Come say hello to @Kusanar!
Summer has been a member since April 2014 and comes to us from Virginia.
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself.
Hi, my real name is Summer, and yes, my mom is a wanna be hippy...
I'm a BYC oddity, I don't have anything with feathers. I am a planner and like to research things to death before I jump into it, especially if it involves animals as I don't want to jump into something and put an animal in a bad position due to my lack of knowledge.
I'm pretty much a jack of all trades and full of "useless" knowledge. I love obscure facts about pretty much anything and like learning about animal husbandry for animals I will likely never have.
2. Why and when did you start keeping chickens? (or any other birds you have)
My one bird I have had was a pigeon named Felix, he was found October 2017 as a squeaker with a broken wing. Poor guy couldn't even run away from me when I caught him because he kept tripping over his wing and falling over.
I caught him, did a bunch of quick googling on what I could feed him, and got some bird seed for him that night. Of course I came on here and asked a ton of questions and got good answers including that what I had was a squeaker... I didn't even know what that was! (It's a young pigeon that has left the nest but is still screaming for parents to feed them).
Felix when I first got him
He was creepy quiet for the first few days, I guess he thought I was going to eat him if he made noise, but then he relaxed and the screaming started, every time I opened the door to the bedroom he was in it sounded like I was trying to kill him as he begged for food. It was pretty common for me to walk in there to check on him and then hear "don't kill him!" come from my husband in the other room as he joked about all of the noise.
He lived in the house for his first year, then I got him one of those cheap little prefab chicken coops so he would have a little more room and could go outside safely. It took the little guy forever to figure out the ramp, chicken spacing on the ramp was NOT pigeon spacing! He had to kind of run and flap his wings to get up the ramp, but once he figured it out he loved being able to go inside and out whenever he wanted.
He never could fly, but he got to the point he could jump and flap his way up to the top of the ramp if he didn't want to use the ramp and just wanted to hop inside. He would also climb the hardware cloth like a parrot if he wanted something and you walked into the yard where he could see you.
Felix doing his parrot impression. He wanted to go back inside and did NOT want to take a bath!
Unfortunately, he was found dead 8/12/2020 at around 3 years old. He had a good life for a flightless wild pigeon that lived in a neighborhood full of outdoor cats.
3. Which aspects of poultry keeping do you enjoy the most?
I don't have any birds now, but I enjoyed being able to look out the window at the crazy little feather-brain as he made friends with neighborhood cats and for his last few weeks, waged an epic battle with a mulberry seedling that was growing up right outside of his hardware cloth. You would see the little bush shake violently and then see wings fan out behind it as he attacked it though the wire.
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
As I have only had the one, it would have to be Felix, he's my only feathered creature I have had so far but being the only one and being such a character, he'll always be a favorite even if I get a lot of birds in the future.
Felix head shot, I had him jessed like a raptor and was walking him around the yard on my hand.
5. What was the funniest poultry related thing that has happened to you in your years as an owner?
Felix was the master of the ninja wing chop, he never did like to be touched, so any time you got a hand near him he would growl and try to smack at you, he actually had a pretty solid smack with both wings. Probably the funniest thing was, I was holding him one day and didn't have his wings pinned down, my husband reached out to scratch his neck and Felix did his signature wing chop, but Zach was ready for him and caught his wing between 2 fingers rather than letting him hit him! The look on that bird's face was priceless, he didn't quite know what to do about having his wing chop foiled!
6. Beside poultry, what other pets do you keep?
I have 7 cats, a dog, and 4 horses. There are also several stray cats that come to our porch and that we feed (how we got 6 of the house cats). I don't really do anything with the horses anymore, they are just big pets that I go love on after work.
Buzz - don't tell him he's not a cat!!
The basement crew eating dinner. From left to right: Jabba, Ivy, Ekorn, Grendel, Ceri (pronounced Carrie)
The newest addition, Albi
Sparta - the cranky old lady - don't tell her she's a cat!
Stud on the left and Papi on the right
Pippin, the boss of the field
Splash - the big baby that has to live on the next door neighbors farm because he gets picked on too much.
7. Anything you'd like to add?
I have 2 horticulture degrees, but I have never really had a vegetable garden until this year, I am working on a square foot garden as well as putting in a cattle panel for squash, as well as 2 experimental modified 3 sisters gardens for next year. I have a feeling if my garden I have planned for next year goes as planned that I will be sick and tired of vegetables before the end of the year.
The garden this year - Popcorn in the back, tomatoes to the left and peppers to the right
I have also recently started spinning wool into yarn and am also doing some weaving with the first yarn that I made as that wool is super course and there isn't enough there to really do anything else with (just under 24 grams if anyone cares).
My first yarn ball
Experimental weaving, right now the red is just to stabilize the bottom rows and will be removed later
I would like to get a milk cow, probably a Jersey, at some point as well as quail. It would also be cool to have my own fiber animals, anything but angora goats.. I do not want goats, way too much trouble to keep in a fence but angora rabbits, an alpaca, or a sheep or 2 would be nice.
@Kusanar
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
