- Jun 28, 2011
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Sue, known to BYC members as Leahs Mom, has been a member of our community since October 2012. Another of our wonderful all rounders she can be found all over the forum, chatting, giving advice, sharing pics of her beautiful flock and being a true BYC friend.
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself. (Family, hobbies, whatever personal stuff you feel like sharing)
I grew up in Northern Indiana and have lived here my whole life with the exception of a short time in MO for college. I'm married to "The Best Man in the World", and between us we have 7 living adult children.
Here's the best man in the world working on the chicken shed in 2012. He did all the work to make the shed (which we purchased from Habitat for Humanity Restore for $250) into the chicken shed - including building the interior framing and hardware cloth covered walls, and the nest box that's accessible from the "people part" of the shed.
Adding a roof vent.
The beautifully done interior walls.
The chicken side of the nest box.
I always wanted to be a wife when I grew up and never really wanted a "career", but life has a way of changing some of those things. I've worked in graphic design/marketing for a business since the late 90s, but if I had my choice, I'd still be a stay-at-home wife.
I love reading about nutrition and "natural animal husbandry", and a whole host of other things. When I take on a new endeavor (like raising chickens), I always read and study as much as I can so that I can get a handle on things as best as possible BEFORE I try doing something. In addition to reading many books and online publications, I subscribe to, and read most of, "Acres Magazine" every month as well as several other publications including the Weston A. Price Foundation's "Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts". I enjoy passing on whatever knowledge or experience I've gained if it will help someone else.
On BYC, I can most often be found hanging around the "Natural Chicken Keeping Thread", the Indiana Thread, and the "Swedish Flower Hen Thread". I love reading the amazing DIY ideas in the"DIY Thread", and reading other threads to learn about incubators, discuss various feed options, and many other things when I can find the time.
I am a home cheesemaker and have taught cheesemaking in various settings.
A Caerphilly cheese...it was yummy!
Feta Cheese marinated in Olive Oil with Fresh Basil, garlic, & Dried Tomatoes.
I've also been extremely privileged to be involved in "prayer ministry" for many years, and feel honored to see people find resolve and peace in areas that have been broken and hurting.
2. Why and when did you start keeping chickens?
I got my first chicks on March 26, 2012, all hatchery birds. 2 BRs, 2 Reds, 2 EEs.
Part of what started me on this journey is the desire to have food that is raised in a more healthy manner than is widely available in the regular food supply. I read a saying a long time ago that stuck with me that goes like this: "If God made it, and people didn't change it, then you can eat it." When I read that, I thought that an egg was an egg...meat was meat...milk was milk...and that those were things that people couldn't really change. What I learned in subsequent years, however, is that people CAN change the quality of real food - like an egg, or meat, or milk - by the way their animals are cared for, the feed they have, the living conditions, etc. I was amazed to learn that even the fatty acid makeup of fat in beef is different when they are allowed to eat what they were designed to eat (grass) as opposed to a steady diet of grain. (And guess which is the most healthy fat for us humans to consume...!) The more I learned, it just became common-sense that if an animal is designed to eat and live in a specific way, then that way would result in the most healthy food source for us.
So when we moved in with my dad so that he could stay in his own home during his last years (which is on 12 acres), we decided to try our hand at raising our own chickens. I had honestly been considering a family cow so that we would have raw milk from our own cow (I use a lot of raw milk when I'm making cheese), but that seemed like a huge commitment so we started with something small and thought we could decide if we wanted to have larger animals after trying it out with something that felt more manageable.
Besides health concerns, I also wanted to have a basic knowledge of how to raise food animals so that we could possibly produce more of our own food - or at least know how to find the best sources to purchase from by having a basic knowledge of good husbandry practices for a wide variety of animals. (Enter my reading in quite some depth to get that basic understanding.) We're blessed to have family farms nearby from which we purchase grass-fed beef, milk, butter and other foods. I actually purchase very little food from the grocery store at this point in time.
3. Which aspect(s) of chicken keeping do you enjoy the most?
I LOVE to see a broody with her chicks. If I had the time, I could watch them for hours on end.
I LOVE seeing the chickens going about their daily business. (I could also watch them for hours on end.)
I LOVE having healthy birds being raised as "naturally" as possible and watching how well they do when given the chance to live as much as they were designed to live as possible while in my care.
I love gathering eggs. It's still like getting a little gift every time I get another egg.
One of my adult daughters gathering eggs.
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
One of the original hatchery red girls (now 3 years old) hatched 2 clutches of chicks for me. Now this is just a lowly hatchery girl and, from what I'd read, they aren't supposed to be of the broody persuasion. But this girl hadn't read what I did, so she really didn't know the "rules". Not only did she brood, hatch and mother 2 clutches, she did her first broody stint at 8 months old in the dead of winter. Her brood hatched on New Year's eve and she took care of them quite well in temperatures well below freezing. The hen shed wasn't heated, and she would take them right outside with her. Whenever they'd let her know they were cold, she'd just drop wherever they were and the little ones scuttled right under her. Her second brood was during better weather.
And...this girl would stay on the floor with her kids until they were 12-15 weeks old...it was quite hilarious to see those huge "chicks" trying to fit under the mama!
These kids are only 11 weeks old and still trying to get under mamma. How crazy is this?
This last winter, the red mamma had her first real molt that wasn't associated with brooding. She always had the most beautiful shiny feathers of the whole flock which I credit to the broody fasts. I have a "hunch" that there is a cleansing and renewing that goes on in the body during those times, and her feather quality was much more outstanding than any of the others in the flock. But she didn't brood in 2014, and her molt was extreme. I had to bring her into the house as the temps had dipped into the teens just about the time she looked like this:
It took a good amount of time to regain her normal feathering, but she did re-acclimate to the cold after she had a reasonable amount of feathers. And I took advantage of the opportunity to have her raise another clutch while she was in the house.
5. What was the funniest (chicken related) thing(s) that happened to you in your years as chicken owner?
Well...I feel like a "man hater" or something when I tell the stories that tickle my funny bone because they're all about "Mister" - our first ever rooster and his mishaps.
Mister is a Swedish Flower Hen (Hmmm how can a rooster be a hen anyhow?...but I digress). He was raised by the Red Mamma in her first brood with all his Swedish Flower Hen sisters. So, of course, these kids were raised right in the flock along with 6 hens - one of them their protective mamma.
One day when he was about 10-12 weeks old - too young to be a man yet - he was walking along the roost bar that is in front of the nest boxes. One of the adult BRs was in a box and the poor unsuspecting boy stuck his head in to have a look to see what she was doing in there. Well the BR grabbed him by the wattle and wouldn't let go! He was screeching and trying to pull away from her and, since I was in the hen shed at the moment to witness this, I was heading over to make her let go and she finally did. I really had a good laugh at that...I guess my sense of humor is kind of strange, but it just struck me totally funny that this hen had him by the wattle.
"Mister" when he was 9 weeks old.
Of course, as he grew and became a young man, as soon as they recognized that he was a man, he was given deference by all those older ladies and he had a harem of 9 all to himself!
"Mister" at 19 weeks old.
Another story on "Mister".
When he was just at that randy hormone stage, he somehow injured his leg. If I remember correctly, he was about 22 weeks old at the time. There were no broken bones and no external sign of problems, no sickness or malaise, so I surmised he must have injured it by jumping down from some high place as he was accustomed to doing. Within a couple weeks, he had learned to hop on his one good leg, and mastered running on one leg as fast as all the others. He insisted on standing over his ladies to protect them wherever they went even if he had to get there on one leg. I can't begin to explain how funny it was to see this full sized cockerel hopping around on one leg at a full speed run.
It was almost 6 weeks before he began to walk, then run, using both legs like normal and today you'd never know he had any injury. But that's only part of the story...
This guy was still trying to mate the ladies but, because he didn't have full strength in his leg, he couldn't keep any hen against their will as they quickly learned how to duck out toward his weaker side. It feels that I should apologize for my sense of humor, but I found it totally amusing that the ladies had the upper-hand in this situation. I used to say to him, "Even if you can't mate every 60 seconds you'll live." I don't think he was as amused as I was.
Here's the best man in the world with "Mister". The boys need to stick together around here.
6. Beside chickens, what other pets do you keep?
Nothing right now. I used to keep Shetland Sheepdogs in the past.
7. Anything you'd like to add?
Something that really got me thinking was when I read some of Joel Salatin's books several years ago before I ever had chickens. He talked about trying to emulate how an animal/flock would live if they were in their natural habitat as much as possible while in your care. He went on to share many examples that were just common sense once you thought about it.
That idea made a lot of sense to me and I've always tried my best to take that advice. There are so many simple things you can do - even in a relatively small, urban lot - that will help provide a healthy environment for your flock at very little, or no extra cost. Most of these simple things will make the difference between a flock that is always struggling for their health, and a flock that's robust and healthy with strong immune systems and no need for pharmaceutical inputs.
I also want to say thanks for the opportunity to be a part of the member interviews....I was totally surprised to be asked. And I was even more surprised last week when someone told me I had been given a BYC Friends recognition award. I'm honored and I'm thankful for the opportunity to take part in the community here
Presenting Queen Emma. She's the oldest SFH in the flock and, as such, she's the queen of all the SFH.
And the younger girls.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/121188/leahs-mom
See here for more about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/905602/introducing-vip-member-interviews/0_30
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself. (Family, hobbies, whatever personal stuff you feel like sharing)
I grew up in Northern Indiana and have lived here my whole life with the exception of a short time in MO for college. I'm married to "The Best Man in the World", and between us we have 7 living adult children.
Here's the best man in the world working on the chicken shed in 2012. He did all the work to make the shed (which we purchased from Habitat for Humanity Restore for $250) into the chicken shed - including building the interior framing and hardware cloth covered walls, and the nest box that's accessible from the "people part" of the shed.
Adding a roof vent.
The beautifully done interior walls.
The chicken side of the nest box.
I always wanted to be a wife when I grew up and never really wanted a "career", but life has a way of changing some of those things. I've worked in graphic design/marketing for a business since the late 90s, but if I had my choice, I'd still be a stay-at-home wife.
I love reading about nutrition and "natural animal husbandry", and a whole host of other things. When I take on a new endeavor (like raising chickens), I always read and study as much as I can so that I can get a handle on things as best as possible BEFORE I try doing something. In addition to reading many books and online publications, I subscribe to, and read most of, "Acres Magazine" every month as well as several other publications including the Weston A. Price Foundation's "Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts". I enjoy passing on whatever knowledge or experience I've gained if it will help someone else.
On BYC, I can most often be found hanging around the "Natural Chicken Keeping Thread", the Indiana Thread, and the "Swedish Flower Hen Thread". I love reading the amazing DIY ideas in the"DIY Thread", and reading other threads to learn about incubators, discuss various feed options, and many other things when I can find the time.
I am a home cheesemaker and have taught cheesemaking in various settings.
A Caerphilly cheese...it was yummy!
Feta Cheese marinated in Olive Oil with Fresh Basil, garlic, & Dried Tomatoes.
I've also been extremely privileged to be involved in "prayer ministry" for many years, and feel honored to see people find resolve and peace in areas that have been broken and hurting.
2. Why and when did you start keeping chickens?
I got my first chicks on March 26, 2012, all hatchery birds. 2 BRs, 2 Reds, 2 EEs.
Part of what started me on this journey is the desire to have food that is raised in a more healthy manner than is widely available in the regular food supply. I read a saying a long time ago that stuck with me that goes like this: "If God made it, and people didn't change it, then you can eat it." When I read that, I thought that an egg was an egg...meat was meat...milk was milk...and that those were things that people couldn't really change. What I learned in subsequent years, however, is that people CAN change the quality of real food - like an egg, or meat, or milk - by the way their animals are cared for, the feed they have, the living conditions, etc. I was amazed to learn that even the fatty acid makeup of fat in beef is different when they are allowed to eat what they were designed to eat (grass) as opposed to a steady diet of grain. (And guess which is the most healthy fat for us humans to consume...!) The more I learned, it just became common-sense that if an animal is designed to eat and live in a specific way, then that way would result in the most healthy food source for us.
So when we moved in with my dad so that he could stay in his own home during his last years (which is on 12 acres), we decided to try our hand at raising our own chickens. I had honestly been considering a family cow so that we would have raw milk from our own cow (I use a lot of raw milk when I'm making cheese), but that seemed like a huge commitment so we started with something small and thought we could decide if we wanted to have larger animals after trying it out with something that felt more manageable.
Besides health concerns, I also wanted to have a basic knowledge of how to raise food animals so that we could possibly produce more of our own food - or at least know how to find the best sources to purchase from by having a basic knowledge of good husbandry practices for a wide variety of animals. (Enter my reading in quite some depth to get that basic understanding.) We're blessed to have family farms nearby from which we purchase grass-fed beef, milk, butter and other foods. I actually purchase very little food from the grocery store at this point in time.
3. Which aspect(s) of chicken keeping do you enjoy the most?
I LOVE to see a broody with her chicks. If I had the time, I could watch them for hours on end.
I LOVE seeing the chickens going about their daily business. (I could also watch them for hours on end.)
I LOVE having healthy birds being raised as "naturally" as possible and watching how well they do when given the chance to live as much as they were designed to live as possible while in my care.
I love gathering eggs. It's still like getting a little gift every time I get another egg.
One of my adult daughters gathering eggs.
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
One of the original hatchery red girls (now 3 years old) hatched 2 clutches of chicks for me. Now this is just a lowly hatchery girl and, from what I'd read, they aren't supposed to be of the broody persuasion. But this girl hadn't read what I did, so she really didn't know the "rules". Not only did she brood, hatch and mother 2 clutches, she did her first broody stint at 8 months old in the dead of winter. Her brood hatched on New Year's eve and she took care of them quite well in temperatures well below freezing. The hen shed wasn't heated, and she would take them right outside with her. Whenever they'd let her know they were cold, she'd just drop wherever they were and the little ones scuttled right under her. Her second brood was during better weather.
And...this girl would stay on the floor with her kids until they were 12-15 weeks old...it was quite hilarious to see those huge "chicks" trying to fit under the mama!
These kids are only 11 weeks old and still trying to get under mamma. How crazy is this?
This last winter, the red mamma had her first real molt that wasn't associated with brooding. She always had the most beautiful shiny feathers of the whole flock which I credit to the broody fasts. I have a "hunch" that there is a cleansing and renewing that goes on in the body during those times, and her feather quality was much more outstanding than any of the others in the flock. But she didn't brood in 2014, and her molt was extreme. I had to bring her into the house as the temps had dipped into the teens just about the time she looked like this:
It took a good amount of time to regain her normal feathering, but she did re-acclimate to the cold after she had a reasonable amount of feathers. And I took advantage of the opportunity to have her raise another clutch while she was in the house.
5. What was the funniest (chicken related) thing(s) that happened to you in your years as chicken owner?
Well...I feel like a "man hater" or something when I tell the stories that tickle my funny bone because they're all about "Mister" - our first ever rooster and his mishaps.
Mister is a Swedish Flower Hen (Hmmm how can a rooster be a hen anyhow?...but I digress). He was raised by the Red Mamma in her first brood with all his Swedish Flower Hen sisters. So, of course, these kids were raised right in the flock along with 6 hens - one of them their protective mamma.
One day when he was about 10-12 weeks old - too young to be a man yet - he was walking along the roost bar that is in front of the nest boxes. One of the adult BRs was in a box and the poor unsuspecting boy stuck his head in to have a look to see what she was doing in there. Well the BR grabbed him by the wattle and wouldn't let go! He was screeching and trying to pull away from her and, since I was in the hen shed at the moment to witness this, I was heading over to make her let go and she finally did. I really had a good laugh at that...I guess my sense of humor is kind of strange, but it just struck me totally funny that this hen had him by the wattle.
"Mister" when he was 9 weeks old.
Of course, as he grew and became a young man, as soon as they recognized that he was a man, he was given deference by all those older ladies and he had a harem of 9 all to himself!
"Mister" at 19 weeks old.
Another story on "Mister".
When he was just at that randy hormone stage, he somehow injured his leg. If I remember correctly, he was about 22 weeks old at the time. There were no broken bones and no external sign of problems, no sickness or malaise, so I surmised he must have injured it by jumping down from some high place as he was accustomed to doing. Within a couple weeks, he had learned to hop on his one good leg, and mastered running on one leg as fast as all the others. He insisted on standing over his ladies to protect them wherever they went even if he had to get there on one leg. I can't begin to explain how funny it was to see this full sized cockerel hopping around on one leg at a full speed run.
It was almost 6 weeks before he began to walk, then run, using both legs like normal and today you'd never know he had any injury. But that's only part of the story...
This guy was still trying to mate the ladies but, because he didn't have full strength in his leg, he couldn't keep any hen against their will as they quickly learned how to duck out toward his weaker side. It feels that I should apologize for my sense of humor, but I found it totally amusing that the ladies had the upper-hand in this situation. I used to say to him, "Even if you can't mate every 60 seconds you'll live." I don't think he was as amused as I was.
Here's the best man in the world with "Mister". The boys need to stick together around here.
6. Beside chickens, what other pets do you keep?
Nothing right now. I used to keep Shetland Sheepdogs in the past.
7. Anything you'd like to add?
Something that really got me thinking was when I read some of Joel Salatin's books several years ago before I ever had chickens. He talked about trying to emulate how an animal/flock would live if they were in their natural habitat as much as possible while in your care. He went on to share many examples that were just common sense once you thought about it.
That idea made a lot of sense to me and I've always tried my best to take that advice. There are so many simple things you can do - even in a relatively small, urban lot - that will help provide a healthy environment for your flock at very little, or no extra cost. Most of these simple things will make the difference between a flock that is always struggling for their health, and a flock that's robust and healthy with strong immune systems and no need for pharmaceutical inputs.
I also want to say thanks for the opportunity to be a part of the member interviews....I was totally surprised to be asked. And I was even more surprised last week when someone told me I had been given a BYC Friends recognition award. I'm honored and I'm thankful for the opportunity to take part in the community here
Presenting Queen Emma. She's the oldest SFH in the flock and, as such, she's the queen of all the SFH.
And the younger girls.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/u/121188/leahs-mom
See here for more about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/905602/introducing-vip-member-interviews/0_30
