Howdy from the flock

Hi folks! Greetings from Mississippi!

I grew up with chickens and have fond memories of gathering up the eggs with my little brother, filling up our red wagon, and going to all the neighbors (quite a trek out in the country!) delivering eggs once a week. Now that I have kids (ages 4 & 2), I thought it'd be fun to get back into chicken farming. There was an old donkey barn on the property, so we converted that into a workable chicken coop. I have 3 pretty large outdoor runs with netting over the top to keep out the hawks, and we rotate those once a week or so so the girls have fresh greens to scratch around in. Right now, I have 6 Barred Rocks (really beautiful chicken in my book) and 8 Rhode Island Reds. Some of the friendliest little fellas you've ever seen. The kids go into the run with them and everybody just follows them around. They're probably a bit spoiled...

In a couple of weeks, we have our next batch coming from the hatchery. I added more RIRs, Rocks and some Araucanas for the pretty eggs.

I've been lurking here at BYC for about a year as I was planning out the chicken project. Now that summer is here, I thought I'd join up and get involved in this great community. Today's project was to install a pecker waterer. I took some video, so sometime soon I'll post that link if anyone's interested.

Other hobbies include working (playing!) with technology, stringing up christmas light displays and playing with my kids. My wife and I are both school teachers, so we're also busy helping our 150 other children during the year.

Anyway, glad to be here and meet y'all!