We're so happy you've decided to join us
Welcome to BYCHello all!! My name is Jami and I raised chickens for most of my childhood with 4-H and helping my big brother with his flocks. I’m a 31 year old SAHM of 3 very special turddlers (I always reference them as X, Y & Z) and wife of an army veteran that’s still serving in the Guard. Recently we moved to the Columbus, Ohio region to be closer to my boys’ developmental healthcare teams. Since then I have been slowly but aggressively turning our home into a very small slice of country. Lol I call it my curb-stead.
I LOVE having close to home access to fresh meat and produce. X won’t eat his pb&j? Let him loose in the garden and he will pick leaves off of every plant and munch away. Y always picks off my flowers and eats them. Z is pretty easy to please with any kind of fruit. These kids are why I do what I do. We have a limited income and I supplement most of our food budget with my garden and trade for other things that I can’t provide from our yard. I’ve been spoiled in the past with a large enough area to provide our basic needs with like-minded people surrounding us. Now that we are separated from all of that I had to get creative. Everything I put in my yard now has to have a useful purpose. My shrubs and trees are all fruit bearing with very few ornamentals that I can propagate and sell/trade easily.
Now going back to chickens... I never bred chickens but am excited to dabble in breeding my ducks. Wait, getting ahead of myself already. So I currently have zero chickens as we live in the suburbs on about 1/8 of an acre and the back of our property butts up to the local elementary playground. Not a huge issue but could get a few extra complaints about the noise, mess, etc. We did NOT expect to have any kind of livestock except maybe some rabbits due to this. The township can be pretty strict I guess.
Anyways! Due to the schools being closed there has been quite a few more ducks flying into the playground and one morning I woke up to 3 random ducklings in my yard with no mama or other ducks anywhere in the area. Kept them near the fence line over the next few days but no duckie came to claim these cute little guys. They all got sick, my kids (and husband, not that he will admit it) became attached, 2 died, I panicked because they need to have a buddy, husband made me go buy more, brought home a pekin pair and 2 female rouhens (since the one mallard duckling left was a male and I wanted the same coloring), the last mallard died, needed a male for the rouhens and well, most of you know what they say about chicken math problems? Yeeeeeeah same goes for duck apparently
Our current count is 9 magpies, 3 rouhen and 4 pekins... Lol don’t ask
Hubs is building a ginormous condo for them in my garden and they are currently in our garage and the “small” duck house.
I’ve been stalking posts on here ever since the set of wild ducklings. I decided to join because I’m quickly learning, hands on, the massive differences between chickens and ducks. Hoping to help someone else in the future and keep them from making the same mistakes I did.
Please give me any advice you are willing to impart on me and I will gladly help you where and when I can. Thank you for taking the time to read my long drawn out introduction and I hope you all stay well!
. I am a yearling here and this site has been amazing. I’ve learned so much. Last year we were gifted 6 layers and now we are introducing the 4 chicks we started 8 weeks ago to the coop. They have been in a homemade brooder indoors at night. I really appreciate the help I get from my new BYC family. It’s my go to place for all the info I need 
Jacob said “thank you!” He’s a great daddy and hard workin man. He’s pretty awesome but we will keep that a secretOk. First things first. Tell your husband that THIS old NC Grandma THANKS him for his past, present and possibly future service to keep our country and other counties safe.
He sounds like a great dad and great provider.
Secondly, I have a son, sweet DIL and grandkid an hour south of Columbus Ohio- and I love that area of the USA. I hope you enjoy the community here at BYC!
