Hello! I went about this wrong - posted a pressing question immediately and then read the new member instructions. Sorry about that!
I have had chickens since 2018 when I was gifted some hatchlings for my birthday. It was 4 Black Copper Marans. The flock had 2 boys. When they started crowing at about 6 months old, we were unable to rehome despite our efforts so we ate them. That makes it sound way simpler than it was but I'm sure many here have faced similar challenges.
Then the same friend offered us 4 of his existing flock of BCM's because he had too many. They integrated fairly seamlessly with our two babies and the flock has lived happily together. We did lose a couple along the way. Now we are trying to integrate another flock but I wrote a whole other post about that. If all goes well, our flock will grow to 8 but we'll really only have 2 laying hens as my older girls don't lay much anymore and the new flock has 2 sweet roosters in it. Ha ha!
I found this group in 2019 or 2020 when I was running an online chicken club for kids around the globe who were raising chickens. That was so much fun! It ran until 2022 after I changed careers (from online teaching tutoring to accounting) and decided I'd stick with the new one for a while.
We have 2 grown children and 2 dogs, Pittie mixes, who are 2 years old.
There are so many things I love about having chickens. They are so goofy and funny, I love when the cluck at me tenderly while I am caring for them, I love when they come running when they see me. It's more like a fast waddle - hilarious! When I was able to let them out of the run into the yard (can't now because these dogs might get too excited and kill them) they would every once in a while check in with me. We played this game where if I found something interesting, I would crouch down and tap the ground with my finger. No matter where they were in the yard, they'd run over to investigate. Sometimes I would make a pile of interesting things intentionally so that I could see them run. Ha ha! And of course, there's the eggs. That's nice too. But this breed are not heavy layers and this flock hasn't laid reliably for a couple of years now. Two years ago they had a very short laying season on top of not being high producers and this year they had a longer laying season but much less production. I'm guessing next year could be the year we get no eggs from them at all. But they'll live their lives out here. Their value to me extends beyond the eggs.
I'm glad to be a part of this forum.
Thanks!
I have had chickens since 2018 when I was gifted some hatchlings for my birthday. It was 4 Black Copper Marans. The flock had 2 boys. When they started crowing at about 6 months old, we were unable to rehome despite our efforts so we ate them. That makes it sound way simpler than it was but I'm sure many here have faced similar challenges.
Then the same friend offered us 4 of his existing flock of BCM's because he had too many. They integrated fairly seamlessly with our two babies and the flock has lived happily together. We did lose a couple along the way. Now we are trying to integrate another flock but I wrote a whole other post about that. If all goes well, our flock will grow to 8 but we'll really only have 2 laying hens as my older girls don't lay much anymore and the new flock has 2 sweet roosters in it. Ha ha!
I found this group in 2019 or 2020 when I was running an online chicken club for kids around the globe who were raising chickens. That was so much fun! It ran until 2022 after I changed careers (from online teaching tutoring to accounting) and decided I'd stick with the new one for a while.
We have 2 grown children and 2 dogs, Pittie mixes, who are 2 years old.
There are so many things I love about having chickens. They are so goofy and funny, I love when the cluck at me tenderly while I am caring for them, I love when they come running when they see me. It's more like a fast waddle - hilarious! When I was able to let them out of the run into the yard (can't now because these dogs might get too excited and kill them) they would every once in a while check in with me. We played this game where if I found something interesting, I would crouch down and tap the ground with my finger. No matter where they were in the yard, they'd run over to investigate. Sometimes I would make a pile of interesting things intentionally so that I could see them run. Ha ha! And of course, there's the eggs. That's nice too. But this breed are not heavy layers and this flock hasn't laid reliably for a couple of years now. Two years ago they had a very short laying season on top of not being high producers and this year they had a longer laying season but much less production. I'm guessing next year could be the year we get no eggs from them at all. But they'll live their lives out here. Their value to me extends beyond the eggs.
I'm glad to be a part of this forum.
Thanks!
and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.
to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
