melcaara
Chirping
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I'm not exactly new, but this is the first time I personally owned them and cared for them directly. My dad has had chickens on our farm since I was 11 (I'm 23 now) but I never did anything with them and we didn't make them friendly. Now I've got a handful of chickens myself after moving out, I've had them for a year now
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
4 Orpingtons, one of which is hatching some cream legbar (3), ayam cemani(2), and copper maran (2) eggs (Although sadly I think the Cemani eggs didn't make it; I had all of them shipped to me. First Cemani egg was unfertilized and the second one is only 1/2 full at 21 days. The 3 cream legbars and 1 of the maran eggs are chirping right now, though!) So... 8!
(3) What breeds do you have?
bahaha see above. I'll be buying some more copper marans wednesday to make up for the non-hatchers as well as replace any cream legbars that come out male, I'm wanting a total of 7 hens and one rooster.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
Everything! How friendly they are, how I can raise my own meat and eggs. Fantastic pest control around my fruit plants. How overly excited they are to see me and run over for treats and to peck my keyring.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I'm into cosplay and fursuiting, gardening, and general farm animal stuff. I also love training animals to do tricks. I especially like collecting unique plants; I have some very interesting plants that surprise people to hear about. I always keep track of varieties and clone my plants. Pink blueberries, white blackberries, red flesh apples, yellow and pink plums, yellow and purple dragonfruit, bananas, figs, sugarloaf pineapples, white strawberries, Monstera Albo, Philodendron Micans, etc and in Washington state no less; I'm not in Florida raising all of this stuff xD That's what surprises people the most.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I'm currently living with my wife's family, so I can't have what I usually have for pets. I have all my fish tanks and paludariums put away for later; once we get a house I'm going back to my dwarf shrimp, poision dart frogs, and small aquatic fish species. Occupation-wise, I actually make fursuits for a living (Think mascot costumes, but hollywood-level quality and as cute as you can dream of) and my wife works at a crisis hotline. I also hope to have horses again in the future, I grew up around them my whole life and miss having them around. The four chicken breeds I mentioned above that I have/am hatching are the ones I want to raise fully when my wife and I get our own place, and I actually want to breed for different qualities in each.
One of my Orpington hens has shot through all my expectations and outshines her same age sisters so I really hope to find someone local that has a sweet and large rooster to breed her to. She started laying super early and immediately ramped up to 5-6 eggs a week, very large bodied, still layed throughout winter, and started trying to hatch eggs a month after she turned 1 year old. And most interestingly, throughout her entire devotion to her eggs, she allows me to grab the eggs out from under her from day 1 to today while they're chirping to candle or peek at them and doesn't peck. I've moved her nest multiple times and eventually stuck it in a kennel to move her (and the eggs) in the secure garage at night and not once did she try to abandon them or even get upset. I legit pick up the kennel twice a day with her in it to bring her outdoors in the morning and back in in the evening (I'm very happy about how well she's done)
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
Found it years ago when googling about chickens. I figured it's a good time to join now cuz I'm wanting to have a good quality flock and I don't know of any other forums that are as active.
I'm not exactly new, but this is the first time I personally owned them and cared for them directly. My dad has had chickens on our farm since I was 11 (I'm 23 now) but I never did anything with them and we didn't make them friendly. Now I've got a handful of chickens myself after moving out, I've had them for a year now
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
4 Orpingtons, one of which is hatching some cream legbar (3), ayam cemani(2), and copper maran (2) eggs (Although sadly I think the Cemani eggs didn't make it; I had all of them shipped to me. First Cemani egg was unfertilized and the second one is only 1/2 full at 21 days. The 3 cream legbars and 1 of the maran eggs are chirping right now, though!) So... 8!
(3) What breeds do you have?
bahaha see above. I'll be buying some more copper marans wednesday to make up for the non-hatchers as well as replace any cream legbars that come out male, I'm wanting a total of 7 hens and one rooster.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
Everything! How friendly they are, how I can raise my own meat and eggs. Fantastic pest control around my fruit plants. How overly excited they are to see me and run over for treats and to peck my keyring.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I'm into cosplay and fursuiting, gardening, and general farm animal stuff. I also love training animals to do tricks. I especially like collecting unique plants; I have some very interesting plants that surprise people to hear about. I always keep track of varieties and clone my plants. Pink blueberries, white blackberries, red flesh apples, yellow and pink plums, yellow and purple dragonfruit, bananas, figs, sugarloaf pineapples, white strawberries, Monstera Albo, Philodendron Micans, etc and in Washington state no less; I'm not in Florida raising all of this stuff xD That's what surprises people the most.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I'm currently living with my wife's family, so I can't have what I usually have for pets. I have all my fish tanks and paludariums put away for later; once we get a house I'm going back to my dwarf shrimp, poision dart frogs, and small aquatic fish species. Occupation-wise, I actually make fursuits for a living (Think mascot costumes, but hollywood-level quality and as cute as you can dream of) and my wife works at a crisis hotline. I also hope to have horses again in the future, I grew up around them my whole life and miss having them around. The four chicken breeds I mentioned above that I have/am hatching are the ones I want to raise fully when my wife and I get our own place, and I actually want to breed for different qualities in each.
One of my Orpington hens has shot through all my expectations and outshines her same age sisters so I really hope to find someone local that has a sweet and large rooster to breed her to. She started laying super early and immediately ramped up to 5-6 eggs a week, very large bodied, still layed throughout winter, and started trying to hatch eggs a month after she turned 1 year old. And most interestingly, throughout her entire devotion to her eggs, she allows me to grab the eggs out from under her from day 1 to today while they're chirping to candle or peek at them and doesn't peck. I've moved her nest multiple times and eventually stuck it in a kennel to move her (and the eggs) in the secure garage at night and not once did she try to abandon them or even get upset. I legit pick up the kennel twice a day with her in it to bring her outdoors in the morning and back in in the evening (I'm very happy about how well she's done)
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
Found it years ago when googling about chickens. I figured it's a good time to join now cuz I'm wanting to have a good quality flock and I don't know of any other forums that are as active.
to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
