BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

bgmathteach

Hi RoosterWhisperer, thanks for reaching out to me!!

My neighbor calls me the chicken whisperer...but it is really only because she doesn't understand their behavior, so when I can get a chicken to calm down, she is amazed. (plus, I talk chicken to them, lol. Now, if I only knew what I was saying in chicken speak, I'ld be golden!

)

What part of the country do you hail from?

RoosterWhisperer

Hello BG, your welcome!!

How cool, I too am I chicken whisperer!

I'm used to raising mainly roosters, I never had a mean one, hence the name, RoosteWhisperer.
(I too speak chicken, but nobody understands me either :lau

. I still do it anyway, I also wish I knew what they were saying.)

I hail from the beautiful PNW of Washington state!

I co-own my 50+ flock with my twin sister.

RoosterWhisperer

Do you have a favorite chicken?

bgmathteach

Yes, and no. My all-time favorite was my sweet, smart 'top hen' Rosie. She was a partridge rock...and one of my first batch (of 8) chickens - she passed away about a year ago.

Now, I try really hard not to get too attached, because my older layers I process as 'stew hens', and my extra roosters I process when they are around 5 months old.

bgmathteach

That said, there are always a couple that just manage to get around my defenses and are extra special. (Right now, it is Raven, one I hatched. She is a Marans X Orpington, completely black, with the large dark eyes of a Marans, and she is so sweet!)

bgmathteach

I also have a Welsummer who, is unfortunately, past the age I should have processed her, but couldn't last year....and a bossy but sweet Barred Rock, and a buff orpington I call Goldie...and a Roo that is a mix

bgmathteach

(he is part of my attempt to create my own meat bird...that isn't a cornishX frankenchicken.....just a little more meatier than the regular/heritage roos (which my husband states is 'an awful lot of work processing for a drumstick!'

)
Hmmm, so much for not getting attached, huh!

bgmathteach

I started with 8, but at the moment I have 139 chickens and ducks. I've only been keeping chickens for a little over 6 years, and never thought they would worm their way into my heart! And NEVER though Chicken math would get me

Still not quite sure how it happened...and so quickly!

bgmathteach

By the end of the fall, when the older girls and extra Roos /drakes are processed (Plus, I have someone I can sell extra Roos to...at 5 mos. old)., I will be down to somewhere between 65 & 70.

Oh, my...I guess I better get working on that coop I started!

bgmathteach

Right now the youngsters are in 'safe' chicken tractors. (They have 2X3 wire on the bottom to prevent diggers from getting in,...snakes aren't an issue where I am, and I haven't (YET!) have issues with Minks.) But I am going to need that new winterized coop with that many keepers, yikes!

bgmathteach

I know I sound like an oxymoron, because I do love my chickens ( and Ducks - they are sooo funny) and raising them, but I got them initially (thinking I wouldn't like them!) for eggs and healthy, safe, quality, fresh meat. I end up crying each time I process, but I am also so thankful for the eggs and meat they have provided/are providing.

bgmathteach

Go figure...humans are just way to complicated, and I think when God was handing out the 'Complicated' genes, I thought he said 'confections', and asked for extra! LOL, probably more than you wanted to know.

bgmathteach

P.S. That is cool

you have a twin sister and are raising chickens/roosters with her. I have a brother & sister that are twins, and they are especially close.

BackYard Chickens - Learn How to Raise Chickens

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