3KillerBs
Come say hello to @3KillerBs! She's been a member since July 2009 and comes to us from North Carolina.
Come say hello to @3KillerBs! She's been a member since July 2009 and comes to us from North Carolina.
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself. And is there a story behind your member name?
I'm a married mother of 4 and grandmother of 2 who will be 57 by the time anyone reads this. I live in the Sandhills region of North Carolina, having moved last year from a lot right in a small town to a 3-acre piece of country land that we share with my husband's oldest sister.
My member name originated as my name on several Nascar forums that no longer exist, It references Roush's original Killer B's -- Biffle and (Kurt)Busch in the truck series with Kyle Busch making 3. I had used the same name on all my forums so that I wouldn't have to remember who I was where.
I've considered changing it because it's no longer relevant due to those boards being extinct and due to the fact that I don't have TV now and so can't follow races readily. (Live sports are the only thing I miss about TV). But I haven't because I've got such a long history under this name and changing would feel weird.
2. Why and when did you start keeping chickens?
I've wanted to have chickens for pretty much my entire adult life, but between living in rental property and other life circumstances couldn't get them the first time until 2013 when the town I lived in then changed the regulations.
I'd literally spent decades reading about keeping chickens and lurking on poultry email lists and forums to learn what I needed to know and my threads asking questions here go back as far as 2009. So when the time came we designed and built the original version of the Little Monitor Coop and got the in-town flock -- a mix of Light and Dark Brahmas, Delawares, and a couple others.
I hadn't meant to have a rooster but shortly after The Red Boys, my Ideal packing peanuts, went to freezer camp my favorite hen, Rosemary, started to crow and became Marion -- a Light Brahma rooster who ended up 2 feet tall. I have a great weakness for feathered feet and he was both beautiful and respectful of me. Not to mention that lovely, deep-toned crow.
Fortunately, my neighbor on one side had grown up on a farm and liked hearing a rooster (he would bring his grandchildren over to see the chickens), and the neighbors on the other side figured that if we didn't mind their muscle car they didn't mind our rooster (with a little help from DH inviting their kids over to see the chickens).
Unfortunately, I had to retire that flock when I got a job where I had to work long hours and sometimes overtime and had no time to care for them much less raise up replacements and integrate them.
I got my current flock last June as soon as we'd moved to our country property.
3. Which aspects of poultry keeping do you enjoy the most?
That's so hard to say. One of the major reasons we have them is for sustainability. I love to raise my own food.
But though I don't want any non-functional retirees sitting around the coop eating without producing (and a good broody would be considered productive even if she didn't lay), I love watching their behavior. They make me smile.
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
Vinnie, the largest and boldest of The Red Boys, was something else. As soon as I'd open the access door he'd be right there demanding attention. He liked to be picked up and carried around. Knowing what I know now about how these bold young cockerels with no fear of humans usually turn out I'm very glad that I didn't try to keep him.
Noodle, a Dark Brahma hen from that first flock, who also loved human attention and who would come up and tap on my arm until she was picked up, was a DETERMINED broody who actually managed to hatch a chick through hiding an egg while I attempted to separate eggs from golf balls under her. She was never friendly like she had been after her first time of broodiness, but was always fearless -- biting viciously to the point of drawing blood when I was taking eggs from her.
Currently, Chipotle, the California White, stands out with a personality as big as her comb. Cordon, one of the Blue Australorps, is a better example of what I want from a chicken, but Chipotle upstages her constantly with her crazy antics.
Who flies out of the pen and back in any time she wants to? Chipotle.
Who bites when disturbed while laying? Not broody Cordon, Chipotle.
Who can always be found on top of the highest point available making like a weathervane? Chipotle.
Here's Marion, my in-town rooster:
Chipotle, the crazy California White supervising the crew who was installing the electric for our new house.
The new Open Air Chicken Palace under construction.
And some of it's future inhabitants.
5. What was the funniest poultry related thing that has happened to you in your years as an owner?
No specific incident comes to mind, but picture me at 5:30 or 6am trudging across the yard in a nightgown, a raincoat, and my rubber muck boots in a downpour to open the pop door. It has to be an amazing sight!
6. Beside poultry, what other pets do you keep?
Three cats -- Zeus, Peaches, and Wraith -- graciously permit us to live in their house and serve them. I've always had cats and used to keep cockatiels. Not a dog person though.
7. Anything you'd like to add?
My chickens aren't pets, they're livestock. But that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them as individual creatures -- even if I've given them all food-related names as a reminder that their ultimate purpose is the table. I hope to improve my flock over the years and that will mean eating or selling the extras. But they'll have good lives while in my care and I'll enjoy their company.
@3KillerBs
For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews.905602
For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews.905602
