I'm a Happy New Chicken-Mum in Daylesford, Australia

Carla Maxwell

Chirping
May 8, 2020
11
54
89
Daylesford, Victoria, Australia
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? (2) How many chickens do you have right now? (3) What breeds do you have?
Yes, I'm new to chickens! My husband and I adopted/rescued four retired isa brown chickens in May 2020. My husband has had previous experience raising chickens, but these are my first chooks.

(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I love my day-to-day interaction with my chickens! I love collecting their eggs! As of today, they have given us 536 eggs (yes, I keep a count). I love photographing my chickens and watching them on their field-trips out of the chook house and into the garden. All four of my chickens will follow my lead to where I want them, and they all follow me when I want them to return to the chook house.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I'm a folk musician/folk artist. I play a mountain dulcimer and sing with my husband. When we perform locally, we call our music/duo Table Hill, named after the road we live on. I am a cockatoo watcher/amateur photographer, as I have loved them since moving to Australia in 2009. Also, I learned to knit a few years ago and enjoy making cardigans and socks. Backyard bird-feeding (along with my new chicken wrangling) activities are a big part of my daily life in Australia.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
My husband, Adrian Kosky, and I live in two countries, as he was born in Australia and I am American. We have residency in both countries and normally travel several times a year, living three months at a time in each place. We live and work and play music in Victoria when we are here -- we own and operate a group accommodation business in a holiday town (Daylesford, the spa capitol of Australia). When we're in America, we live in an old Masonic Temple that we revitalised in Clarksdale, Mississippi -- It has retail and residential spaces for creative people in the downtown historic blues precinct. COVID-19 has stopped our international travel and put our accommodation business on hold until the Victorian government allows international travel and allows groups of people to gather inside homes again.

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community? :D
I love a bonus question when I know the answer! As soon as I knew I was going to become a chicken mum, I looked for information about Isa Brown chickens and found this forum - May 2020. I joined as soon as I could!

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Hello, Carla, and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
What will you do with the chickens when travel restrictions are lifted and you visit America again?
Thanks for the welcome! There's a lot of planning that goes in to the way my husband and I live. We will have a property manager/house sitter who will care for Sheila-Lou, Sheila-Jo, Sheila-Mae, and Sheila-Beth. That's the practical answer. I haven't figured out how I'll handle missing them, though. Over the years, our dog has handled the life-style very well, never holding a grudge, because the carer has always been very good. I have a hard time adjusting in the first few weeks away and get excited about returning to her. I hope the chooks will adjust as well.
 
Welcome to the flock :jumpy ! Congratulations on your little family.

For retirees, your girls are working very hard for you! I bet you make music for them and I bet they love it! From your photographs it appears you have created an avian paradise.

Once you’re spending equal time on both sides of the pond, maybe you could have a little stateside flock, as well. 🤗
 

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