Yvette In California
Songster
Hello Everyone,
My name is Yvette and I'm super happy to be here! Yes, I'm sort of new to raising chickens. I say sort of because in middle school I was at an experimental learning school that had a chicken coop on the property with a flock of RIR's and no body was taking care of them. So I took it upon myself to care for them, muck out their coop, make repairs, and feed them. I loved it. Fast forward to a now middle-aged avid front-yard victory gardener, bread-baking, kids-in-college (no more band parent obligations, holy cow!), antique loving gal, and I'm ready. I was actually ready a couple of years ago, acquired a coop from a pet expo locally, and discovered allll about the New Castle virus. What a horrible thing - and even though my county wasn't in quarantine for it, the surrounding counties - Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego were, so no new chicks in or out. I decided to wait and be patient. Eagerly, I waited, and as many of you know all too well, as New Castle eased out, COVID came in and here we are.
During the holidays I discovered that since we're in a mild climate zone, raising chicks is apparently totally doable, so I'm ready, and I also recognize I have plenty yet to learn.
At the moment, no chickens yet. I'm interested in black astralorps largely for their disposition and their egg laying capacity. I gotta admit though, Silkies are darn cute, but I need to limit my flock to 4 (5 is the legal limit for my city), so I'm in a bit of a conundrum. Thus, I am here.
Favourite aspects: I've always been fond of chickens from an early age, and that year at that school and caring for the chooks was so satisfying. We also love eggs in our household and I'd *love* to not have to buy the costco sized brown organic eggs at some point!
Other hobbies: As mentioned, gardening, baking, old stuff. Also art - I love doing mixed media via the altered books format. I love the outdoors. I love sewing. I've been canning for decades but only recently stepped up to pressure canning. I love learning, and this year I've made a big commitment to myself of learning new things, especially American Sign Language. And yes, I'm a nerd.
My fam: Married second-time-around, going on our tenth year. Both my hubby and I work as staff members in higher education at a local university. My career in student support spans 27 years. My son, whom is 23 works for Sega International as, wait for it, a video game tester (dream job indeed) but his long term goal is to be a librarian. My daughter is 19 and in her second year at UCLA, double majoring in Asian Languages with a specialization in Mandarin Chinese and International Development. We have two nutty Tortie cats we adopted over a year ago (a mom and her mini-me). I am also super fortunate that my kid's dad and his amazing wife are a fantastic parent partnership and when our daughter was drum captain in marching band not all that long ago, we were a fantastic cheering squad, much to our daughter's general embarrassment. ❤
And, the bonus question of how I found BYC? You folks have come up numerous times when I was searching for info, and I realized, having been a part of previous affinity groups like this in other arenas of my life, it would be a good idea to connect and learn and be a part of your community. I'm glad to finally be here.
Cheers!
My name is Yvette and I'm super happy to be here! Yes, I'm sort of new to raising chickens. I say sort of because in middle school I was at an experimental learning school that had a chicken coop on the property with a flock of RIR's and no body was taking care of them. So I took it upon myself to care for them, muck out their coop, make repairs, and feed them. I loved it. Fast forward to a now middle-aged avid front-yard victory gardener, bread-baking, kids-in-college (no more band parent obligations, holy cow!), antique loving gal, and I'm ready. I was actually ready a couple of years ago, acquired a coop from a pet expo locally, and discovered allll about the New Castle virus. What a horrible thing - and even though my county wasn't in quarantine for it, the surrounding counties - Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego were, so no new chicks in or out. I decided to wait and be patient. Eagerly, I waited, and as many of you know all too well, as New Castle eased out, COVID came in and here we are.
During the holidays I discovered that since we're in a mild climate zone, raising chicks is apparently totally doable, so I'm ready, and I also recognize I have plenty yet to learn.
At the moment, no chickens yet. I'm interested in black astralorps largely for their disposition and their egg laying capacity. I gotta admit though, Silkies are darn cute, but I need to limit my flock to 4 (5 is the legal limit for my city), so I'm in a bit of a conundrum. Thus, I am here.
Favourite aspects: I've always been fond of chickens from an early age, and that year at that school and caring for the chooks was so satisfying. We also love eggs in our household and I'd *love* to not have to buy the costco sized brown organic eggs at some point!
Other hobbies: As mentioned, gardening, baking, old stuff. Also art - I love doing mixed media via the altered books format. I love the outdoors. I love sewing. I've been canning for decades but only recently stepped up to pressure canning. I love learning, and this year I've made a big commitment to myself of learning new things, especially American Sign Language. And yes, I'm a nerd.
My fam: Married second-time-around, going on our tenth year. Both my hubby and I work as staff members in higher education at a local university. My career in student support spans 27 years. My son, whom is 23 works for Sega International as, wait for it, a video game tester (dream job indeed) but his long term goal is to be a librarian. My daughter is 19 and in her second year at UCLA, double majoring in Asian Languages with a specialization in Mandarin Chinese and International Development. We have two nutty Tortie cats we adopted over a year ago (a mom and her mini-me). I am also super fortunate that my kid's dad and his amazing wife are a fantastic parent partnership and when our daughter was drum captain in marching band not all that long ago, we were a fantastic cheering squad, much to our daughter's general embarrassment. ❤
And, the bonus question of how I found BYC? You folks have come up numerous times when I was searching for info, and I realized, having been a part of previous affinity groups like this in other arenas of my life, it would be a good idea to connect and learn and be a part of your community. I'm glad to finally be here.
Cheers!
You'll definitely learn a lot here.
and welcome to BYC! You’ve joined a great and resourceful community! Enjoy your journey and HaPpY NeW YeAr!!!
