- Nov 29, 2010
- 4
- 0
- 7
Hello everyone,
I've been a lurker on these forums for quite some time now. I finally decided to join - there is so much wonderful information and experience on here!
My husband and I recently adopted 7 rescue laying hens from some pretty terrible conditions. We're headed into winter, and most of them are missing at least 40% of their feathers, and some have wounds. They were in extremely confined conditions, no coop, no place to scratch...but now they have a huge area around our compost pile and a fortress of a coop that my husband and I built a few weeks ago. They seem much happier. We have 2 Rhode Island Reds, 3 araucanas, and 2 plymouth rocks (I think).
My husband and I are not new to backyard chickens. We moved here to New Mexico from the midwest where many of our friends were farmers, or simply people keeping backyard chickens - the local-food movement is alive and strong in place like Urbana, IL. We used to help out a lot with care of their hens while they were away. Here in New Mexico, however, our city council is mostly against the keeping of backyard chickens. My husband and I are squeaking by under the law because we live literally 2 houses outside the city limits, and we have over 1/2 acre of land. We've also always been on good terms with all of our neighbors who don't mind the chickens at all. There is a group called "Cluck" who is working on city council to change the laws and allow backyard hens, within reason.
I've noticed a lot of people list their other pets in addition to their chickens: my husband and I also have 2 dogs...and a resident gopher snake.
We're excited to finally be joining the BYC list now that we've got some girls of our own! Such a great wealth of go-to information!
Cheers to you all,
Lorikae
I've been a lurker on these forums for quite some time now. I finally decided to join - there is so much wonderful information and experience on here!
My husband and I recently adopted 7 rescue laying hens from some pretty terrible conditions. We're headed into winter, and most of them are missing at least 40% of their feathers, and some have wounds. They were in extremely confined conditions, no coop, no place to scratch...but now they have a huge area around our compost pile and a fortress of a coop that my husband and I built a few weeks ago. They seem much happier. We have 2 Rhode Island Reds, 3 araucanas, and 2 plymouth rocks (I think).
My husband and I are not new to backyard chickens. We moved here to New Mexico from the midwest where many of our friends were farmers, or simply people keeping backyard chickens - the local-food movement is alive and strong in place like Urbana, IL. We used to help out a lot with care of their hens while they were away. Here in New Mexico, however, our city council is mostly against the keeping of backyard chickens. My husband and I are squeaking by under the law because we live literally 2 houses outside the city limits, and we have over 1/2 acre of land. We've also always been on good terms with all of our neighbors who don't mind the chickens at all. There is a group called "Cluck" who is working on city council to change the laws and allow backyard hens, within reason.
I've noticed a lot of people list their other pets in addition to their chickens: my husband and I also have 2 dogs...and a resident gopher snake.
We're excited to finally be joining the BYC list now that we've got some girls of our own! Such a great wealth of go-to information!
Cheers to you all,
Lorikae
