I saw a post about new member introduction questions. Here goes.
1. I am sort of new to chickens. My mother had chickens, but she was very country about it.... Where I used to live, if livestock were sick, they got put down, pretty much everyone did that. I adopted several chickens sort of by force when my husband and I bought a house, June 2021. The lady who owned the home previously, just said "you want my chickens? I can't take them with me". We obviously said yes.
Several of the chickens were sick, I tried to get vet care, everyone was booked solid and not taking new patients and my current vet doesn't "do bird care". There was two solid feet of their manure within their coop, took me three months to get it all cleared out, and some areas were so caked in chicken poop i couldn't get it out, it is like cement. One chicken passed away, we think she had a stroke, because no one else got sick in her particular way and she slowly got worse even with vitamin water, and cattle dewormer. We also took loads of other suggestions from different vets who said they couldn't look at her but dispensed advice. We tried pretty much everything. Half the chickens had pasty-butt, that was so not fun catching chickens without stressing them out too much. Did I mention all the chickens started out what I assume was feral? And one chicken had a baby following her around. That baby now has eggs the color of mint ice-cream while her mom has white eggs. super cute.
2. We have 10 chickens; 9 hens, 1 rooster.
Madam Lily, Helga, Princess Vespa, Princess Buttercup, Lady Merian, Big Bertha, Molly Flanders, King Henry, Mamma, and baby Gracie.
3. We don't know what they are. 2 look... like Japanese bantams. 2 are very unknown and 1 looks like a black sex link which at first we assumed was a giant jersey it was so big. A family member came by in Aug of 2021 and dropped off a load of hybrid chickens (black sex link and red sex link?) because she said she had too many from the mail order trip. We ran out and got a tractor supply cheap coop. And spent several months caring for junior-aged chickens until we were sure everyone was healthy and then moved them into the old coop because we had no other choice. The babies were getting so big they were soon going to run out of headspace in the little cheap coop. We are now saving money to build our own movable A-frame coop. 2 of those are black sex-links and 2 are red sex-links, but 1 has so much white I think she has leghorn in her she has pale pink-brown eggs whereas everyone else in her family grouping has dark brown eggs.
4. I love these chickens like I love my dogs, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for them. I bought several books and found this website when looking for the newest vet help. My favorite aspect... I don't know, I like the different types of eggs they produce and would like to get some blue eggers, and some pretty patterned ones just to intermix breed them. I like it when they let me pick them up. Some are still so scared of humans, but it was very rewarding when one of the bantams finally let me pick her up and she made what I assume is a cooing sound and she nestled right into me and started falling asleep.
5. Hobbies... you mean before ten chickens fell into our laps? um.... I love to quilt and paint.
6. Other pets... Well we have 2 adopted dogs with very different personalities; 1 is very much like scooby-doo, the 2nd is very wary of strangers but sweet and allergic to pretty much everything and we have 1 adopted diabetic cat. And you read that right, he is diabetic, we got him that way.
7. I found this website looking for answers to things that aren't in my books. I have one injured chicken with a rump bite mark and missing feathers, we took care of the holes that formed in the run over the course of the winter's heavy snow. I still see tracks of raccoon, fisher cat, and rabbit around our coop but no longer getting inside, she is healing quite nicely she is named madam lily von, and there is one chicken named princess buttercup that is acting sleepy, i don't know if it is a sickness or a sign of molting. It is spring and the chickens are all going through various stages. I decided to join this website because I'm not a vet, and I don't know what I'm doing half the time. But I am determined to care for these chickens, I love them and I want to get more of them in the future.
1. I am sort of new to chickens. My mother had chickens, but she was very country about it.... Where I used to live, if livestock were sick, they got put down, pretty much everyone did that. I adopted several chickens sort of by force when my husband and I bought a house, June 2021. The lady who owned the home previously, just said "you want my chickens? I can't take them with me". We obviously said yes.
Several of the chickens were sick, I tried to get vet care, everyone was booked solid and not taking new patients and my current vet doesn't "do bird care". There was two solid feet of their manure within their coop, took me three months to get it all cleared out, and some areas were so caked in chicken poop i couldn't get it out, it is like cement. One chicken passed away, we think she had a stroke, because no one else got sick in her particular way and she slowly got worse even with vitamin water, and cattle dewormer. We also took loads of other suggestions from different vets who said they couldn't look at her but dispensed advice. We tried pretty much everything. Half the chickens had pasty-butt, that was so not fun catching chickens without stressing them out too much. Did I mention all the chickens started out what I assume was feral? And one chicken had a baby following her around. That baby now has eggs the color of mint ice-cream while her mom has white eggs. super cute.
2. We have 10 chickens; 9 hens, 1 rooster.
Madam Lily, Helga, Princess Vespa, Princess Buttercup, Lady Merian, Big Bertha, Molly Flanders, King Henry, Mamma, and baby Gracie.
3. We don't know what they are. 2 look... like Japanese bantams. 2 are very unknown and 1 looks like a black sex link which at first we assumed was a giant jersey it was so big. A family member came by in Aug of 2021 and dropped off a load of hybrid chickens (black sex link and red sex link?) because she said she had too many from the mail order trip. We ran out and got a tractor supply cheap coop. And spent several months caring for junior-aged chickens until we were sure everyone was healthy and then moved them into the old coop because we had no other choice. The babies were getting so big they were soon going to run out of headspace in the little cheap coop. We are now saving money to build our own movable A-frame coop. 2 of those are black sex-links and 2 are red sex-links, but 1 has so much white I think she has leghorn in her she has pale pink-brown eggs whereas everyone else in her family grouping has dark brown eggs.
4. I love these chickens like I love my dogs, there isn't anything I wouldn't do for them. I bought several books and found this website when looking for the newest vet help. My favorite aspect... I don't know, I like the different types of eggs they produce and would like to get some blue eggers, and some pretty patterned ones just to intermix breed them. I like it when they let me pick them up. Some are still so scared of humans, but it was very rewarding when one of the bantams finally let me pick her up and she made what I assume is a cooing sound and she nestled right into me and started falling asleep.
5. Hobbies... you mean before ten chickens fell into our laps? um.... I love to quilt and paint.
6. Other pets... Well we have 2 adopted dogs with very different personalities; 1 is very much like scooby-doo, the 2nd is very wary of strangers but sweet and allergic to pretty much everything and we have 1 adopted diabetic cat. And you read that right, he is diabetic, we got him that way.
7. I found this website looking for answers to things that aren't in my books. I have one injured chicken with a rump bite mark and missing feathers, we took care of the holes that formed in the run over the course of the winter's heavy snow. I still see tracks of raccoon, fisher cat, and rabbit around our coop but no longer getting inside, she is healing quite nicely she is named madam lily von, and there is one chicken named princess buttercup that is acting sleepy, i don't know if it is a sickness or a sign of molting. It is spring and the chickens are all going through various stages. I decided to join this website because I'm not a vet, and I don't know what I'm doing half the time. But I am determined to care for these chickens, I love them and I want to get more of them in the future.
Glad you joined.
