Hello from New England!

I am a new chicken lover! We were "donated" (dumped) a dozen assorted chickens on our barn's property for the first time a few months ago, free range, and I just fell in love with them. We aren't quite sure of all of their breeds, I believe most of them are Rhode Island Reds, as their pictures are similar (see my avatar) and the eggs match up, but maybe you guys would know better. It's been a crash course in chicken owning, but we've been loving it. They are so sweet and will follow us around while doing barn chores - they just love to be around people.

As for future chicken owning plans, I am hoping to acquire a couple of Seramas more of personal pets pets, rather than round the barnyard chickens. I've already got a cozy coop ready for them and a pen so the can scratch away...maybe I'll be able to grow a garden once they've aerated and fertilized enough. Another one of our boarders also got another dozen chickens, a mixed assortment, so it's going to be even MORE of a chicken heaven at the barn anyway!

Anyway, I hope to learn even more about chickens and meet you guys.

Welcome to Backyard chickens.. there are a lot of folks here who will be very beneficial to you as you are learning in your chicken keeping journey.

so glad you have joined us.

If you haven't already done so, do visit the learning center for many helpful articles.

If you want to know breeds, post pics under the what gender/breed forum to get insight.

What an unusual way to get introduced to keeping a flock - why in the world would anyone "dump" those sweeties? But glad they found you

Hi and welcome to BYC.

You'll find lots of info in the Learning Centre
https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center, and if you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread

All the best
CT

I love New England, it looks so beautiful in photos. Welcome to the forum.

With the birds being so friendly - someone socialized them well. Makes me think they had no other options. They were lucky, they found such a good home with you.

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

Thank you for the warm welcome everyone. I will definitely be joining my local area's forum - I worry about how to keep my chickens warm in the winter, so hopefully I can pick up some tips. Also having trouble finding started bantam/serama pullets in my area as well (NOT ready to raise chicks at this point), so maybe someone can direct me to locals who have so older ones to buy. As for why they were dumped, no idea, but they are a blessing anyway! Thanks again, everyone.

chickykins said:

I worry about how to keep my chickens warm in the winter, so hopefully I can pick up some tips.

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Definitely, there are many members in the states where there's snow and ice, plenty of people will have that advice for you. From what I can gather (I didn't pay close attention as I'm in a warm climate) chickens don't really mind the cold, the challenges are keeping the water liquid and ensuring ventilation so you don't get too much humidity in the coop. Anyway, you'll have no trouble finding what you need to know.

Do you get snow where you are? There's a thread for snow scene pictures. I love admiring the scenery in the pretty places.

potato chip said:

Definitely, there are many members in the states where there's snow and ice, plenty of people will have that advice for you.  From what I can gather (I didn't pay close attention as I'm in a warm climate) chickens don't really mind the cold, the challenges are keeping the water liquid and ensuring ventilation so you don't get too much humidity in the coop.  Anyway, you'll have no trouble finding what you need to know. 

Do you get snow where you are?  There's a thread for snow scene pictures.  I love admiring the scenery in the pretty places. 

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We get plenty of snow! Luckily this past winter was fairly mild, but typically it's lots of snow and single digit nights. I've heard lamps are typical for heating coops-but when I was a kid, a barn I boarded at had a massive fire from a heat lamp for chicks, so I'm so nervous about it. Then I read you don't need heating...but I wonder how you keep the water liquid? I'm also planning on getting bantams so I'm worried the little guys aren't so hardy...guess I have a lot to read.