new from Oklahoma

Hi all!! Glad to have a found a place to chat about my chickies and birds with others who are so inclined as well. This is our second go round of having chickens in our backyard and so far all is great!! The first time we had chickens was about 15 years ago when we were given 28 barred rocks after the local county fair when our then 3 year old son showed an intense interest in them. Gee, yeah ... we had no idea what to do with them but took the dive and built a chicken yard and coop for them. By the time they started laying eggs we had so many eggs we were loading them up twice a week and taking them to the local homeless shelter by the case. When the fair came around the next year, we were both working jobs that required us to be away from home for weeks at a time and so another local farmer offered to buy the chickens from us. We always planned on getting more some day.

Now the kids are teenagers and we both work normal hours at jobs close to home and we decided it was time to once again indulge in having chickens. My husbands grandmother had raised turkeys for most of her life and so my husband also wanted to try raising a turkey or two. And then the kids wanted ducks to show for 4H. So, we rebuilt the chicken yard and built a brand new coop that would support the various fowl and ordered a mixed package of what we call "surprise" birds.

At the moment, we have 10 chickens (barred rocks we think ... except they have black legs), 1 indian runner duck named Duck Duck, 1 turkey (midget white), and 2 embden geese named Walley and Chrysathemum ... although we have no idea if they are male or female. One of the chickens has adopted my daughter and she named it Spotty because of large white spots around it's eyes that none of the other chickens have. Another of the chickens adopted our duck and they go everywhere together. We tried keeping them apart for sleeping purposes but Duck Duck's chicken always managed to get out and get to her anyway.

We have been so smitten with our birds this time that we've ordered 10 more laying hens and 2 more ducks. 5 of the hens are Rhode Island Reds and the other 5 I can't remember what I ordered, so I guess they will be a surprise as well. The 2 ducks are khaki campbells at the moment, but we've gotten so attached to our indian runner duck that we may switch and just get two more of those instead.

Look forward to reading and sharing more.