[FONT=comic sans ms,sand]My name is Stormy. I live in the Midwest.
I once worked on a chicken farm in North Carolina. This was about 23 years ago. Hubby and I had 22,000 chickens. When I think of those days I think of 8 day work weeks....getting up at 4 am to feed chickens, gathering eggs in my hen-house of 11,000 chickens. Cleaning, sorting and counting the eggs....then gathering again, 5 more times during any given day. Going to bed at midnight, only to get up again at 4 am to do it all again. I was 3 months pregnant with my second child. My first child was five and still at 27 years of age has vivid memories of the Roosters pecking her legs as she walked with me amongst the thousands of chickens all day.
After going through all that, one may wonder what in the world I am doing on this backyardchicken website and why in the world I would ever want another chicken.
Well "never say never" as the old saying goes. I am now in my mid-40's...right smack dab in the middle of menopause and empty nest syndrome. I live in the country which I do love. I have a dog and a cat. and 10 acres of land....so I thought in my clear-headed-menopausal-hormonally deficient- mind, "why not try the chicken thing again?".
Don't worry it wasn't an impulse-decision...I actually toyed with this idea for a year or two before mentioning it to my husband. It still took him about 2 years from the time I put in the "work order" for the chicken coop for him to decide my idea wasn't a bad one. So a month ago we began the coop. We are done with the coop and now working on the run. I ordered my chickens from McMurray Hachery and they are due to arrive tomorrow morning! I have my brooder box ready and I'm truly excited.
No, I didn't order 22,000 chickens. I thought a more reasonable number would be 27 (plus the one free one they send for a total of 28).
Thanks for reading this far. I welcome any input and suggestions from my fellow chicken-mamas and papas, as the back yard chicken thing is truly a new venture for me.
Here are some pictures of the coop as we were building it.[/FONT]
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I once worked on a chicken farm in North Carolina. This was about 23 years ago. Hubby and I had 22,000 chickens. When I think of those days I think of 8 day work weeks....getting up at 4 am to feed chickens, gathering eggs in my hen-house of 11,000 chickens. Cleaning, sorting and counting the eggs....then gathering again, 5 more times during any given day. Going to bed at midnight, only to get up again at 4 am to do it all again. I was 3 months pregnant with my second child. My first child was five and still at 27 years of age has vivid memories of the Roosters pecking her legs as she walked with me amongst the thousands of chickens all day.
After going through all that, one may wonder what in the world I am doing on this backyardchicken website and why in the world I would ever want another chicken.
Well "never say never" as the old saying goes. I am now in my mid-40's...right smack dab in the middle of menopause and empty nest syndrome. I live in the country which I do love. I have a dog and a cat. and 10 acres of land....so I thought in my clear-headed-menopausal-hormonally deficient- mind, "why not try the chicken thing again?".
Don't worry it wasn't an impulse-decision...I actually toyed with this idea for a year or two before mentioning it to my husband. It still took him about 2 years from the time I put in the "work order" for the chicken coop for him to decide my idea wasn't a bad one. So a month ago we began the coop. We are done with the coop and now working on the run. I ordered my chickens from McMurray Hachery and they are due to arrive tomorrow morning! I have my brooder box ready and I'm truly excited.
No, I didn't order 22,000 chickens. I thought a more reasonable number would be 27 (plus the one free one they send for a total of 28).
Thanks for reading this far. I welcome any input and suggestions from my fellow chicken-mamas and papas, as the back yard chicken thing is truly a new venture for me.
Here are some pictures of the coop as we were building it.[/FONT]
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