Hello! I’m excited to join you!

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nao57 said:
Wow Margie,

You are pretty amazing to be up and doing things with your life and not just giving in.

People are happier with animals and finding a balance with them. I hope you join the duck faction here.

The duck faction here secretly is trying to overthrow the chicken faction. Because ducks are better. :p
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Thank you!
 
Margiebirds said:
Hello everyone! My name is Margie. I love all kinds of birds. About 37 years ago I got my first chickens. They were given to me - a box of 7 unsexed five hour old Bantum chicks by a neighbor. Of course there was no internet, and they came with no instructions! Dad raised some chickens when I was a child so I called him for instructions. He was out of town. So I put a shallow bowl of water and a towel in the box, packed up my baby girl, and made a quick trip to the library. Armed with some information and a library book, I made a quick trip to the IFA for necessary equipment and supplies. At home the chicks stayed in their cardboard hotel in the warmest part of the house with a lightbulb, while I built a temporary coop and run for them using salvaged materials. l ended up with five roosters and two hens. The roosters began to fight with each other and about killed the poor hens with their loving intentions. I started a bigger coop and run, thinking to separate them. My husband was very sick at that time. We lost his business, then lost our home about the same time. With the impending move, and the need to go to work full-time, I felt it best to rehome my chickens, even my beloved hens to my very good friend who added them to her flock on an acre of orchard.

About seven years ago we moved to a large rural lot and I have been hoping to keep chickens. I lost my husband very unexpectedly less than two years later. At the same time my mother-in-law (who had been living with us for 17 years) became very ill and my father was starting to fail. I moved both my mother and father to my home. I cared for each of these three wonderful people as they declined and passed away. Now I am alone and have time to start a new hobby. I need to stop thinking so much about the past and start enjoying my present. I have looked at posts on this Facebook page for several years. I am carefully reviewing the info in Backyard Chickens 101. For weeks I have scavenged wood from new home building site trash piles, Home Depot’s markdown bin, some wood from our garage, and some pallets. Now I have the majority of wood I will need for a coop and run. I am excited to get started on this project. Over the past year I bought a variety of electric tools: circular saw, jigsaw, multi tool, electric drill/driver, nailer, stapler. This spring I have built grow boxes and learned to to use the tools.

I will be 70 years old in February and I plan to throw a birthday party for myself! I will send invitations with a photo of my coop, and a gift suggestion list for items needed for my chickens. 😁 I have served and cared for others for a long time, and I need to do something for me. I hope my family and friends will be excited and support me in my new hobby. But I am so excited I might get everything ready early and may adopt a couple of hens this fall, if someone can no longer care for them.

I have a started great garden and compost bin which I will gladly share with my chickens. I have started a greenhouse! I hope to give my new feathered friends a lot of supervised fun and treats in my yard. Every time I see a bug I wish I had chicken to toss it to. And all the produce from the garden that is a little old, or bug-eaten... I want to toss it in the run instead of the composer. But they will need a secure run while I am unavailable to protect them from cats, our dogs, and the wild animals that have been seen in our area: coyotes, skunks, raccoons, chicken hawks, etc.
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Hi Margie! Wow...what an amazing introduction! We are two ladies who are 66 and 73 respectively - best friends for over 30 years. I read your post to Boots (that's her name on here, NewBoots) and we both marveled at it! Where do you live? You can see from this post that by my profile there's a place where you can list your place of residence. We are in Oregon. We built our chicken coop and run in March and now have ten hens. To film these amazing birds, I actually figured out how to make a YouTube channel and have posted videos of our little chicks while their brooder was my shower(!) and since then as they grow up.
We are both in awe of your resiliency and creative way of securing materials. I am in awe of your kindness. You sound like a person we would love to become friends with, were we in the same town.
We started with a blank lot...nothing on it but mongrel grass/weeds. Now we have 13 raised veggie beds, which we eat and share with our little flock. We hope to have eggs in the fall.
Boots suggests you check out the thread "What did you do in the garden today?" You can find it in the forums. It's sort of a social group, and everyone posts pictures of yards/crops/plants and so on and chats back and forth. We think you will like it. And we like YOU! So, welcome!


Welcome to BackYardChickens! So glad to have you here in our wonderful community of friendly, helpful, knowledgeable people!
 

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