Hi from Michigan!

[MelissaRan09]

Hi all, I'm Melissa - from Michigan.
I have wanted chickens for many years...finally took the leap on Good Friday, 2017. I have 11 chickens. 10 are hens, and one roo. I have one ISA brown laying eggs currently.

I have 2 EEs, one Black Laced Wyandotte (with a severe scissor beak), one Buff, 2 RIR hens, 1 RIR Roo, and 3 ISA browns, and one bantam that looks a lot like my Black wyandotte.

I found out about BackYardChickens from Pinterest more than anything.
I love to hang out with my chickens, making wooden signs, furniture, etc... I'm a home maker and I love it.

My family is anything but typical. My husband is a traveling man... he works in gas and oil and is working in west Texas.. he's always traveled for work. I have 3 daughters.... 22, 17, and 8. I'm a teacher by trade, but given Michigan's economy and holding a Master's Degree, I do not work full time- as I cannot land a full-time job. I've decided I'm just going to start homesteading a bit and devote my time to living as simply as possible to retire my husband by the time we are 50. I have 2 dogs that hate my chickens - bailey - the huge german shepherd (120 lbs) almost 8 yrs old - and Bo-d almost 3 yrs old- my mini doxie. They want to kill my chickens....

I've spent my whole summer building a new coop, nesting boxes and a secure run for my chickens - I'm finally almost done and feel pretty comfortable moving them from their TSC prefab coop to their new chicken shed that I built with my dad. I'm looking forward to being a part of a new community... as my "girls" have become a very important part of my life!
Melissa

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to Backyardchickens.com aka BYC!
We are so glad you joined our flock.
Jump right in and make yourself at home.
This video will help you learn how to navigate this site:

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi Melissa and welcome to BYC - thanks for joining us.

Here’s a link to the Articles section - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/ There you’ll find lots of information on almost every aspect of keeping chickens - from coop building ideas, to incubating eggs.

There’s a link on the page above to the Learning Centre - it’s a great resource. If you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

Each week, various topics are discussed, which can also be a great resource - https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread#post_3239224

All the best

Pork Pie

 

[drumstick diva]

Nice to meet you Melissa. Hope you will enjoy BYC as much as we do.

 

[blackdust951]

hello Melissa and welcome to backyard chickens! i hope you enjoy it here

 

[N F C]

Hi Melissa, thanks for the interesting intro! Care to share a couple pictures of your new coop set up?

It's nice to have you here!

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We love pictures out here. When I was a kid I used to love to play in the UP--tried to convince the DW it was a good place to retire--but she just wasn't into the winters.