Lots of scratching potential. I also use hemp bedding meant for horses. My run is slabs too - keeps the chickens clean.

[gemtheblonde]

Yes iv found that the slabs are easy to keep them clean with!! I also put the slabs down (when i say i put them down i use the term loosely as i mean my fiance did it!) as i thought it would be a better way to stop foxes getting under the run!! However the run appeared to have been moved from the coop last night so am vonfysed as to how that happened!

Gxx

[BUFFS]

you will want more birds...we said last year that we would only get 4,well,that was last year,we now have 10(and that is the max),and each of them is funnier than the other,they should give them to people feeling down,they wouldnt be down for long..just enjoy them and the eggs,i use wood chips for area flooring,they can root about in that all day and only costs £6 for a massive big bag..

[MrsC]

Got to agree with everyone's posts so far, especially that 'that you will get more!' It is addictive, give it a few months, weeks, days even! Lovely pics, well done. ps - you're not the only one who goes out and watches them, ask anyone on here

[Shellintons]

Awww. I love seeing that 'I've got chickens' look on peoples faces
One of my very first hens (many moons ago) was a Gloria. Big French Maran, she was beautiful.
Looking good, and congratuwelldone on the photo's. I'm supposed to be one of those who knows my way round applications and still got it wrong the first time I used this forum lol
Bad luck on the eggs, it's a shame to give away the first ones. But look on the bright side, anything untoward they may have eaten before you got them went in those eggs ;p
Here's to many a happy hen filled year!

[gemtheblonde]

thanks shellington! iv had them a week tomoro and and we have had a fair few eggs off them already! i really asnt expecting anything at all for the first few weeks till they settled in but it looks like the girls have made themselves at home very quickly.

iv a few more pics but ill have to post them up another time as im at work just now and the pics are at home!

Gem