mumzee1432
Chirping
- Dec 18, 2023
- 51
- 280
- 93
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
(3) What breeds do you have?
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
Hi! I'm introducing myself a little out of order. I found this group out of desperation when we discovered one of our neighbor's free-range chickens injured in our yard after it was struck by a car 2 days ago. The single most important part of my intro is saying thank you to everyone on the board for listening, responding, and, most of all, caring when I dropped into this group trying to sort out a course to care for the injured chicken, Dumplin. My daughter just turned 18 and this was her first experience with "death" that she could comprehend. She lost great grandparents as a small child and has known people who have died, but never been hands on caring for something or someone who didn't make it. While it was hard on her, she told me last night that she was grateful to experience the emotions in the context of Dumplin before facing the death of a person close to her. She loves these chickens and jumped right in to help me take care of Dumplin. It makes me feel good to see her inclination to help and her capacity to understand a complex situation.
We are not chicken owners. I think it's fair to say we are chicken enthusiasts. My daughter is a pre-professional ballerina and studies away from home during the year. We travel with her for 5 weeks in the summer for intensive training. This year, we came back from training in Miami and discovered 4, then 5, then up to 11 chickens roaming around in our yard. These chickens were not one bit shy and seemed to know our yard better than we did. I retired from teaching (34 years - middle and high school) in July. These chickens quickly became my daytime company. I sat on the porch and studied their behavior and habits, researched questions I had, and started providing treats, water, enrichment, and much needed etiquette lessons for them. We gave them names -- so each of us knew which chicken we were referring to. I grew unhappy with names like "one of the fluffy butt ones." They come around almost like clockwork each day like trick-or-treaters. They arrive just after dawn and revisit at least 5-8 times until about an hour before sunset. They line up on the front porch to look in the window -- dominant rooster upfront, hens in the middle stirring around noisily, and wild child rooster in the back.
I have no idea what their breeds are officially, but there are 2 roosters (Ricardo, the dominant one, and Emmanuel, the wild child who craves attention and forgets he's supposed to be chivalrous). Initially, there were 3 Easter eggers (Pumkin, Nugget, & Peaches). Pumkin stopped coming around about Halloween. 3 of the hens were Isa Browns I think (including Dumplin, who just passed from the accident, her twin Peas, and one remaining -- Knuffle Bunny, named after my daughter's favorite childhood book character). The Isa Browns were particularly inclined to want to sit beside my daughter and would fall asleep on the porch. The other chickens appear to be Australorps (named Louisana & Kentucky). One of them lost her tail out of the blue and gave me my first real scare. I've never seen anything like it before -- so bizarre and pitiful looking. I researched a bit and learned that protein would help regrow those feathers faster, so all the chickens got an upgrade in snacks.
We don't know our neighbors particularly well beyond the ones right by our house. We had no idea whose chickens these were but enjoyed their company. Over time, we would chat with neighbors and eliminated each home one by one. Eventually, I discovered a woman in our back yard trying to round them up with cheerios. She introduced herself and we realized she and her husband and small child live about 5 houses away. They moved in while we were in Miami. It wasn't a bad conversation but it did have a few moments. She was surprised that we had named them. She told me that she's come to realize that the chickens visit a lot of houses in area -- listed off places she has seen them. It was clear that she knew people were taking care of them and not complaining about their tendency to dig up the yard, poop everywhere, and make a ton of collective noise. I was struck that her attitude toward the chickens didn't seem in line with the attitude of everyone the chickens visit. She attempted to sound like the chickens had a wonderful coop and they had access to food and water. I've since seen the reality and there's really not a lot of evidence that they pay attention to the chickens at all except to collect eggs. Her parting words to me were -- feel free to keep any eggs you find.
Since then, I have found dust bath spaces they have dug out in clusters. 3-5 circular pits that they take turns wallowing in. I've discovered that they climb in our backyard trees with low branches to rest during the day. They built a nest in our carport and laid eggs there until molting started. They know their names and have come to learn when they are allowed on the porch. They went from pooping on the porch about 15 times a day to once in the past month. These chickens are smart, friendly, and hilarious to watch. They can be jealous of each other and will steal food right out of each other's mouth. They now sneak to do that because they realize I won't give them treats if they are rude.
I guess my favorite aspect of chickens is realizing they are much like 6th graders and really enjoyed teaching 6th grade.
They are fun and funny -- and seek/respond to attention, instructions, and rewards. They also appear to stir up soap opera style drama and need supervision.
My other hobbies are writing, painting, event planning, cooking, digital scrapbooking, theatre, and college planning. I was a classroom teacher for 10 years then finished my career in the school library. I miss school, but I am very happy to be able to support my daughter during her senior year of HS. To round out our family, my husband and I have a cat named Poof. He is a 16 year old Persian, who brings us so much joy. He loves attention and still has so much kitten in him to be a senior cat. His vision and hearing are not great, but he does love spotting the roosters peeping into our house. He trots over to stare them down. They just eyeball each other -- neither inclined to do more than side eye.
I am not inclined to hide my disappointment in the free-range chickens' "owners." We love our feathered "trick or treaters" and will take care of them as much as we can. When they didn't follow up about the injured chicken, I found that telling. I now figure that any chicken on my property can be cared for by us without interacting with them. At some point, I may decide to get chickens of my own -- but the current flock of 8 is enough to watch out for. It's somewhat awkward to care for other people's chickens but it feels like the right and most compassionate thing to do. Thank you all for listening and for your support. Glad to be here.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
(3) What breeds do you have?
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
Hi! I'm introducing myself a little out of order. I found this group out of desperation when we discovered one of our neighbor's free-range chickens injured in our yard after it was struck by a car 2 days ago. The single most important part of my intro is saying thank you to everyone on the board for listening, responding, and, most of all, caring when I dropped into this group trying to sort out a course to care for the injured chicken, Dumplin. My daughter just turned 18 and this was her first experience with "death" that she could comprehend. She lost great grandparents as a small child and has known people who have died, but never been hands on caring for something or someone who didn't make it. While it was hard on her, she told me last night that she was grateful to experience the emotions in the context of Dumplin before facing the death of a person close to her. She loves these chickens and jumped right in to help me take care of Dumplin. It makes me feel good to see her inclination to help and her capacity to understand a complex situation.
We are not chicken owners. I think it's fair to say we are chicken enthusiasts. My daughter is a pre-professional ballerina and studies away from home during the year. We travel with her for 5 weeks in the summer for intensive training. This year, we came back from training in Miami and discovered 4, then 5, then up to 11 chickens roaming around in our yard. These chickens were not one bit shy and seemed to know our yard better than we did. I retired from teaching (34 years - middle and high school) in July. These chickens quickly became my daytime company. I sat on the porch and studied their behavior and habits, researched questions I had, and started providing treats, water, enrichment, and much needed etiquette lessons for them. We gave them names -- so each of us knew which chicken we were referring to. I grew unhappy with names like "one of the fluffy butt ones." They come around almost like clockwork each day like trick-or-treaters. They arrive just after dawn and revisit at least 5-8 times until about an hour before sunset. They line up on the front porch to look in the window -- dominant rooster upfront, hens in the middle stirring around noisily, and wild child rooster in the back.
I have no idea what their breeds are officially, but there are 2 roosters (Ricardo, the dominant one, and Emmanuel, the wild child who craves attention and forgets he's supposed to be chivalrous). Initially, there were 3 Easter eggers (Pumkin, Nugget, & Peaches). Pumkin stopped coming around about Halloween. 3 of the hens were Isa Browns I think (including Dumplin, who just passed from the accident, her twin Peas, and one remaining -- Knuffle Bunny, named after my daughter's favorite childhood book character). The Isa Browns were particularly inclined to want to sit beside my daughter and would fall asleep on the porch. The other chickens appear to be Australorps (named Louisana & Kentucky). One of them lost her tail out of the blue and gave me my first real scare. I've never seen anything like it before -- so bizarre and pitiful looking. I researched a bit and learned that protein would help regrow those feathers faster, so all the chickens got an upgrade in snacks.
We don't know our neighbors particularly well beyond the ones right by our house. We had no idea whose chickens these were but enjoyed their company. Over time, we would chat with neighbors and eliminated each home one by one. Eventually, I discovered a woman in our back yard trying to round them up with cheerios. She introduced herself and we realized she and her husband and small child live about 5 houses away. They moved in while we were in Miami. It wasn't a bad conversation but it did have a few moments. She was surprised that we had named them. She told me that she's come to realize that the chickens visit a lot of houses in area -- listed off places she has seen them. It was clear that she knew people were taking care of them and not complaining about their tendency to dig up the yard, poop everywhere, and make a ton of collective noise. I was struck that her attitude toward the chickens didn't seem in line with the attitude of everyone the chickens visit. She attempted to sound like the chickens had a wonderful coop and they had access to food and water. I've since seen the reality and there's really not a lot of evidence that they pay attention to the chickens at all except to collect eggs. Her parting words to me were -- feel free to keep any eggs you find.
Since then, I have found dust bath spaces they have dug out in clusters. 3-5 circular pits that they take turns wallowing in. I've discovered that they climb in our backyard trees with low branches to rest during the day. They built a nest in our carport and laid eggs there until molting started. They know their names and have come to learn when they are allowed on the porch. They went from pooping on the porch about 15 times a day to once in the past month. These chickens are smart, friendly, and hilarious to watch. They can be jealous of each other and will steal food right out of each other's mouth. They now sneak to do that because they realize I won't give them treats if they are rude.
I guess my favorite aspect of chickens is realizing they are much like 6th graders and really enjoyed teaching 6th grade.They are fun and funny -- and seek/respond to attention, instructions, and rewards. They also appear to stir up soap opera style drama and need supervision.
My other hobbies are writing, painting, event planning, cooking, digital scrapbooking, theatre, and college planning. I was a classroom teacher for 10 years then finished my career in the school library. I miss school, but I am very happy to be able to support my daughter during her senior year of HS. To round out our family, my husband and I have a cat named Poof. He is a 16 year old Persian, who brings us so much joy. He loves attention and still has so much kitten in him to be a senior cat. His vision and hearing are not great, but he does love spotting the roosters peeping into our house. He trots over to stare them down. They just eyeball each other -- neither inclined to do more than side eye.
I am not inclined to hide my disappointment in the free-range chickens' "owners." We love our feathered "trick or treaters" and will take care of them as much as we can. When they didn't follow up about the injured chicken, I found that telling. I now figure that any chicken on my property can be cared for by us without interacting with them. At some point, I may decide to get chickens of my own -- but the current flock of 8 is enough to watch out for. It's somewhat awkward to care for other people's chickens but it feels like the right and most compassionate thing to do. Thank you all for listening and for your support. Glad to be here.
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and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.
to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
