New Member Introduction

[CarrieW83]

Hi, my name is Carrie. I'm new to the group (though I've been skimming thru posts on the site off and on for a few years ). I'm from Northeast Alabama.

We first got chickens around 5 yrs ago. We ended up with our first completely out of the blue to be honest. My sis in law had one fall off a chicken truck in front of her vehicle while on the hwy on her way to work and our house was closest to where she was so she dropped it off there.. (we lived in the suburbs at the time). It ended up being a rooster. He was great, very friendly, loved sitting next to us and all.. so we added a few hens over time, then he became extremely aggressive towards us, we couldn't even go in the backyard without him coming at us so we gave him to a lady I worked with and got a new roo. Needless to say we've had chickens since. Currently on our second flock.

We moved to a more rural/country type area last spring and currently have 6 hens and a roo. Ours is a mixed flock consisting of 2 golden comets, 1 blue Orpington, 1 light/buff Brahma (not sure what she's considered, she's gorgeous with golden feathers and black lacing around her neck and on her tail), 1 Ameraucana and 1 English/Wheaten or Phoenix Silver Duckwing (not sure exactly which she is.. both seem to resemble very closely) game hen. Then we have an Ameraucana/Brahma cross Roo. Then my husband recently picked up a pair of modern game Banty's.

Our game hen recently went broody and hatched off 4 chicks. They are almost a month old. And since none of my other ladies wanted to take on that responsibility I just hatched off 20 chicks.. they are almost a week old now and all are EE's. I plan on keeping a half dozen (about to start building a separate coop/run for them), and going to sale the rest.

Then over the next few wks I plan on building 2-3 other coops/runs and ordering a few "pure breeds" such as RIR'S, Barred Rocks, or Sussexs.. suggestions are definitely welcome on which kinda would be best or other breed suggestions to look into.

I enjoy having chickens mostly because of their personalities.. I've had some just as friendly as could be, some that love to run across the yard trying to keep up and see where you're heading, then some that are nosey but turn and act like they weren't watching you. I enjoy watching them out in the yard pilfering around. As of lately I've enjoyed watching "Mama" as I call her (my game hen) while raising and teaching the chicks she hatched off. My kids also enjoy the chickens being around. My youngest gets tickled when he goes to collect eggs and finds a warm one (he gets very upset if I get them before him ).

As for other hobbies.. nothing major really. I enjoy reading when I have the time. And I enjoy building things. I'm almost finished with a treehouse I've been working on for my boys. Then I built a shelf for my husband's shop (which with his work schedule and all my building lately, he's made the comment that I may as well just have one side for my wood working and he'll use the other side for his car builds ). And I'm working on a small shelf to go behind my youngest son's bedroom door for him to put his 9 million hotwheels on .

I've been a stay at home mom since mid July 2018. My husband gave me the option after getting a promotion so I of course took it. He knew I was getting extremely stressed at my job (that stuff just starts showing in your attitude, temperament, behavior and all). Prior to being a stay at home mom I had worked in healthcare care for the better part of the prior 13yrs. My kids ages are 18, 13 and almost 7. With the oldest being my only daughter. My husband and I have been together for 9.5 yrs and married for 5.5 yrs. Our other pets consist of 1 dog (a boxer/pit mix) and 3 sugar gliders. I'm 36yrs old (will be 37 this fall/winter) and my husband is 38 (will be 39 next spring).

And as mentioned above, I've looked to this site off and on for several yrs in regards to info I found in searches related to questions about chickens.. and I finally joined after I decided to buy an incubator and hatch some chicks of my own off..(I would've joined a lot sooner I just never thought too ). I would love to be able to tell which of my chicks are male/female so it would make our choice on which ones to keep easier, but I realize with them being EE's that just isn't an option this early along.

So I guess that's basically everything about me. If you have anymore questions you're more than welcome to ask. Attached are pics of our chickens/pets.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello, Carrie, and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Beautiful flock!
If you are looking for friendly, purebred heritage breed chickens, I recommend Plymouth Barred Rocks. They are very friendly birds.
I love to build too but I just went with one big coop and one big happy inter-breed flock. Have you considered that instead of multiple smaller coops?

 

[N F C]

Hi Carrie, thanks for joining us (and thanks for sharing pictures)!

 

[Isaac 0]

Welcome to BackYard Chickens!

 

[rjohns39]

Hi Carrie and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

Loved the pics and your intro

 

[Chick-N-Fun]

Welcome to our FUNomenal Flock!!!

Best Wishes & Be Well!

 

[sourland]

Good morning, Carrie, and welcome to BYC.

 

[CarrieW83]

Hello, Carrie, and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Beautiful flock!
If you are looking for friendly, purebred heritage breed chickens, I recommend Plymouth Barred Rocks. They are very friendly birds.
I love to build too but I just went with one big coop and one big happy inter-breed flock. Have you considered that instead of multiple smaller coops?

I had thought about one larger coop and just combining them all.. we actually tried that when we first got the bantams. We've never had much trouble introducing new chickens before so we let those two sit outside the run next to the big ones all day (as we had in the past) and they seemed perfectly fine with each other (the big chickens didn't even seem to care after a few hrs).. that was until we put them together. One of the comets went after the tiny roo and then our big boy got aggravated and thought he was going after the little too. It was the little hen though. She ran off past a big hen into the big coop and he lost track and got confused.. turned and spotted the little roo and realized his mistake and attacked him. It took us a bit to get him off him.

Needless to say we decided that wasn't gonna work so we made a makeshift coop (some wire framing up some car hauler ramps leaned against the sides of a yard wagon) until I got them a small coop/run built. During that time Everytime our big chickens were out they went straight to that makeshift space and attacked at them thru the wire. Well, all except our blue Orpington.. she seems totally into that little bantam roo .. she struts her self at him.. it's hilarious to watch.

So, it worries me that this flock I have now doesn't take well at all to newbies (all except the babies mama hatched off. Mama has been great with them and none of them mess with them).. so I worry that I'd have trouble introducing any new ones. I also didn't know if it would be a good thing to have my new chicks merge in there and have they're dad breeding them when they got old enough to be out in the yard (if I'm wrong on that let me know).

As for a new breed.. I kinda wanted to get hens and a roo of a new breed or two and be able to have a renewable flock that way down the road.. and I didn't think two Roo's would be ok with sharing the same space, hence why I figured I'd just build a separate coop for them. I know if Roo's are raised together they usually (though not always) do ok together for the long haul. I'm already wondering if any of the 4 my game hen hatched off end up being male, how he'll react to them as they mature .

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome. I like barred rocks and they are one of the breeds I'm considering when I decide to order some chicks in a few wks/month. Any other breed suggestions?

 

[DobieLover]

I had thought about one larger coop and just combining them all.. we actually tried that when we first got the bantams. We've never had much trouble introducing new chickens before so we let those two sit outside the run next to the big ones all day (as we had in the past) and they seemed perfectly fine with each other (the big chickens didn't even seem to care after a few hrs).. that was until we put them together. One of the comets went after the tiny roo and then our big boy got aggravated and thought he was going after the little too. It was the little hen though. She ran off past a big hen into the big coop and he lost track and got confused.. turned and spotted the little roo and realized his mistake and attacked him. It took us a bit to get him off him.

Needless to say we decided that wasn't gonna work so we made a makeshift coop (some wire framing up some car hauler ramps leaned against the sides of a yard wagon) until I got them a small coop/run built. During that time Everytime our big chickens were out they went straight to that makeshift space and attacked at them thru the wire. Well, all except our blue Orpington.. she seems totally into that little bantam roo .. she struts her self at him.. it's hilarious to watch.

So, it worries me that this flock I have now doesn't take well at all to newbies (all except the babies mama hatched off. Mama has been great with them and none of them mess with them).. so I worry that I'd have trouble introducing any new ones. I also didn't know if it would be a good thing to have my new chicks merge in there and have they're dad breeding them when they got old enough to be out in the yard (if I'm wrong on that let me know).

As for a new breed.. I kinda wanted to get hens and a roo of a new breed or two and be able to have a renewable flock that way down the road.. and I didn't think two Roo's would be ok with sharing the same space, hence why I figured I'd just build a separate coop for them. I know if Roo's are raised together they usually (though not always) do ok together for the long haul. I'm already wondering if any of the 4 my game hen hatched off end up being male, how he'll react to them as they mature .

Thoughts and suggestions are welcome. I like barred rocks and they are one of the breeds I'm considering when I decide to order some chicks in a few wks/month. Any other breed suggestions?

I don't have any other suggestions on breeds! I let broodies hatch eggs here and I'll keep enough pullets to keep me in eggs for the winter. I have one pullet from last year and yes, her father has bred her, but she has chosen the junior rooster over her father. People line breed related birds to try to achieve a certain characteristic so it's considered 'normal' but I will try to keep the inbreeding to a minimum.

 

[CarrieW83]

I don't have any other suggestions on breeds! I let broodies hatch eggs here and I'll keep enough pullets to keep me in eggs for the winter. I have one pullet from last year and yes, her father has bred her, but she has chosen the junior rooster over her father. People line breed related birds to try to achieve a certain characteristic so it's considered 'normal' but I will try to keep the inbreeding to a minimum.

Ok. Thank you. I have heard of people line breeding for certain traits and all.. just wasn't sure whether it was ok or if it really mattered that much. I tried to let my hens hatch off the eggs. But the only broody girl I have is apparently my game hen and she's currently raising 4 chicks that are almost 4 wks old.. so I had to do something with the eggs I had been leaving in there (when trying to get one of the others to sit).. that's why I got an incubator. Granted I'd been wanting one for a while.. so it all worked out