Tankueray
Bird Nerd
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? My great-grandmother had chickens when I was little, and I walked through the poultry science building to get to class in college, but that's about it. I did have an Amazon parrot for over 30 years, and I was a zookeeper for Disney and Sea World, so I do have bird experience.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? None, but I want a million chickens and ducks and geese and ponies!
No turkeys, they creep me out.
(3) What breeds do you have? At first I really liked the Barred Rocks, and Khaki Campbell and Cayuga ducks. Now, because I'm a biologist and I miss genetics lab, I'm thinking Ameraucanas, Easter Eggers, and other colored eggers. I just recently discovered the Welsh Harlequin ducks, and I'm in love with them.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens? Pest and weed control, behavioral observation.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? Gardening, building robots, graphic design, woodworking, metalworking, machining, auto repair, racing, reading, polymer science, making.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. Oops, I didn't read ahead. I have about 2 acres of open area, garden, and creek/riparian habitat in addition to the living areas. I've lived here for 30 years and regularly have migratory birds in the winter, and raccoons, opossum, armadillos, hogs, deer, coyotes, rabbits, skunks, and snakes the rest of the time. Last season, I had a terrible grasshopper problem and weeds have always been crazy. Not wanting to spray chemicals, I thought fowl might be a good solution. A thousand YouTube videos later, the darned things are so cute and interesting, I feel like I must have a flock now. There's also a ton of grass to mow, which is possibly my least favorite thing to do ever.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I've been researching chicken keeping for a year, this site came up a lot. Too many posts tingled my biologist feelz, and it's about time I quit window shopping and decide to commit to this thing.
I'm way overthinking the coop/paddock issue. I got a chain-store coop for a steal at a liquidation store, only to find that it holds two birds. Now I'm eyeballing all the cattle panels I have stacked up in the garden. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the prices vs. quality of poultry products out there, and other than the basics and a major expenditure for poultry netting, it looks like DIY or old school is better than most store bought items. Oh, I do want those roll-out nest boxes, that seems like a no brainer.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? None, but I want a million chickens and ducks and geese and ponies!
No turkeys, they creep me out.(3) What breeds do you have? At first I really liked the Barred Rocks, and Khaki Campbell and Cayuga ducks. Now, because I'm a biologist and I miss genetics lab, I'm thinking Ameraucanas, Easter Eggers, and other colored eggers. I just recently discovered the Welsh Harlequin ducks, and I'm in love with them.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens? Pest and weed control, behavioral observation.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? Gardening, building robots, graphic design, woodworking, metalworking, machining, auto repair, racing, reading, polymer science, making.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. Oops, I didn't read ahead. I have about 2 acres of open area, garden, and creek/riparian habitat in addition to the living areas. I've lived here for 30 years and regularly have migratory birds in the winter, and raccoons, opossum, armadillos, hogs, deer, coyotes, rabbits, skunks, and snakes the rest of the time. Last season, I had a terrible grasshopper problem and weeds have always been crazy. Not wanting to spray chemicals, I thought fowl might be a good solution. A thousand YouTube videos later, the darned things are so cute and interesting, I feel like I must have a flock now. There's also a ton of grass to mow, which is possibly my least favorite thing to do ever.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I've been researching chicken keeping for a year, this site came up a lot. Too many posts tingled my biologist feelz, and it's about time I quit window shopping and decide to commit to this thing.I'm way overthinking the coop/paddock issue. I got a chain-store coop for a steal at a liquidation store, only to find that it holds two birds. Now I'm eyeballing all the cattle panels I have stacked up in the garden. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the prices vs. quality of poultry products out there, and other than the basics and a major expenditure for poultry netting, it looks like DIY or old school is better than most store bought items. Oh, I do want those roll-out nest boxes, that seems like a no brainer.
Glad you joined.
