- Jun 19, 2013
- 8
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- 9
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I helped my Mom with chickens on the farm at home when I was an early teen. We had chickens for several years. Barred Rocks, Easter Eggers, Rhode Island Reds, and one HUGE white Leghorn hen. Man, she was B-I-G. lol
I've read Living With Chickens, and the chicken section in The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers (which is a neat book with a crazy-long name lol), and various blog posts around the interwebz about keeping chickens.
I'm especially inspired by Atholcoop's page about his own henhouse, and one he recently built. (DH and I will be building our version of the second one on Saturday--I can't hardly wait!) His coops seem really convenient for people, and yet the second one is super-simple and secure.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
At this moment, none. I'm hoping, though, within the next week or two, to have 6-12 laying hens and a good (i.e. watchful & careful, but not dangerous) rooster.
(3) What breeds do you have?
I'm hoping to find Black Australorps (winter production & beautiful iridescent feathers), Barred Rocks (nostalgia), Easter Eggers (colored eggs-yeah!), Brahmas (winter production & just cool), Silver or Blue Laced Wyandottes (lovely lovely lovely, lol), and maybe a Cochin or two (more loveliness). I'd love to have some Cream Legbars eventually, but we'll see. They're $$$$.
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
My google-fu. ;o) And BYC's awesomeness . . . it kept popping up everytime I'd search for anything chicken-related. lol
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Ummmm . . . what other hobbies *don't* I have? lol I've tried or learned most things . . . scrapbooking, making jewelry, crochet, knitting, spinning, weaving, sewing, general crafting (making Christmas ornaments, paper crafts, etc), stamping. I'm heading into woodworking, too, so I don't have to go into the poor house for decent furniture. (Can you say ana-white.com?)
I've also done a lot of family-related hobbying. Cloth diapering, natural health care, healthy eating, and more.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I have a rockin' awesome husband, Vern, and we have six children (13 down to 2.5). In July it'll be 15 years since we started this crazy life together, and we've been through all kinds of ups and downs together . . . and he's honestly my best friend.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We live on a few acres in the woods of Northern Idaho, and while it took us fourteen years to actually GET to our place, (long, long story of a TON of moving and always finding the WRONG place! lol), we're so thrilled to be here and to be putting down roots . . . building a home in a couple years, planting perennial vegetables, berries, shrubs & trees, and doing all of those kinds of things that wanna-be homesteaders dream of, and drool over their keyboards for when they're lurking over at Pinterest.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We have four outside cats (we just couldn't separate the litter when we went to go pick out two), an awesome dog Tracs (a rescue mutt that looks very much like a Basset Hound/Schnauzer cross and is perfect for our family), and plenty of Western Conifer Seed Bugs, carpenter ants and yellow jackets. Oh, and we're planning on honey bees next year, and a pound of red worms and a vermicomposting setup will be arriving in my next Azure order. [/FONT]
I know I might sound insufferably cheerful and like my life is all sunshine and fresh eggs . . . but it's life--just like a lot of others. I've made a conscious decision to not think about the negative stuff . . . did that for more than a decade . . . and it's just not worth the lousy returns.
I might be considered unrealistic or Pollyanna-esque, but my world is much happier this way, and I owe no allegiance to living in a reality that doesn't bring happiness.
Besides . . . God is Good.
(But don't worry--that's all you'll ever hear from me on spiritual matters. . .
)
I helped my Mom with chickens on the farm at home when I was an early teen. We had chickens for several years. Barred Rocks, Easter Eggers, Rhode Island Reds, and one HUGE white Leghorn hen. Man, she was B-I-G. lol
I've read Living With Chickens, and the chicken section in The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers (which is a neat book with a crazy-long name lol), and various blog posts around the interwebz about keeping chickens.
I'm especially inspired by Atholcoop's page about his own henhouse, and one he recently built. (DH and I will be building our version of the second one on Saturday--I can't hardly wait!) His coops seem really convenient for people, and yet the second one is super-simple and secure.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
At this moment, none. I'm hoping, though, within the next week or two, to have 6-12 laying hens and a good (i.e. watchful & careful, but not dangerous) rooster.
(3) What breeds do you have?
I'm hoping to find Black Australorps (winter production & beautiful iridescent feathers), Barred Rocks (nostalgia), Easter Eggers (colored eggs-yeah!), Brahmas (winter production & just cool), Silver or Blue Laced Wyandottes (lovely lovely lovely, lol), and maybe a Cochin or two (more loveliness). I'd love to have some Cream Legbars eventually, but we'll see. They're $$$$.
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
My google-fu. ;o) And BYC's awesomeness . . . it kept popping up everytime I'd search for anything chicken-related. lol
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Ummmm . . . what other hobbies *don't* I have? lol I've tried or learned most things . . . scrapbooking, making jewelry, crochet, knitting, spinning, weaving, sewing, general crafting (making Christmas ornaments, paper crafts, etc), stamping. I'm heading into woodworking, too, so I don't have to go into the poor house for decent furniture. (Can you say ana-white.com?)
I've also done a lot of family-related hobbying. Cloth diapering, natural health care, healthy eating, and more.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]I have a rockin' awesome husband, Vern, and we have six children (13 down to 2.5). In July it'll be 15 years since we started this crazy life together, and we've been through all kinds of ups and downs together . . . and he's honestly my best friend.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We live on a few acres in the woods of Northern Idaho, and while it took us fourteen years to actually GET to our place, (long, long story of a TON of moving and always finding the WRONG place! lol), we're so thrilled to be here and to be putting down roots . . . building a home in a couple years, planting perennial vegetables, berries, shrubs & trees, and doing all of those kinds of things that wanna-be homesteaders dream of, and drool over their keyboards for when they're lurking over at Pinterest.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]We have four outside cats (we just couldn't separate the litter when we went to go pick out two), an awesome dog Tracs (a rescue mutt that looks very much like a Basset Hound/Schnauzer cross and is perfect for our family), and plenty of Western Conifer Seed Bugs, carpenter ants and yellow jackets. Oh, and we're planning on honey bees next year, and a pound of red worms and a vermicomposting setup will be arriving in my next Azure order. [/FONT]
I know I might sound insufferably cheerful and like my life is all sunshine and fresh eggs . . . but it's life--just like a lot of others. I've made a conscious decision to not think about the negative stuff . . . did that for more than a decade . . . and it's just not worth the lousy returns.
Besides . . . God is Good.
(But don't worry--that's all you'll ever hear from me on spiritual matters. . .
