Hi! Had to delurk to post in the injuries forum, so I might as well introduce myself! I've had chickens since 4th grade, and that's been 15 years ago I guess. The last few years I've been subscribing to what I call the "Pokemon" method of selecting chickens (You know--gotta catch em all) so right now I have Muad'dib the EE roo (age 6, nicknamed Mahdi), Zam the RIR (age 8); three 4-yr-olds, Hinata (BO), Tenten (BA), and Ino (BL); Penguin the EE/BA age 3; and two 2-yr-olds, Antigone the SS and Electra the hamburg. Last year was rough--Mahdi lost both his wives (Irulan the LB and Chani the SLW), Zam lost her only friend Oola (EE--was still laying at 7 years old), and my young Welsummer had a heart attack on me. Hoping to find some Welsummers this year to replace her (she was awesome--I wish I had been smart enough to get more than one!) For now I have three chicks, two buff brahmas (Iole and Hyacinth) and a BR, Lysistrata. Obviously I'm a little crazy so I name them according to what's "cool" to me that year--the last two batches I've been into Greek drama. No more Star Wars chickens for me.
So long story short, I've got 7 in the coop, Zam is a freeloader who lives in her own retirement home (the rooster hates her, probably because she's an egg eater), and the 3 babies make 11. My chickens are pets (never butchered one) so I've always gotten a few new chicks every other year, to make up for aging hens. The only one I've ever hatched is Penguin. That happened because Irulan was brooding for literally months, and went nuts whenever I tried to get the eggs from her. Finally I said, "Fine! I'd like to see you hatch that egg!" Well, she won.
Besides chickens I have a ton of other hobbies--pretty much a little bit of everything--but most importantly I've been working on a series of novels, also since fourth grade, genealogy, and lately I'm into raising moths and butterflies. I live in southern Indiana, sort of in the middle of the woods, in the house my gg-grandpa built in the 1880s (yeah, 25 and still at home, but I can't leave my chickens behind!) My job is archaeology, mainly historical but I've gone on a few prehistoric surveys (they aren't as exciting to me--it requires too much imagination to picture ancient villages out of just a few pieces of flint). Eventually I'll go to grad school, but I'm having trouble narrowing down my field of interest.
Anyway, hi!
So long story short, I've got 7 in the coop, Zam is a freeloader who lives in her own retirement home (the rooster hates her, probably because she's an egg eater), and the 3 babies make 11. My chickens are pets (never butchered one) so I've always gotten a few new chicks every other year, to make up for aging hens. The only one I've ever hatched is Penguin. That happened because Irulan was brooding for literally months, and went nuts whenever I tried to get the eggs from her. Finally I said, "Fine! I'd like to see you hatch that egg!" Well, she won.
Besides chickens I have a ton of other hobbies--pretty much a little bit of everything--but most importantly I've been working on a series of novels, also since fourth grade, genealogy, and lately I'm into raising moths and butterflies. I live in southern Indiana, sort of in the middle of the woods, in the house my gg-grandpa built in the 1880s (yeah, 25 and still at home, but I can't leave my chickens behind!) My job is archaeology, mainly historical but I've gone on a few prehistoric surveys (they aren't as exciting to me--it requires too much imagination to picture ancient villages out of just a few pieces of flint). Eventually I'll go to grad school, but I'm having trouble narrowing down my field of interest.
Anyway, hi!
