hobbyhomesteader
Chirping
Hello BackYardChickens Community -
We first got chicks 2 years ago (2015) and I've been reading your advice since day 1. Thank you BYC Community!! Finally feeling like we know what we're doing but of course, always learning. We started with 4 chickens and all did wonderfully until this past year's heat wave in California when I lost 2 to heat stroke at our new property. I was so devastated! They did fine with the heat at our old place (same amount of shade and water), but we now realize our new backyard gets more hours of direct sun. Now we've made adjustments and are about to add more feather babies to the flock. Currently we have 1 Plymouth Barred Rock, 1 Rhode Island Red, and 3 Pekin ducks. I plan to order 3 more chickens (Golden Laced Wyandotte, Ameraucana, and Buff Orpington) and 1-2 Blue Swedish ducks. Interestingly, my husband was skeptical about chickens when I first got them, but now he's totally enamored with them. He's the one that campaigned for ducks and now he's the one wanting to order more of both!
I first found BackYardChickens just by Googling common questions, but now I know to go straight to the source! I've been super impressed with all of the duck knowledge here too. I guess we're not alone in wanting a variety of feather babies after having chickens - the gateway bird!
Beyond chickens and ducks, we also have quite a large vegetable garden and sustainable rainwater harvesting and irrigation system. Next we're planning to add bees. You could say we're working our way up to a little sustainable urban homestead!
Looking forward to giving back to this wonderful community!
We first got chicks 2 years ago (2015) and I've been reading your advice since day 1. Thank you BYC Community!! Finally feeling like we know what we're doing but of course, always learning. We started with 4 chickens and all did wonderfully until this past year's heat wave in California when I lost 2 to heat stroke at our new property. I was so devastated! They did fine with the heat at our old place (same amount of shade and water), but we now realize our new backyard gets more hours of direct sun. Now we've made adjustments and are about to add more feather babies to the flock. Currently we have 1 Plymouth Barred Rock, 1 Rhode Island Red, and 3 Pekin ducks. I plan to order 3 more chickens (Golden Laced Wyandotte, Ameraucana, and Buff Orpington) and 1-2 Blue Swedish ducks. Interestingly, my husband was skeptical about chickens when I first got them, but now he's totally enamored with them. He's the one that campaigned for ducks and now he's the one wanting to order more of both!
I first found BackYardChickens just by Googling common questions, but now I know to go straight to the source! I've been super impressed with all of the duck knowledge here too. I guess we're not alone in wanting a variety of feather babies after having chickens - the gateway bird!
Beyond chickens and ducks, we also have quite a large vegetable garden and sustainable rainwater harvesting and irrigation system. Next we're planning to add bees. You could say we're working our way up to a little sustainable urban homestead!
Looking forward to giving back to this wonderful community!
We are glad you joined our flock.
We have a lot of beekeepers around here too.
