New member from Cincinnati

Hi there... I just officially joined up as a member. I've been around the site since the spring, just reading up on things and learning what we need to know as new urban chicken farmers. We were pleasantly surprised to learn about a school-based program in our neighborhood that helps people with raising chickens, so we had plenty of hands on help getting started.

We have five chickens now: three golden comets, one barred rock, and one leghorn. Their names are McNugget, Colonel Sanders, General Tso, Cordon Bleu, and Foghorn . We're at max capacity for now, but I'd like to get a Buckeye next just to help maintain a rarer species (plus we are in Ohio).

So far we've had pretty good luck with them. We raised a dozen mail order chicks and only had one health issue with pasting, and she recovered just fine. We kept a few of those and the others went to establish/replenish other flocks. We also lost a teenager chick to a coon. After that incident, instinct finally kicked in and the chicks started going inside their coop at dusk. We let them free range when we are home. A few times we thought one was gone for good, but they've all come back eventually.

I'm also into homebrewing beer and we have a small raised bed for gardening. Another project I might start over winter is raising mushrooms, and in the spring I'd like to install a rain barrel to automate most of our backyard watering needs. I'm not really the engineering type, so I usually do a lot of research and learning from others until I find the most practical, easiest, and relatively affordable way to do these things!