ladysidhe
In the Brooder
- Apr 15, 2025
- 4
- 13
- 24
I first got chickens about three years ago...by complete accident.
An ISA Brown and her white Naked Neck rooster showed up in my yard one day and started decimating my plants. After about two weeks of this, I asked around, and no one claimed them, so I caught them and put them in an improvised coop.
After buying a run and building a coop, I bought two more chickens...Golden Comets. Everything was fine until one day a neighbor's dog got loose, and after attacking someone in the neighborhood, it proceeded to tear into my run. It killed all of my birds.
After about six months, I felt emotionally ready to get some more girls. I picked up four ISA Browns from the feed store. They survived the hurricane, even though the run did not. I had to put them in the improvised run I'd used for my very first two until the new run came in...but then something got one of them, so I was down to three (if anyone knows what can drag a full-grown hen through a 2-inch x 3-inch space without leaving blood or causing a ruckus, please let me know, because I didn't hear a thing, and all I found were feathers.)
Then my neighbor, who could no longer care for her birds, asked if I could take the three she had. I was reluctant, because two looked like roosters, which I didn't want or need, but she assured me they were all hens.
They were not. I was right, and two were roosters. Not only that, but they were adolescent and hormonal, and unlike my sweet Naked Neck, they attacked me every chance they got. I managed to give them to others who had larger flocks, and was left with the last bird, which was a very sweet Barred Rock hen (that's her in my profile pic). So that left me with four hens.
I decided to get more because people wanted to buy eggs from me, so I picked up four more chicks who are now about a month old.
And here we are.
I have eight chickens: three ISA Browns (named after the characters from To Wong Foo: Miss Clara, Miss Chichi, and Miss Vida...Miss Noxie was the one who mysteriously disappeared), one Barred Rock (CoCo), three Cinnamon Queens (Fiona, Meg, and Honey(suckle), and a (purported) Mystic Onyx (Sweet Pea).
Chickens have such individualistic personalities. They're so quirky. That's probably what I like best about them.
I'm also a voracious reader and an artist.
In addition to my chickens, I have three inside cats, an inside opossum who was given to me as an abandoned baby and is now two years old, a bearded dragon I took in as a rehome, a blue-tongued skink I took in as a rehome, and a crawfish I adopted from a live display at Detwiler's. It was the only one moving, so I had to save it. I've had it about a year now.
We also feed about eight stray cats (one of which we adopted as an outside pet because she's extremely friendly but doesn't like to be inside...the others are varying degrees of feral), three raccoons (a male came to us injured and we took care of him until he healed, and he came back with his family), and another opossum outside who is very sweet but obviously malnourished.
I love animals...can you tell?
Note: for those who would warn me about the racoons and the opossum with regards to my chickens: they've been around for quite a while, and they seem to be happy eating with the stray cats. As far as I know, they've never gone anywhere near my run, since I keep water and cat food out at all times. I guess they'd rather not have to work for their dinner. I also have the run reinforced with ground wire to keep them from digging under.
An ISA Brown and her white Naked Neck rooster showed up in my yard one day and started decimating my plants. After about two weeks of this, I asked around, and no one claimed them, so I caught them and put them in an improvised coop.
After buying a run and building a coop, I bought two more chickens...Golden Comets. Everything was fine until one day a neighbor's dog got loose, and after attacking someone in the neighborhood, it proceeded to tear into my run. It killed all of my birds.
After about six months, I felt emotionally ready to get some more girls. I picked up four ISA Browns from the feed store. They survived the hurricane, even though the run did not. I had to put them in the improvised run I'd used for my very first two until the new run came in...but then something got one of them, so I was down to three (if anyone knows what can drag a full-grown hen through a 2-inch x 3-inch space without leaving blood or causing a ruckus, please let me know, because I didn't hear a thing, and all I found were feathers.)
Then my neighbor, who could no longer care for her birds, asked if I could take the three she had. I was reluctant, because two looked like roosters, which I didn't want or need, but she assured me they were all hens.
They were not. I was right, and two were roosters. Not only that, but they were adolescent and hormonal, and unlike my sweet Naked Neck, they attacked me every chance they got. I managed to give them to others who had larger flocks, and was left with the last bird, which was a very sweet Barred Rock hen (that's her in my profile pic). So that left me with four hens.
I decided to get more because people wanted to buy eggs from me, so I picked up four more chicks who are now about a month old.
And here we are.
I have eight chickens: three ISA Browns (named after the characters from To Wong Foo: Miss Clara, Miss Chichi, and Miss Vida...Miss Noxie was the one who mysteriously disappeared), one Barred Rock (CoCo), three Cinnamon Queens (Fiona, Meg, and Honey(suckle), and a (purported) Mystic Onyx (Sweet Pea).
Chickens have such individualistic personalities. They're so quirky. That's probably what I like best about them.
I'm also a voracious reader and an artist.
In addition to my chickens, I have three inside cats, an inside opossum who was given to me as an abandoned baby and is now two years old, a bearded dragon I took in as a rehome, a blue-tongued skink I took in as a rehome, and a crawfish I adopted from a live display at Detwiler's. It was the only one moving, so I had to save it. I've had it about a year now.
We also feed about eight stray cats (one of which we adopted as an outside pet because she's extremely friendly but doesn't like to be inside...the others are varying degrees of feral), three raccoons (a male came to us injured and we took care of him until he healed, and he came back with his family), and another opossum outside who is very sweet but obviously malnourished.
I love animals...can you tell?
Note: for those who would warn me about the racoons and the opossum with regards to my chickens: they've been around for quite a while, and they seem to be happy eating with the stray cats. As far as I know, they've never gone anywhere near my run, since I keep water and cat food out at all times. I guess they'd rather not have to work for their dinner. I also have the run reinforced with ground wire to keep them from digging under.
and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.
to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
