Hello from New Zealand.

Hi there, I'm a new member to the site but I've been reading the forums for the last couple of weeks. I've been enjoying what I've read, and now I'm eager to join the conversation.


(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
A few years ago I rescued a couple of chicks from a paddock in the middle of the night. I became surrogate mum, during the day I kept them in my bra, during the night they were in a container in the hot water cupboard.
They soon graduated to a cat cage, then I sourced them a coop and run.

6 months later I moved to a farm which had its own resident chickens. This increased my flock to 10. Sadly I had to move away and leave the chickens with my flatmate. The flock lives on and is probably 60+ now.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
I currently have 2 chickens. Offspring of my original flock.

(3) What breeds do you have?
Mongrels.
My original chicks were black and I suspect australorps. One was a rooster so he became my original breeding rooster.

My next additions were a mixture of breeds, a couple of bantams, a large white hen, and a few others.
This group expanded to about 20 after several months.

I acquired a new rooster and culled my original. The new rooster was a gravel pit find from a frequent dumping place for unwanted chickens.
He was gorgeous, however we didn't realize he was only half grown when we acquired him.
He was the size of a full grown rooster when we got him.

He soon grew massive.

Fully grown he was 2 feet tall, and solid. The biggest chicken I had ever seen.

Just as the first hatchings from him were cracking their shells, I was forced to relocate and leave my entire flock behind.

Now I have two of the offspring of that flock. So they really are mongrels, but beautiful birds which lay nice sized eggs.

(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Googling things to do with chickens and this site frequently came up.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Gardening, reading, learning.

 

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone.

Nice to see another kiwi in here, I worried a little I might be the only one