Hello from Central Nebraska!

I have been a member since I first owned chickens---December 2009. I have owned one buff orpington, many leghorns, a few easter eggers and rhode islands, one australorp, and five barred rock chickens. I also used a very broody hen to hatch and raise guinea keets. It was one of the cutest families I ever created. When my husband was offered a new position near North Platte, Nebraska our family packed up and moved into our new home, with our all our lovely chickens and guineas.

Sadly, not more than a week after we moved in a stray dog ripped into the coop and ended the lives of almost all of my chickens. My husband woke me early in the morning and I had to gather their bodies or end their lives quickly to stop the pain. It was a hard lesson to learn. I lost 12 chickens that day, some guinea keets(and their chicken mother). So now, with my reinforced coop and, ahem...better aim at Nebraska's predators---we are starting over.

I still own two chickens from my original group, a rhode island red and a barred rock. My rhode island red actually "adopted" the remaining guinea keet after the accident and I refer to her as old mother hen, since she is the top girl of the group. Then I have several star breed layers and just one very annoying guinea hen left...who calls out...all hours of the day.... I call the guinea "Smarty Pants" since she is the only one to have survived and returned to the coop every night.

We live way out in the hills of the wilderness here in Nebraska. We have visits from bobcats, opposums, skunks, hawks, and owls on a regular basis. If anyone has tips to prevent these predators from entering my coop feel free to share since I may have not tried that technique yet and reinforcements are always welcome.

Anyway, I am set to receive my shipment from McMurray Hatchery next monday. 15 Cornish, 7 Orpingtons, 4 Silkies, and I am currently incubating some dark cornish chickens now. My incubator is homemade and they are set to hatch on the 9th of February. We'll see how that goes!

Thanks for reading. I look forward to meeting more of you soon

Jasmine