A. Friend :
Bentonville, Arkansas, new to BYC. I have never raised chickens as an adult, but my husband and I just moved from town to the small farm where I grew up and plan to get some chicks in the spring. We're in the process of tearing apart a fallen down barn, will burn the roof wood in our stove as it's too rotten to do anything else with, and will use some of the rafter boards as framing for the small, movable coop that I'm building. It will look like a gypsy wagon and will have a separate tractor that can move wherever the coop moves. I hope to have enough layers to sell a few eggs for "feed money".
Although my parents raised a few cows, pigs, and chickens, hauled hay, milked a cow, made a huge garden and preserved food, after nearly 30 years in town, I remember very little of the "how-to's" of farming. If you've ever seen the BBC comedy "The Good Life" that pretty much is my husband and me, but we're trying to learn. So far we've had some good laughs at ourselves, nursed some wounds, and found ways to productively work out stress. My husband loves to work out and has a room full of equipment but he was complaining that he didn't have time to exercise since we moved. He commented on his sore arms one day and realized he had hauled several wheel barrow loads of wood out of the hollow. So he still gets to work out, it just looks different!
My husband was raised in the city and apparently still is a city boy- he would like to move back to town- but I am really looking forward to being a farm woman and have learned so much from the forums at BYC.
And welcome to the Arkansas thread! We are down south east at Monticello!
Anything we can help with, just ask. Will send you PM as well.
