Hi, my name is Leonie Nicholas, I am a chicken addict and this is my story.
It all began back in 2010, when I was first introduced to my chicken coop & my 2 layers, Kiev & Nugget on Valentines Day! I thought that by owning my own chooks I was doing a good thing for my family...We would be getting yummy fresh eggs daily and the kids would have some cute feathered friends to grow up with.
This was my first mistake.
The chooks were too young and not laying as yet and the kids would chase them around the yard and as such they weren't terribly great mates.
And so I was on the hunt...chooks that were currently laying and chooks that are kid friendly! During my search...I came across another young layer who needed saving and so we added Parma to the twosome of Kiev & Nugget and after a few week of working each other out they all became good friends!
At this stage I had convinced myself, it's only another chook and she needed to be saved and I can stop at any time I like...This is not an addiction!
And so the hunt continued for chooks that were currently laying and chooks that are good with kids. A couple of weeks later my husband came home from work with some WONDERFUL news. He had been talking to his friend (who also owns chooks) and suggested that Australorps would be a great chicken for us to get, great layers & docile enough for the kids to enjoy, he also mentioned a chook auction that was coming up in 2 weeks.
As I was impatient and didn't want to wait the 2 weeks for the chook auction...I immediately went searching and a couple of days later we brought home two white Australorp crosses name Apricot & Butter bringing out total number to 5...we kept these guy separate for a little while, while everyone got used to each other. It was around this time we got our first couple of eggs from Kiev & Nugget!
So a week and a half went by and I started thinking about the chook auction my husband’s friend had previously mentioned and I thought to myself 'hmmm what is a chook auction & how does it work'?
I convinced my husband to go and that I WOULD NOT be buying anything. I just wanted to see what it was all about and it was going to be a good opportunity for my family and my husbands mates family to get together and that’s when I fell in love with and came home with a trio of silkies Satay (partridge), Lemon & Honey (white).
It was here I knew I was a true addict! I couldn't stop!
Another week later we brought home 2 Plymouth Barred Rocks name Teriyaki and Tandoori!
I was so happy with my flock. I had my layers who by now were giving us some GREAT eggs and I had my gorgeous trio of silkies who I love love love and was going to breed with. My children have even learnt how to play with the chickens without scaring them and they are all getting along great!
But everything turned into a disaster when I woke one morning to discover the deaths of my beautiful silkie trio and Tandoori thanks to a fox. I was devastated.
It took me a little while to get over the deaths of my much loved Silkies & Barred Rock but when I did I decided I was going to incubate silkie eggs so my family can witness first hand the excitement of chicks hatching.
So...I borrowed a friend’s incubator and sourced some fertile eggs. I was so excited about my first hatch and waiting for the 21 days to be up was excruciating.
However day 21 came and went with we did not have a single hatch (we had one piped egg, but the chick died). I was devastated yet again and after some investigation with the incubator I discovered that although the information that was being displayed on the outside of the incubator was correct...What was actually happening inside the incubator was wrong.
I came to the conclusion that this incubator was not a very good incubator at all and after feeling like the worst person in the world (for killing these little chicks) I vowed NEVER to try and incubate chicks again.
Needless to say my husband has encouraged me to try again. After searching for a decent incubator to buy I found that they were all REALLY expensive (which I decided wasn't worth it due to the small number of eggs I wanted to hatch) and decided to do a little research into making my own.
Well I have made my own incubator and we set another 12 eggs (8 of which were actually fertile) and on 10 May 2012, we hatched 6 beautiful little silkies.
Hi, my name is Leonie Nicholas, I am a chicken addict and I'm proud of it!
This was my first mistake.
The chooks were too young and not laying as yet and the kids would chase them around the yard and as such they weren't terribly great mates.
And so I was on the hunt...chooks that were currently laying and chooks that are kid friendly! During my search...I came across another young layer who needed saving and so we added Parma to the twosome of Kiev & Nugget and after a few week of working each other out they all became good friends!
At this stage I had convinced myself, it's only another chook and she needed to be saved and I can stop at any time I like...This is not an addiction!
And so the hunt continued for chooks that were currently laying and chooks that are good with kids. A couple of weeks later my husband came home from work with some WONDERFUL news. He had been talking to his friend (who also owns chooks) and suggested that Australorps would be a great chicken for us to get, great layers & docile enough for the kids to enjoy, he also mentioned a chook auction that was coming up in 2 weeks.
As I was impatient and didn't want to wait the 2 weeks for the chook auction...I immediately went searching and a couple of days later we brought home two white Australorp crosses name Apricot & Butter bringing out total number to 5...we kept these guy separate for a little while, while everyone got used to each other. It was around this time we got our first couple of eggs from Kiev & Nugget!
So a week and a half went by and I started thinking about the chook auction my husband’s friend had previously mentioned and I thought to myself 'hmmm what is a chook auction & how does it work'?
I convinced my husband to go and that I WOULD NOT be buying anything. I just wanted to see what it was all about and it was going to be a good opportunity for my family and my husbands mates family to get together and that’s when I fell in love with and came home with a trio of silkies Satay (partridge), Lemon & Honey (white).
It was here I knew I was a true addict! I couldn't stop!
Another week later we brought home 2 Plymouth Barred Rocks name Teriyaki and Tandoori!
I was so happy with my flock. I had my layers who by now were giving us some GREAT eggs and I had my gorgeous trio of silkies who I love love love and was going to breed with. My children have even learnt how to play with the chickens without scaring them and they are all getting along great!
But everything turned into a disaster when I woke one morning to discover the deaths of my beautiful silkie trio and Tandoori thanks to a fox. I was devastated.
It took me a little while to get over the deaths of my much loved Silkies & Barred Rock but when I did I decided I was going to incubate silkie eggs so my family can witness first hand the excitement of chicks hatching.
So...I borrowed a friend’s incubator and sourced some fertile eggs. I was so excited about my first hatch and waiting for the 21 days to be up was excruciating.
However day 21 came and went with we did not have a single hatch (we had one piped egg, but the chick died). I was devastated yet again and after some investigation with the incubator I discovered that although the information that was being displayed on the outside of the incubator was correct...What was actually happening inside the incubator was wrong.
I came to the conclusion that this incubator was not a very good incubator at all and after feeling like the worst person in the world (for killing these little chicks) I vowed NEVER to try and incubate chicks again.
Needless to say my husband has encouraged me to try again. After searching for a decent incubator to buy I found that they were all REALLY expensive (which I decided wasn't worth it due to the small number of eggs I wanted to hatch) and decided to do a little research into making my own.
Well I have made my own incubator and we set another 12 eggs (8 of which were actually fertile) and on 10 May 2012, we hatched 6 beautiful little silkies.
Hi, my name is Leonie Nicholas, I am a chicken addict and I'm proud of it!