High Pines Homestead
Nettie, West Virginia
Chickens on the Farm
We currently have two chicken coops on our farm. One we call our "Big Coop" because our chickens are currently laying and are the oldest ones we have. Our other coop came about from a shopping spree at Rural King in which we bought an array of different breeds of chicks! So we call it the "Junior Coop" because it's basically for chickens that aren't laying yet and can't go to the big girls and boys coop yet!
Big Chicken Coop
This coop has our Golden Comets, and a mix of different breeds including Ameraucanas, Barred Rock, Sapphire Gems, Easter Eggers, and many more!
Golden Comets
Our Golden Comet hens have never disappointed when it comes to laying eggs. They lay almost all year long. They take a break in winter for about 3 months, but once it starts warming up again you better get your egg cartons out and your egg washer ready because they are going to knock them out. We get about 13 to 15 eggs a day. They are very hardy and have done well through the West Virginia winters and summers!
Easter Eggers / Black Asian
The first Easter Egger on the left is Princess Diana, the Black Asian in the middle is Mariah Carey, and the Easter Egger on the right is LJ (short for Lumberjack, the family's high school mascot). We added them to our big coop after the Golden Comets had been there a while and it took a few days for them to fit in, but they are finally doing great and they love life!
Barred Rock
This is Helga our barred rock hen. We got him off of Samantha's Paps Steve. She was left from his flock. We went to pick her up and when we got there we were surprised by how big she was. She's definitely healthy. We were nervous she wasn't going to fit in with our comets, but when she got in there she just held her own and took her place in the flock. She has actually started to lay already with no problem! We have a couple other younger Barred Rocks that we introduced to the pen recently.
Roosters!
We recently introduced these roosters with our hen flock and they are living life! They get along well with the hens and we hope they do their job and keep everyone in line!
Junior Coop
This coop is for chickens who can't lay yet and are just growing up. We have kept our younger roosters in there until they were ready to go in with the hens. We will use it when we get more baby chickens to grow up and transition to the big pen. The coop is also in construction mode and will be painted soon!
Breeds
Below are a few breeds of chickens we have raised and some information on them. If you have any questions about raising chickens or anything about the amazing feathered animals head on to our facebook page and message us or email us! You can contact us here....
Barred Rock
Our 2 Barred Rock hens are Mary Kate and Ashley! Their beautiful black and white coloring stands out in our pen. They are also known as Plymouth Rock chickens. They will eventually lay a light tan colored egg. They are growing fast and living their best life!
Sapphire Gems
We have 3 Sapphire Gems (a.k.a. Larry, Moe, Curly). They have a nice blue gray tint to their feathers. They lay brown colored eggs and are EXCELLENT layers, usually laying around 290 eggs a year! These chickens seem to be our most feisty. They aren't roosters but they sure do act like them!
Ancona
Anconas lay a white egg and are very hardy in the winter and summer. They are also known to be more active and fly more often than other breeds. Interesting fact: They originated in the city of Ancona, Italy but they are actually very rare in that city today.
Ameraucana
The Ameraucana chicken has a very pretty variety of different colors. Easter Eggers often get confused with Ameraucanas. They are very hard to tell apart. Ours are beautiful and fitting in with the other breeds nicely!