(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I had two rhode island red chickens when I was in the fifth grade who I absolutely loved to the moon and back, and alas neither of them lived to adulthood (one I found dead on the ground in the morning, the other vanished without a trace, I assume eaten by something). I still remember how horribly heartbroken Little Fifth Grade Me was at the loss.
Basically since then I've always been counting down the minutes it seems to when I could have a backyard chicken flock of my own (which took longer than I would have liked. I'm thirty six for crying out loud). April 30th my spouse and I welcomed two Bielefelder and two Austra White chicks into our home. They're about eight weeks old now if I haven't botched my math. Also, relevantly, I worked as a vet tech for eight years (albeit not with chickens, we dealt with dogs, cats and pot bellied pigs at my practice) so came into chicken ownership with a certain degree of confidence (or shall we say, "cockiness" GET IT?!) for my capacity to learn proper handling and chicken care.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
Four!
(3) What breeds do you have?
Two Bielefelders (named Velociraptor von Murderbird and Goga-Mamamama) and two Austra Whites (named Queen Xenomorph and Charisma Carpenter).
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I'm looking forward to eggs, of course, but as said above I had a strong emotional attachment to my childhood chickens and absolutely love our four chicks to pieces. They're really our pets not just functional working animals.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I already mentioned my professional background in vet med, but I also am really into cooking, gardening. And the great outdoors. My spouse and I are both avid hikers and backpackers (for our wedding we backpacked across the Cascades and eloped in the wilderness, then had a reception that was open to family and friends at a winery not far from there).
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
Only other pet at the moment is a 15 year old cat named Nausicaa. I left my vet tech job a while back and have been sort of coasting for a while since then trying to figure out what's next for me (a soul searching process that might be a little irrelevant given global pandemic and the like). My spouse is an attorney at a medium-sized law firm. At this exact moment we're actually a little behind schedule for moving the chickens to their permanent coop, we're converting an ugly garden shed in our backyard into a coop and while the interior is *mostly* finished it's not completely ready yet. We had the chicks' brooder set up in our basement bathroom and as they outgrew it (it was just a cardboard box) we eventually just turned the entire basement bathroom over to them (which is going to be a nightmare to clean after we move them outside. But they have enjoyed all the space they have in there). We don't have kids (nor are we planning to) but we do have a 22ish month old niece
![IMG_3162[1].JPG](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf-8,%3Csvg xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg' width='2000' height='1500' viewBox%3D'0 0 2000 1500'%2F%3E "IMG_3162[1].JPG")
.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I kept stumbling here whenever I've googled various chicken-related things, including just google image searching for cute pictures of chickens.
I had two rhode island red chickens when I was in the fifth grade who I absolutely loved to the moon and back, and alas neither of them lived to adulthood (one I found dead on the ground in the morning, the other vanished without a trace, I assume eaten by something). I still remember how horribly heartbroken Little Fifth Grade Me was at the loss.
Basically since then I've always been counting down the minutes it seems to when I could have a backyard chicken flock of my own (which took longer than I would have liked. I'm thirty six for crying out loud). April 30th my spouse and I welcomed two Bielefelder and two Austra White chicks into our home. They're about eight weeks old now if I haven't botched my math. Also, relevantly, I worked as a vet tech for eight years (albeit not with chickens, we dealt with dogs, cats and pot bellied pigs at my practice) so came into chicken ownership with a certain degree of confidence (or shall we say, "cockiness" GET IT?!) for my capacity to learn proper handling and chicken care.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
Four!
(3) What breeds do you have?
Two Bielefelders (named Velociraptor von Murderbird and Goga-Mamamama) and two Austra Whites (named Queen Xenomorph and Charisma Carpenter).
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I'm looking forward to eggs, of course, but as said above I had a strong emotional attachment to my childhood chickens and absolutely love our four chicks to pieces. They're really our pets not just functional working animals.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I already mentioned my professional background in vet med, but I also am really into cooking, gardening. And the great outdoors. My spouse and I are both avid hikers and backpackers (for our wedding we backpacked across the Cascades and eloped in the wilderness, then had a reception that was open to family and friends at a winery not far from there).
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
Only other pet at the moment is a 15 year old cat named Nausicaa. I left my vet tech job a while back and have been sort of coasting for a while since then trying to figure out what's next for me (a soul searching process that might be a little irrelevant given global pandemic and the like). My spouse is an attorney at a medium-sized law firm. At this exact moment we're actually a little behind schedule for moving the chickens to their permanent coop, we're converting an ugly garden shed in our backyard into a coop and while the interior is *mostly* finished it's not completely ready yet. We had the chicks' brooder set up in our basement bathroom and as they outgrew it (it was just a cardboard box) we eventually just turned the entire basement bathroom over to them (which is going to be a nightmare to clean after we move them outside. But they have enjoyed all the space they have in there). We don't have kids (nor are we planning to) but we do have a 22ish month old niece
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I kept stumbling here whenever I've googled various chicken-related things, including just google image searching for cute pictures of chickens.
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Glad you joined. 
