- Jul 12, 2014
- 2
- 0
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Hello from MO. My husband and I live in a very small town, practically country but close to town. We LOVE our chickens. This has been a wonderful experience for us and our children. We have 6 kids between us but only 3 live with us (well, one moved back but he is grown and hopefully moving out again in the near future).
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? My husband and I got our first 5 chickens in April 2012, since then we have gained some, lost some
and gained some more.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? Our total currently is 13 chickens and 1 duck
(3) What breeds do you have? We have a variety of breeds and in our 2 years now we have tried several other breeds, trying to decide what we like the best. At the moment we mostly have Rhode Island Reds (one of my favorites), Black sex links (hubby's favorite), Barred rock (new but could be a new favorite), Americauna (those will most likely be dinner this year), 1 orpington (love her blonde color) and 1 (used to be) crested duck. (sad story, dog got a hold of her beautiful crest last year and it never grew back )
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? I've been referencing your site since before we got our chickens, just never joined, I don't think I was ever asked to join til today, I was looking up some info and it asked me to register so I decided I had a little time
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? I also have rabbits (indoors) and we are brand new grandparents so that is taking our time currently
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. I am a school bus driver as well as kitchen help at the local school. My husband works at the school as well but in administration. We have the 13 birds, 6 cats (3 are brand new babies, there were 11 but we'll get to that) 2 dogs, 2 floppy bunnies and 2 gerbils. We had an amazing guard dog when we started this adventure but sadly we lost him last year to a stroke. Since his passing we have had a hard time finding a guard dog that does well with our chickens, hence the loss of so many as well as kittens. We got a husky thinking if we raised it from a pup around the birds and such we could train it to be nice to them, that has not worked so well for us. Unfortunately we spent a pretty penny on the dog so we are trying EVERYTHING to keep chickens safe and keep the dog. Currently that means extra security around chicken fence, he is tied up inside our fenced in yard and chickens don't get near as much roaming time as they used to get. Unfortunately with his recent shedding he did get loose and that is when the kittens were lost. He only kills chickens when he is having a temper tantrum but being he's a dog, we really never know when that will happen. We are hoping between age and agressive training measures we can reverse his behaviour ( I know it's said you can't) however, he does not kill to eat so we are hoping that might be wrong in our situation. However, suggestions on how to go about training or finding a good dog would be appreciated and taken into consideration. Our other dog does fine with the chickens, he grabbed one by the neck once when she tried to steal his bone but he was reprimanded and now stays away from chickens if he or they have food. She was fine, no marks and no lesson learned. Our chickens are mostly for eggs but we do butcher a few every year (when the dog hasn't killed too many) to bring in new ones and for yummy home made chicken soup.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? My husband and I got our first 5 chickens in April 2012, since then we have gained some, lost some
and gained some more. (2) How many chickens do you have right now? Our total currently is 13 chickens and 1 duck
(3) What breeds do you have? We have a variety of breeds and in our 2 years now we have tried several other breeds, trying to decide what we like the best. At the moment we mostly have Rhode Island Reds (one of my favorites), Black sex links (hubby's favorite), Barred rock (new but could be a new favorite), Americauna (those will most likely be dinner this year), 1 orpington (love her blonde color) and 1 (used to be) crested duck. (sad story, dog got a hold of her beautiful crest last year and it never grew back
) (4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? I've been referencing your site since before we got our chickens, just never joined, I don't think I was ever asked to join til today, I was looking up some info and it asked me to register so I decided I had a little time
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? I also have rabbits (indoors) and we are brand new grandparents so that is taking our time currently
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. I am a school bus driver as well as kitchen help at the local school. My husband works at the school as well but in administration. We have the 13 birds, 6 cats (3 are brand new babies, there were 11 but we'll get to that) 2 dogs, 2 floppy bunnies and 2 gerbils. We had an amazing guard dog when we started this adventure but sadly we lost him last year to a stroke. Since his passing we have had a hard time finding a guard dog that does well with our chickens, hence the loss of so many as well as kittens. We got a husky thinking if we raised it from a pup around the birds and such we could train it to be nice to them, that has not worked so well for us. Unfortunately we spent a pretty penny on the dog so we are trying EVERYTHING to keep chickens safe and keep the dog. Currently that means extra security around chicken fence, he is tied up inside our fenced in yard and chickens don't get near as much roaming time as they used to get. Unfortunately with his recent shedding he did get loose and that is when the kittens were lost. He only kills chickens when he is having a temper tantrum but being he's a dog, we really never know when that will happen. We are hoping between age and agressive training measures we can reverse his behaviour ( I know it's said you can't) however, he does not kill to eat so we are hoping that might be wrong in our situation. However, suggestions on how to go about training or finding a good dog would be appreciated and taken into consideration. Our other dog does fine with the chickens, he grabbed one by the neck once when she tried to steal his bone but he was reprimanded and now stays away from chickens if he or they have food. She was fine, no marks and no lesson learned. Our chickens are mostly for eggs but we do butcher a few every year (when the dog hasn't killed too many) to bring in new ones and for yummy home made chicken soup.
and Welcome To BYC!
