Long-time lurker, first-time joiner!

Hi everyone!

Just thought I'd do a little intro before I post my question in another thread. I'm on the Central Coast, NSW, Australia (about an hour north of Sydney) and live on a rural property with my husband, our birds, a cat, two foster bunnies and two foster guinea pigs.

We had our first flock of chickens and one duck in 2013 - we had 7 Silver spangled hamburgs, and one female Pekin duck. Sadly we only had them for a few months due to a hungry fox managing to find his way into their coop :-( We spent a great deal of time working on the coop to turn it into Alcatraz, and we've now had our second flock of 7 hens and 4 Pekin ducks (2M + 2F) for about 18 mths. Our chickens are all rescues, and we have 5 Isa browns, 1 Rhode island red, 1 Old english bantam (I think - I only know that one from googling photos that look like her!) One of the Isa browns appears to have come from a battery farm as her beak has been cut, and the others came from a pound via a rescue group.

Our birds are family members, not egg-production units, so we treat them as we would any other companion animal - they all have names, we know their personalities and their voices, they go to the vet if they appear to need it, etc. We love them all as individuals, hence why I'm here to learn more about them! And also to ask a question about strange signs, but that's for another thread

Looking forward to getting to know you all and your chickens! Bok bok bakerk!