Zenmonkey
Songster
I recognize that the template for this is 16 years old, but it still seems to be promoted, so here goes.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I received my first chickens when I was about 13 years old. That was about 40 years ago. It was an upside down trio of Mennonite banties. A friend of the family gave them to me. I'm not sure if he really liked me, or if my parents had upset him.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
I don't know. Maybe about 30-ish hens, and way too many roosters. I'll try to count them in the near future, if I can figure out how to get them to stay still. Or maybe line up? Probably I just need to wait until they roost.
(3) What breeds do you have?
Jersey Giant Blacks, White Faced Spanish, a trio of serama (sort of, not entirely sure they're not mixed with something), two Indio Gigante (pretty sure they're both hens), two Mechelen Turkey Heads (also thinking these are both hens), some birds descended from the feral Key Largo population, Belgian Liege.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I'm not sure I understand. What aspect of being surrounded by delicious birds that for some reason don't fly away in terror isn't fascinating? Carrying 50 lbs sacks of feed is probably one of the less enjoyable aspects of it, but even then the birds know what I'm doing, and they circle around. Which is still pretty cool.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Listening to my wife tell me that she agreed to a couple egg layers not a zoo, reading things, shooting things, writing things. Not necessarily in that order. Also she never agreed to the first chickens, but since she seems to have retconned that, please don't tell her.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I've got two sons, rabbits, guinea fowl, guinea pigs, some pheasants, rats, and a couple peafowl. Also some insects. So if I post a youtube video, and you decide to search around my videos (smash the like button, subscribe for more content, and remember to ring the bell, I've got literally 10s of subscribers!) and if you're squeamish about bugs, please excercise some caution.
The writing referenced in question #5 refers to software, not short stories / novels / anything else that might be interesting. When I wrote accounting software, answering the question "so what do you do for a living?" was really easy. And pretty much ended the conversation right then. The number of people who find the ins and outs of writing a billing system (see? it wasn't even *real* accounting software) is really, really small. And most of those also write some kind of financially oriented software.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
BYC comes up on a lot of my searches. And the folks here have already provided me with a lot of answers to questions that you didn't even know I had, because someone else asked them for me. So thank you for that. I have no idea what made me decide to sign up. I made the decision a couple of nights ago, but I didn't leave myself any notes as to why. But now I've signed up, so if it occurs to me again, I'm ready. Probably. And thanks again, I really do appreciate the ready flow of information that BYC has provided over the years.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I received my first chickens when I was about 13 years old. That was about 40 years ago. It was an upside down trio of Mennonite banties. A friend of the family gave them to me. I'm not sure if he really liked me, or if my parents had upset him.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
I don't know. Maybe about 30-ish hens, and way too many roosters. I'll try to count them in the near future, if I can figure out how to get them to stay still. Or maybe line up? Probably I just need to wait until they roost.
(3) What breeds do you have?
Jersey Giant Blacks, White Faced Spanish, a trio of serama (sort of, not entirely sure they're not mixed with something), two Indio Gigante (pretty sure they're both hens), two Mechelen Turkey Heads (also thinking these are both hens), some birds descended from the feral Key Largo population, Belgian Liege.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I'm not sure I understand. What aspect of being surrounded by delicious birds that for some reason don't fly away in terror isn't fascinating? Carrying 50 lbs sacks of feed is probably one of the less enjoyable aspects of it, but even then the birds know what I'm doing, and they circle around. Which is still pretty cool.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Listening to my wife tell me that she agreed to a couple egg layers not a zoo, reading things, shooting things, writing things. Not necessarily in that order. Also she never agreed to the first chickens, but since she seems to have retconned that, please don't tell her.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I've got two sons, rabbits, guinea fowl, guinea pigs, some pheasants, rats, and a couple peafowl. Also some insects. So if I post a youtube video, and you decide to search around my videos (smash the like button, subscribe for more content, and remember to ring the bell, I've got literally 10s of subscribers!) and if you're squeamish about bugs, please excercise some caution.
The writing referenced in question #5 refers to software, not short stories / novels / anything else that might be interesting. When I wrote accounting software, answering the question "so what do you do for a living?" was really easy. And pretty much ended the conversation right then. The number of people who find the ins and outs of writing a billing system (see? it wasn't even *real* accounting software) is really, really small. And most of those also write some kind of financially oriented software.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
BYC comes up on a lot of my searches. And the folks here have already provided me with a lot of answers to questions that you didn't even know I had, because someone else asked them for me. So thank you for that. I have no idea what made me decide to sign up. I made the decision a couple of nights ago, but I didn't leave myself any notes as to why. But now I've signed up, so if it occurs to me again, I'm ready. Probably. And thanks again, I really do appreciate the ready flow of information that BYC has provided over the years.
to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
