Hi everyone on backyard chickens.com I have been a window shopper for sometime now on this page reading blogs to help in times of uncertainty and now after 4 years of doing this I finally became a member and decided to introduce myself so here goes. If the title doesn't explain my passion then I don't what does. I love love love the big birds and the bigger the better in my eyes. I currently breed and raise English Orpingtons in the following colors: Buff, Blue, Black, White, Jubilee, Chocolate cuckoo, cuckoo, lavender, and Partridge. My roosters are huge! I have Ricky Bobby, Cal, Brennan, Dale, and Will. They are the biggest birds around here or so I'm told. I have had people offer me lots of different things if I would sell them one of my boys but I love them so much I could never part with them. As well as the Orpingtons I raise and breed Bielefelders, Cream Leg bars, and Standard Cochins. I want so badly though to hatch and raise some Malines and Bresse for dual purpose reasons. My husband raises some rare breed and is working on his own breed right now the breeds he chooses to raise are the Ayam Cemani and the Polish which he has now mixed together to get this all black inside and out polish which he nicknamed "buckheads" because my two kids ages 5 and 4 refer to all polish as "buckheads" I'm not sure why but they do. We love our birds! I am not talking like an obsession or hobby I'm talking like part of the family though we do eat some of our birds there are a few who have earned our promise to never be sold or eaten and these birds were the reason we moved this past year. Boy was that a journey! We bought a house beginning of 2012 and then slowly with coaxing and time I convinced my husband to let me get chickens. We could only have 6 birds all hens in most cities so I thought I was safe getting you know about 12 so that way if any died or turned into roosters we would still have a flock of something. My husband suddenly found his love when he chose two polish chicks a golden laced polish and a white crested black polish he lovingly named Wayne (golden laced) and Garth ( white crested). Well Wayne "his baby" turned into a rooster and we tried everything from rooster collars to not letting him out until later in the morning and blocking the sun out of the coop so he wouldn't crow until later but to no avail we got a notice from animal control that we would need to remove all chickens form the premises! In my mind I was thinking WAIT! I understand the rooster but the hens?! Why when other cities right beside us can have 6 hens? After much talking and deliberation me and my husband decided we couldn't stand the thought of getting rid of his beloved rooster Wayne and his loving hen Garth. I supported him and he supported me through it all and we ended up selling our house within three months of the notice and we then moved in temporarily with our friend who already lived on a farm and after 5 long months of max capacity in a house we found the perfect home where our beloved rooster and chickens could live with an acre and a half to free range and all the trees and weeds and bushes to investigate. Most of our friends and family thought we were ridiculous to up and move our family just for some chickens but that's how passionate we are about our chickens they mean much more to us then some lawn ornament with feathers. They bring me joy, laughter, calmness, serenity they help me with my anxiety and depression, more than even my own dogs bring me. I am so glad to finally be introducing myself on here. And or those of you wondering yes I will ship hatching eggs I am still unsure on shipping chicks but I think I might be open to it if we waited until they were atleast 4 weeks old so they could survive shipping better. You are welcome to email me anytime at our farm email: [email protected]. I look forward to interacting with everyone on this site and learning more and more everyday as well as sharing my own wisdom. I have a passion for animals as well which is driving my career path of becoming a chicken/rabbit veterinarian. Those are both my favorite animals on the farm. On top of that I haven't been able to find a specific chicken vet around here and feel that there need to be more chicken vets out there that specialize in just chickens not all avian types. I will also be focusing on turkeys, guineas, and ducks/geese. To answer the questions in the template suggestion see below:
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? I have had chickens all my life with a ten year break between leaving home, going to college, joining the military, and moving to Utah.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? We have approximately 100 birds it changes with chick sales, and culling of meat birds or imperfect birds.
(3) What breeds do you have? Ayam Cemani, Bielefelder, English Orpingtons (all different colors), Cream legbar, Polish, Standard Cochins.
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? Once my friend had a hurt chicken and I needed to know how to dose the chicken with pain meds.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? reading books, riding horses, attending poultry shows, and rabbit shows, and raising lionhead and Flemish giant rabbits.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. see above long paragraph for details about this.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? I have had chickens all my life with a ten year break between leaving home, going to college, joining the military, and moving to Utah.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? We have approximately 100 birds it changes with chick sales, and culling of meat birds or imperfect birds.
(3) What breeds do you have? Ayam Cemani, Bielefelder, English Orpingtons (all different colors), Cream legbar, Polish, Standard Cochins.
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? Once my friend had a hurt chicken and I needed to know how to dose the chicken with pain meds.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? reading books, riding horses, attending poultry shows, and rabbit shows, and raising lionhead and Flemish giant rabbits.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. see above long paragraph for details about this.
to have you join the family. Enjoy your time here!
