Hello chicken peeps!

Hi! I've been lurking on and off for a while, and thought I'd join in. To get started, here are my responses to the suggested survey:

1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I first got chickens as a young child, and was immediately in love - my mother frequently had to drag me away from them at bedtime! I've had them on and off in the many years since.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
Our household has around 30-40 (I *think*) chickens in the big coop and 16 in the bantam coop, along with 16 juveniles in a brooder, and a clutch or two on the way, as now four of our bantam hens are being extremely broody! Of all our birds, there are about half a dozen I consider to be specifically mine, as opposed to "communal" chickens.

(3) What breeds do you have?
Orphingtons, Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks, Australorps, Marans, Polish, Legbar, Ameraucana, Wyandotte, Giant Cochin, Bantam Cochin, Frizzle Cochin, Sussex, Silkies, Japanese bantams....I'm sure I'm missing some, as we have quite the variety!

(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Y'all show up a LOT in google searches for chicken info!

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Spinning, sewing, knitting, weaving, bookbinding, gardening, wandering/travel, reading, languages and Legos. Because legos are awesome, even as an adult. ;-)

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share
I come form a long line of animal lovers, and my mom had a real proclivity for birds. Growing, up, there were always at least a few around, and sometimes several hundred! I've helped raise chickens, geese, quail, MANY pigeons, song birds, parrots...you name it! As a kid, I also brought home every baby or hurt critter I found, and we rehab-ed a lot of wild birds. My first pet that was "mine" was a sparrow we rescued and raised named Lazarus who decided he liked it better with us than out and about. We tried to release him multiple times- he'd land back on us every time.

I've also always had a fascination for genetics, leading me to do things like mapping our our pigeon flock's color genes as a teenager. I'll babble on about that sort of thing forever if given half a chance.