Hey everyone, just wanted to introduce myself. Been a lurker for over a year and got lots of answers to my questions from all your posts. Thought I'd finally join.
1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I started with just a feral chicken that started wandering in my yard. Bought a bag of scratch and started feeding her when I got home from work. Eventually it got to a point where she would come running across the yard when my truck pulled in in the evenings. And then she started laying eggs right on the side of the house. I made her a coop and she started sleeping in it at night.
Several months later after we experienced the "broody hen" a couple times, we got her some fertilized eggs to lay on. She hatched 6 out of 9 of them and raised them until they annoyed the crap out of her lol. She also rejected two of them and we had to separate an raise her on her own(the other died before we noticed). This led to getting two ducklings to keep the little pullet company. Many months passed and we were able to reintegrate the flock. Three of the chicks were male so we had to rehome two of them. All was good until the male duck got aggressive with the hens so the ducks had to be kept outside the pen.
Since then, we've raised more and increased the size of the flock. The chickens have their own area fenced off and the two ducks have free reign of the yard. All is good so far.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
8 chickens(1 feral) and 2 ducks
(3) What breeds do you have?
1 feral bantam, 2 silkie hens, 1 silkie roo, 2 easter egger hens, 2 smokey pearl hens
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
Eggs! They're also fun to watch. My kids help me raise them so it's a good activity to teach them some responsibility. We have pretty nice birds too that let the kids handle them, so they're like part of the family now.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I'm a tech nerd and an engineer. I like to fix things and I use a 3d printer to make cool solutions to things I run into at the house. A lot of my chicken feeders are 3D printed now since our local stores do such a crappy job at keeping things in supply(and they are overpriced now!)
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
We have young kids. Everyone loves animals, so we also have a dog, cat and two rabbits, all indoors. The cat surprisingly hangs out with the rabbits and sleeps with them sometimes. The dog is super cool with the chickens and ducks too.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I basically winged everything, from building the coop and integrating the chicks into the flock. I made some mistakes along the way and needed to search the internet to find the help I needed. A lot of my internet inquiries led me here.
1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I started with just a feral chicken that started wandering in my yard. Bought a bag of scratch and started feeding her when I got home from work. Eventually it got to a point where she would come running across the yard when my truck pulled in in the evenings. And then she started laying eggs right on the side of the house. I made her a coop and she started sleeping in it at night.
Several months later after we experienced the "broody hen" a couple times, we got her some fertilized eggs to lay on. She hatched 6 out of 9 of them and raised them until they annoyed the crap out of her lol. She also rejected two of them and we had to separate an raise her on her own(the other died before we noticed). This led to getting two ducklings to keep the little pullet company. Many months passed and we were able to reintegrate the flock. Three of the chicks were male so we had to rehome two of them. All was good until the male duck got aggressive with the hens so the ducks had to be kept outside the pen.
Since then, we've raised more and increased the size of the flock. The chickens have their own area fenced off and the two ducks have free reign of the yard. All is good so far.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
8 chickens(1 feral) and 2 ducks
(3) What breeds do you have?
1 feral bantam, 2 silkie hens, 1 silkie roo, 2 easter egger hens, 2 smokey pearl hens
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
Eggs! They're also fun to watch. My kids help me raise them so it's a good activity to teach them some responsibility. We have pretty nice birds too that let the kids handle them, so they're like part of the family now.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I'm a tech nerd and an engineer. I like to fix things and I use a 3d printer to make cool solutions to things I run into at the house. A lot of my chicken feeders are 3D printed now since our local stores do such a crappy job at keeping things in supply(and they are overpriced now!)
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
We have young kids. Everyone loves animals, so we also have a dog, cat and two rabbits, all indoors. The cat surprisingly hangs out with the rabbits and sleeps with them sometimes. The dog is super cool with the chickens and ducks too.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I basically winged everything, from building the coop and integrating the chicks into the flock. I made some mistakes along the way and needed to search the internet to find the help I needed. A lot of my internet inquiries led me here.
Thank you for your introduction, it's nice to meet you!
