twinsprouts
Hatching
Hey, chicken people!
My name is Emily, and I'm a homemaker from Mississippi looking to get into chickens in the next year or two. I could probably ramble forever about all the things I wanna talk about, but I'm a sucker for a template, so I'm gonna use the one provided.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I personally am new to chickens, but my mom had a flock of nearly 100 chickens when I was a teenager! We live on much less land now, so those days are long gone, but I'm hoping my experience with that many chickens will help me care for my future tiny flock.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
None! However, we're allowed up to 5 hens (no roos...) in the city we live in now. I hope to start with about 3, then work my way up to 4 or 5.
(3) What breeds do you have?
None currently, but I'm really interested in easter-eggers. My mothers flock was comprised of bantam frizzles (including a lovely bantam roo), silkies, americauna, buff orpingtons, wyandottes, and a beautiful (but very mean) brahma rooster.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I love the chickens' silly personalities. We aren't allowed to free range our birds in town, but I'm excited to build a coop and run with enough room to sit with them from time to time and teach my kids about them.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Currently my most time consuming hobby is planning for my first major garden. I'm networking with knowledgeable neighbors and sourcing materials to get raised beds in the ground. We're working at breakneck speed to get things ready before the season kicks off because I'm 4 months postpartum and just recently got a bit of my spark back. When I'm not so busy I enjoy:
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
My husband and I met in college and have been together for 7 years, married for 2. We have two lovely baby boys. As for pets, we have a sweet little anxious dog named Thomas (Major Tom on his papers) and a senior ferret with insulinoma named Ares.
In December 2024, our home was made uninhabitable by a tornado. We also lost both of our cars. Soon after that we found out we were expecting, and TWINS at that! In September of 2025, we moved into our new home in a new, more family friendly neighborhood, and in October we welcomed our boys to the world. Now, with renewed energy, I'm so excited to start building an incredible backyard garden to eventually teach our boys about how food is made, and how to live alongside the Earth.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I've been a passerby for a while, but never made an account. In this season of my life, though, this site feels like a great fit for my goals. Not only am I looking to build a sustainable backyard garden (and chicken coop!), but I'm also looking to get myself off of social media and start using the internet more intentionally again. As I said above, I really kind of miss the early 2010s internet where time spent on the computer mostly felt like a positive experience of learning and sharing with each other, instead of a constant battle to see who can get the most attention and interaction. Forum drama still existed, but not on the massive worldwide scale that we see with major social media platforms.
I believe that we are stronger as a collective, and the internet can help us communicate and learn from each other, but it needs to be used wisely. So, I hope to do that this year! I'm excited to pour more into my community and learn more in turn. And, most importantly, reclaim some of my time that's been lost to mindless scrolling. It'll be a little while before I can fully commit to owning chickens myself, but I hope I can learn as much as possible from this site until that time comes.
It's really nice to meet you all,
Emily <3
My name is Emily, and I'm a homemaker from Mississippi looking to get into chickens in the next year or two. I could probably ramble forever about all the things I wanna talk about, but I'm a sucker for a template, so I'm gonna use the one provided.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I personally am new to chickens, but my mom had a flock of nearly 100 chickens when I was a teenager! We live on much less land now, so those days are long gone, but I'm hoping my experience with that many chickens will help me care for my future tiny flock.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
None! However, we're allowed up to 5 hens (no roos...) in the city we live in now. I hope to start with about 3, then work my way up to 4 or 5.
(3) What breeds do you have?
None currently, but I'm really interested in easter-eggers. My mothers flock was comprised of bantam frizzles (including a lovely bantam roo), silkies, americauna, buff orpingtons, wyandottes, and a beautiful (but very mean) brahma rooster.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I love the chickens' silly personalities. We aren't allowed to free range our birds in town, but I'm excited to build a coop and run with enough room to sit with them from time to time and teach my kids about them.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Currently my most time consuming hobby is planning for my first major garden. I'm networking with knowledgeable neighbors and sourcing materials to get raised beds in the ground. We're working at breakneck speed to get things ready before the season kicks off because I'm 4 months postpartum and just recently got a bit of my spark back. When I'm not so busy I enjoy:
- Reading (Mostly researching plants and dirt right now! Currently Reading: Practical Permaculture by Dave Boehnlein and Jessi Bloom)
- Video Games (Check out Stardew Valley!)
- Making Art (I'm an art student at an ag school, lol!)
- Coding my Own Website (I miss the early 2010s internet.)
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
My husband and I met in college and have been together for 7 years, married for 2. We have two lovely baby boys. As for pets, we have a sweet little anxious dog named Thomas (Major Tom on his papers) and a senior ferret with insulinoma named Ares.
In December 2024, our home was made uninhabitable by a tornado. We also lost both of our cars. Soon after that we found out we were expecting, and TWINS at that! In September of 2025, we moved into our new home in a new, more family friendly neighborhood, and in October we welcomed our boys to the world. Now, with renewed energy, I'm so excited to start building an incredible backyard garden to eventually teach our boys about how food is made, and how to live alongside the Earth.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I've been a passerby for a while, but never made an account. In this season of my life, though, this site feels like a great fit for my goals. Not only am I looking to build a sustainable backyard garden (and chicken coop!), but I'm also looking to get myself off of social media and start using the internet more intentionally again. As I said above, I really kind of miss the early 2010s internet where time spent on the computer mostly felt like a positive experience of learning and sharing with each other, instead of a constant battle to see who can get the most attention and interaction. Forum drama still existed, but not on the massive worldwide scale that we see with major social media platforms.
I believe that we are stronger as a collective, and the internet can help us communicate and learn from each other, but it needs to be used wisely. So, I hope to do that this year! I'm excited to pour more into my community and learn more in turn. And, most importantly, reclaim some of my time that's been lost to mindless scrolling. It'll be a little while before I can fully commit to owning chickens myself, but I hope I can learn as much as possible from this site until that time comes.
It's really nice to meet you all,
Emily <3
