@nuthatched
Come say hello to Gail! She's been a member since November 2019 and comes to us from Arizona.
Come say hello to Gail! She's been a member since November 2019 and comes to us from Arizona.
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself. And is there a story behind your member name?
Hello, my name is Gail, and I live in North-Central Arizona.
I enjoy hiking/exploring, designing, building, and sewing historical costumes, doing some video gaming, a little photography, and experimenting in the kitchen. As for my username, Nuthatches are one of my favorite bird species, you have to love a fearless little bird that can scamper up and down a tree vertically or casually walk along the underside of a branch.
Besides, 'Cedar Waxing' doesn't roll off the tongue. Nuthatch was already a listed member, so adding an 'ed' made it a lovely double entendre.
This is where I live:
2. Why and when did you start keeping poultry?
When I was a child, my family bred and raised Barred Plymouth Rock for show and Cornish x for meat;
We eventually sold our stock and switched to Production Reds for eggs. Until I was maybe 9, I didn't realize chicken came in other colors besides barred, white and brown! When I got my first job, I ordered 'my own' chickens, 5 Barred Rocks, and 5 Red Stars/Comets. My two remaining girls from that flock died at 9 years old in 2018, the Barred Rock- Dumplin was a Picture of the Week.
I currently have Speckled Sussex, Barnvelder, Wyandotte (Wy-donette if you're a lazy reader like me), Partridge, and Penciled Rocks. Naturally, there are always more breeds that need sampling…
3. Which aspects of poultry keeping do you enjoy the most?
My chickens lean more towards livestock than pets, so eggs to eat and sell are the primary focus, however, it often depends on what shenanigans the flock has pulled that day. Sometimes you wonder if chickens are smarter than they look and other times you wonder how they manage to survive day to day, even if you provide easy-to-find food and water daily.
Scolding them for not laying eggs so "you had to buy eggs from the store!" is a lesson in absurdity, since a few will appear to drink in every word while the rest are busy untying your shoes.
At least they come when called.
One of the few cons for me is the chicken memorabilia people give you when they see you have chickens. I don't need or want chicken-flavored knick-knacks, hand towels, or signs. If you want to give me something chicken-themed, you can get me a bag of feed or a bucket of fried chicken, lol!
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
One of my first Barred Rock hens was massive! We named her Cordelia, she was 100% hen but almost double the height/size of her sisters. She was a very calm and gentle hen. Then Lady Tryphenna (Fenna) was a Speckled Sussex whose head was almost exclusively white with typical mottling on her body, I would have loved to see what her second molt brought.
5. What was the funniest poultry related thing that has happened to you in your years as an owner?
A specific instance?
Hmm, a few years ago, my slightly befuddled (he always meant well) Rooster, Laird (Lord) Bruce decided to take his lovely harem on a jolly tour of the neighborhood instead of kicking up the leaves in the sideyard like I thought they would when I let them out of their run to range a bit. About an hour later, I checked on them and found only a few 'non-harem' hens happily digging in the leaves, and Bruce with his six girls gone. Since I hadn't heard anything and the hens were undisturbed, I figured he had wandered away to clean up under the neighbors' bird feeders. Nope, no chickens. I checked a few places they usually liked to dig but there wasn't any trace of them. After a while, I called the neighbors to see if they'd seen anything. No success there. Then a delivery truck went down our road and set the neighbor's dogs off, I could hear my rooster crowing away with the dogs (this was normal for him, he was reasonably quiet unless he heard dogs/coyotes) but it was coming from the next street over. Cutting through the driveway of the neighbor behind us, there they were, stuck behind a chain link fence of a weekender cabin! I tried herding them out but when the hens started following me to go back around the fence, Bruce would huff, mutter, and tidbit and they'd run back to follow him. They weren't entirely wrong, they were going in the right direction to home but there was a 6' fence in the way. I had to grab Bruce, toss him over the fence then catch the hens and toss them, it was going fine until the last hen, one of the Wyandotte (it's always a Wyandotte….) screamed bloody murder when I caught her, then a very peeved Bruce let a mighty QUARK and charged the fence, the only time he was aggressive to me.
Once the Wyandotte hit the ground, Bruce did a head count, rounded up his entourage, and headed home.
That’s when I realized I had an audience in a lady walking her dog.
"Just getting my chickens out of the neighbors' yard…haha, they wandered away…"
I didn't let them out of the run for some time after that and Bruce and I gave each other plenty of mutual stink eye for a week.
I've also been hit in the head by a flying chicken that decided she needed to see what I was carrying right that moment, 'lost' a hen…until we saw her on the roof of our 2-story house, almost been 'pantsed' by my rooster who thought the drawstring on my PJs looked mighty tasty and had a javelina zip out of an ajar coop door-right between my legs. I scream like a cartoon character.
This is Bruce.
6. Beside poultry, what other pets do you keep?
I have 2 cats, Josie (Jo Shmoe) and Stella.
7. Is there anything you'd like to add?
I appreciate the BYC community for being so knowledgeable and willing to teach.
I've always believed that teaching people why, what for, and how is the best way, to not only explain something but to allow the person to think through problems and have the satisfaction of solving a new problem themselves with the facts they know.
It's one thing to say "This is what's wrong, you do A, B, C to fix it." and another to say "This is what could be wrong, this is what caused it, this is how you fix it with A, this is why A will fix it, here's how B could help long term and C will help prevent this from happening again."
Thank you for being such a wonderful community.
@nuthatched
For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews
For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews
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