Hello, everyone! I live on 5 acres north of Spokane and am loving the country life; we just moved out to the country last summer. So I'm definitely a newbie! I have 7 chickens: 5 Orpingtons--3 Buffs and 2 Lavenders (one of which is a roo), and 2 Red Stars. Just got our very first eggs today! My 13 year old son's chore is to give them fresh water every morning, and he came in mighty excited to discover the two eggs! I think he'll enjoy his morning walk to our little barn a bit more now. I just started free ranging them--and I'm a nervous wreak. I'm only allowing them out for an hour or so under my supervision. Here they are yesterday enjoying their first taste of freedom!
Hi Lioness and welcome, I'm new here too and this has been a friendly bunch . Nice flock We have free range too and you do worry each time you add juniors to the free range ones. You'd be surprised how close to home they stay! I've never had Orpingtons but I do have Red Stars. Those are great egg layers, so they'll keep your son happy throughout the winter! Our Red Stars lay all year round. Again welcome and good luck! Living in the country is great!
Hi, mntlioness! I'm in western wa, and I've been showing chickens for 4-5 years now. If u have kids, consider signing up for the fair. It's a ton of fun, and I've made a lot of great friends through the fair. Beautiful chickens, btw. We have 6 chickens: a Rhode Island Red, a buff Orpington,a California gray, an Americana, a black sex link, and a Rhode Island white.
Very lovely birds and place! Will be looking forward to more pics of the same. You might be interested in some of our threads on free ranging that can help you insure a safer free range experience for your birds.
Thanks for the welcome and nice words on my flock! Some great advice already--and I'll check out the threads on free ranging. xoxo
Hi. We're happy to have you join us! I have our german shep outside with my girls when they're out free-ranging. She does a great job of keeping an eye on them. Mine too are always under supervision when outside. All it takes is one overhead flying hawk and well, you can guess the rest. Rest of the time they are in their enclosed run that is roofed and has 1/4 inch hardware cloth for the screening.
