welcome! great introductionHey everybody! I hope I do this introduction thing right!
After literally OVER SIX YEARS of constantly creeping on this site from the shadows (aka not signing up for an account) and spending countless hours reading everything I could possibly get my hands on (well, within reason — I haven't read EVERYTHING on this site... yet!) I've finally made the plunge and signed up for an baccount of my own. And, boy, does it feel great!
I figured I'd just copy+paste the introduction template and go from there for this, my first official BYC post. What an exciting day today is, for me, at least. Never thought I'd actually be posting on Backyard Chickens and yet here I am — I guess dreams (sometimes) really DO come true!
Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Confession: I'm not getting chickens. I'm actually a soon-to-be duck mama! But there's such a wealth of knowledge and information on here, both for just poultry in general, and for ducks (as well as obviously chickens... duhhhh) that it only made sense for me to sign up and become a member. As far as being a newbie — yup, I totally am! I've read a ton of articles online and I own five books on raising ducks (and obviously I've been lurking on this site as well, hence the post title) but aside from my book-learnin' I have no actual experience with poultry. So I'm both super excited to start this adventure into raising ducks, and kind of terrified at the same time. But mostly just really excited!
How many chickens ducks do you have right now?
Right now I have ZERO... but as of the end of March I should have SIX little ducklings!!! I believe their ship date is 3/22/2021 so I'm assuming that I should (hopefully) get them the next day. But I actually have no idea when I'll be able to pick them up from the post office. I'll probably call the hatchery to get an idea of when to expect them, and then call the post office to give them a head's up and give them my phone number just so I know that they have it — because as soon as I get the call that they've arrived I'll be there before they probably hang up the phone with me!
What breeds do will you have?
I wanted to order one of every breed of duck that was available but my husband told me we should start with a more manageable little flock and expand in the future if we so choose (SPOILER ALERT: WE'RE DEFINITELY GOING TO WANT MORE IN THE FUTURE — or at least I will!). So I had to whittle down my order to just six breeds. I figured I'd try to get different breeds to be able to super easily distinguish one from another & I'm pretty excited about the breeds that I chose. I got one female of each of the following — Silver Appleyard, Welsh Harlequin, Blue Swedish, Buff Orpington, Duclair and Cayuga.
What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens ducks?
I can’t answer that yet but I can’t wait until the day when I DO have an answer for this! Right now my duck experience is minimal — aside from reading my books and researching online, and having 90% of the content I look at on Instagram be duck/poultry accounts, I have no actual experience with ducks. But you have to start somewhere, right?
What are some of your other hobbies?
You know, sadly, a year ago I wouldn’t have had any hobbies to list… other than work. But that’s not really a “hobby”, now is it? (Unless you’re one of the lucky few who absolutely LOVES what you do for a living — in which case, CONGRATULATIONS!) I left my job at the start of the pandemic back in March of 2020 and I never went back. I’ve finally been able to actually pick up hobbies that I otherwise never would’ve had time for, so that’s one positive thing that came out of all of this mess of a year that we’ve all had to live through. My newfound hobbies include gardening, knitting, painting pet portraits (my tiny side hustle that literally pays NO bills whatsoever but is fun so hey, that’s something, right?), and my newest hobby is getting into sourdough. I’m not one to follow crazes usually but I was just given some starter about a month ago and I was like “hey, who doesn’t like sourdough bread?” so I guess I hopped on that bandwagon. Still don’t have a Dutch oven to bake my bread in, but in time I’ll get my act together —and I swear, eventually, I’ll actually make a delicious loaf or two of bread!
Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
Currently I live in Northwestern Connecticut with my husband and our two cats — Ouija is our oldest, at six years old, and he has the chubbiest cheeks you’ve ever seen and five extra toes, and he’s a silly (but super serious) little weirdo. Taboo is our youngest, at almost four years old, and he’s my literal shadow and little best friend — he has to be by my side, or touching me with some part of his body (or at least have me in his line of sight) at all times. He’s kind of a little perv and he humps anything that is pink and furry or fluffy — multiple times a day. It’s his hobby, aside from sleeping and eating, so the name Taboo is actually kind of perfect for him. I keep trying to prep him for his little duck sisters that will be coming to live with us in a few months, but I don’t think he believes me. Oh yeah — I talk to my cats, all the time.
As for my occupation — I worked as a nursery school teacher for thirteen years before the pandemic hit. I had eight two-year-olds in my class and I really enjoyed working with that age group. They’re so much fun! I never expected to leave my job but then March 2020 happened and my life (along with most everyone else’s) turned upside down. My school reopened in June but I chose not to go back — with my husband’s underlying health conditions and the risk of me picking up the coronavirus from one of my students and passing it on to him, we decided that it just wasn’t worth it for me to return to work. So for the past year I’ve been a stay-at-home cat mama and have painted pet portraits as a side hustle, but pretty much I’ve been living in a little quarantine bubble ever since the end of March last year. I never would’ve thought that in March of this year I’d actually be living out one of my dreams of having my own little flock of ducks! But hey, a lot can happen in a year, as we all know pretty well by this point. I’m very excited for the future and for what 2021 will bring!
How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I honestly can’t remember how or why I first found BYC, but it was many, many years ago — I know for a fact I’ve been reading posts from this site for over six years now. I honestly didn’t believe that I could have a flock of ducks because I used to work such long hours — I would leave home around 5am and wouldn’t return back home until close to 6pm — so I just didn’t think it was practical to try to care for ducks when I would never bee around to enjoy them.
I finally joined the BYC community once I put in the order for my very first batch of ducklings because now that I know that my dream of owning ducks is actually going to happen it just seemed like the logical thing to do! I always knew that if, and when, I got my ducklings I would sign up for an account because there’s just such a wealth of information on here and so many knowledgeable people with way more experience than I’ll ever have, and I’m just so happy to finally have created an account and to be able to take this next step into my journey of raising backyard ducks!
So, that's that! Hope y'all have a great day, great weekend... and great year! Because why not?!
we're glad you decided to join us
But I'm definitely BEYOND excited that things are actually finally coming together and my dream is becoming a reality!
Haha, sounds familiar. Happened at our house, too.
That would be an awesome perk for sure, seeing as how my husband has already gotten Lyme's Disease three different times from tick bites -- having less ticks on our property would be terrific! 
