Hi everyone
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I’ve worked on city farms and riding schools on and off from the ages of 12-28 but these places don’t pay well and ive has a really tough personal life- I have been homeless a lot and only just got my first place. The letting agent lied to me about a lot of things so I’ve battled my Housing Association for months to finally get permission to keep my OWN animals for once. They absolutely forbade chickens though so I went and bought Chinese Painted Quail eggs from eBay instead.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
3 baby buttons
(3) What breeds do you have?
They are Chinese Painted Quail and I’m still trying to learn all the colours/morphs etc
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I’m not allowed them in my yard (the HA is now splitting it in two and giving half of it to my neighbour because they only just realised the house I was told I was renting is actually split into two flats. They have to stay indoors for now though I plan to eventually take them out in a secure run for extra enrichment. It is crazy how fast these guys grow and every time you look at them you can observe something different. I have miscarried in the past and never want to try to have children in the future anyway and these birds are not being kept for commercial purposes or consumption so I got to experience the excitement of ‘pregnancy’ and watching the ‘birth’ and all that warm fuzzy soppy stuff. I much prefer these to human offspring, my god am I attached already.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I am an artist, writer, poet, like a bit of gardening, mudlarking/amateur archaeology, making cheese, foraging, baking, video games, Japanese pop culture/street fashion/anime and manga, I play several musical instruments including flute and piano (self taught), I like logic puzzles and generally anything to do with animals.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I am autistic. I suffer from chronic pain and other health problems. I also have extensive mental health issues due to really traumatic past. I haven’t spoken to or seen any of my family in years, am housebound and don’t really know anyone for miles but my new partner and my animals keep me company now. Sometimes I quite literally think I’m not human and have learned that involuntary animal noises are not socially acceptable We have 2 ferrets, 3 snakes and a Ghanaian Chocolate millipede. I am an artist. I use all sorts of mediums but my thing is making portraits sculptures and stuff out of dog, cat and sometimes horsehair.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
Lots of Googling specific questions about raising birds, especially advice threads about the incubation process. Guides can only tell you so much but people’s lives experiences of different conditions/scenarios, practical experiments in a way, can tell you more. I decided to join because I thought I’d been lurking long enough and you seem like a nice bunch.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I’ve worked on city farms and riding schools on and off from the ages of 12-28 but these places don’t pay well and ive has a really tough personal life- I have been homeless a lot and only just got my first place. The letting agent lied to me about a lot of things so I’ve battled my Housing Association for months to finally get permission to keep my OWN animals for once. They absolutely forbade chickens though so I went and bought Chinese Painted Quail eggs from eBay instead.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
3 baby buttons
(3) What breeds do you have?
They are Chinese Painted Quail and I’m still trying to learn all the colours/morphs etc
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I’m not allowed them in my yard (the HA is now splitting it in two and giving half of it to my neighbour because they only just realised the house I was told I was renting is actually split into two flats. They have to stay indoors for now though I plan to eventually take them out in a secure run for extra enrichment. It is crazy how fast these guys grow and every time you look at them you can observe something different. I have miscarried in the past and never want to try to have children in the future anyway and these birds are not being kept for commercial purposes or consumption so I got to experience the excitement of ‘pregnancy’ and watching the ‘birth’ and all that warm fuzzy soppy stuff. I much prefer these to human offspring, my god am I attached already.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I am an artist, writer, poet, like a bit of gardening, mudlarking/amateur archaeology, making cheese, foraging, baking, video games, Japanese pop culture/street fashion/anime and manga, I play several musical instruments including flute and piano (self taught), I like logic puzzles and generally anything to do with animals.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I am autistic. I suffer from chronic pain and other health problems. I also have extensive mental health issues due to really traumatic past. I haven’t spoken to or seen any of my family in years, am housebound and don’t really know anyone for miles but my new partner and my animals keep me company now. Sometimes I quite literally think I’m not human and have learned that involuntary animal noises are not socially acceptable We have 2 ferrets, 3 snakes and a Ghanaian Chocolate millipede. I am an artist. I use all sorts of mediums but my thing is making portraits sculptures and stuff out of dog, cat and sometimes horsehair.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
Lots of Googling specific questions about raising birds, especially advice threads about the incubation process. Guides can only tell you so much but people’s lives experiences of different conditions/scenarios, practical experiments in a way, can tell you more. I decided to join because I thought I’d been lurking long enough and you seem like a nice bunch.
Glad you joined.
