(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
I'm a city girl turned country girl. We've had chickens for about 10 years.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
We have 8 hens that lay eggs, and about 40 more that are about 3 months old.
(3) What breeds do you have?
The laying hens are feed store Black Stars. The rest came from Murray McMurray Hatchery. We chose Blue Andalusians and White Faced Black Spanish, plus the barnyard special. That turned out to be the motherlode of weird chickens. Spending the first 3 months to identify them was actually fun, but I wouldn't order that way again. From that order, we got Buff Laced Polish, Bantam Silver Penciled Rock, Black Langshan, Buff Cochins, Light Brahmas, White Rocks, Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, Phoenix (maybe), Buff Plymouth Rock, Dominique, Golden Campine, one plain ol' white Leghorn, and the standard Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rock. Too many of these are roosters with no matching hen, such as the Buff Laced Polish. What do you do with one Buff Laced polish rooster?
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Googling many subjects on chickens, most recently "chicken eye infections".
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
We're trying to have a sustenance farm on our little acre here, so I spend a bit of time caring for animals. But for 'fun', I grow and kill a garden, we read a lot, and I like to get all worked up by listening to Glenn Beck. My favorites: The Kingston Trio, b&w sitcoms, egg collecting, campfires, and coffee with Abuelita chocolate.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
We're a family of 5 in a little farmhouse and I homeschool my three kids. My husband works a regular job, and we sell eggs to pay for the chicken feed. So far, we can't keep up with orders since we get only 8 eggs a day! We have two dogs, two Brangus steers, two Jersey heifers, four pigs, two American Blackbelly sheep, around 50 chickens, four ducks, two geese, and two turkeys. Other animals that call our place home (but are not pets) are Barn Owls, Burrowing Owls, Elf Owls, Great Blue Heron (1 male), Green Herons, an orphaned Cattle Egret, a roadrunner, little bats, Gopher snakes and gophers, and numerous wild hares. I am always amazed at how much life we have here on our small amount of land. We have large trees and we're next to a canal and fields, which is why we have so many interesting species of animals. It doesn't hurt that we have learned to leave them alone, and the dogs ignore everything except the rabbits and snakes!
I'm a city girl turned country girl. We've had chickens for about 10 years.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
We have 8 hens that lay eggs, and about 40 more that are about 3 months old.
(3) What breeds do you have?
The laying hens are feed store Black Stars. The rest came from Murray McMurray Hatchery. We chose Blue Andalusians and White Faced Black Spanish, plus the barnyard special. That turned out to be the motherlode of weird chickens. Spending the first 3 months to identify them was actually fun, but I wouldn't order that way again. From that order, we got Buff Laced Polish, Bantam Silver Penciled Rock, Black Langshan, Buff Cochins, Light Brahmas, White Rocks, Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, Phoenix (maybe), Buff Plymouth Rock, Dominique, Golden Campine, one plain ol' white Leghorn, and the standard Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rock. Too many of these are roosters with no matching hen, such as the Buff Laced Polish. What do you do with one Buff Laced polish rooster?
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Googling many subjects on chickens, most recently "chicken eye infections".
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
We're trying to have a sustenance farm on our little acre here, so I spend a bit of time caring for animals. But for 'fun', I grow and kill a garden, we read a lot, and I like to get all worked up by listening to Glenn Beck. My favorites: The Kingston Trio, b&w sitcoms, egg collecting, campfires, and coffee with Abuelita chocolate.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
We're a family of 5 in a little farmhouse and I homeschool my three kids. My husband works a regular job, and we sell eggs to pay for the chicken feed. So far, we can't keep up with orders since we get only 8 eggs a day! We have two dogs, two Brangus steers, two Jersey heifers, four pigs, two American Blackbelly sheep, around 50 chickens, four ducks, two geese, and two turkeys. Other animals that call our place home (but are not pets) are Barn Owls, Burrowing Owls, Elf Owls, Great Blue Heron (1 male), Green Herons, an orphaned Cattle Egret, a roadrunner, little bats, Gopher snakes and gophers, and numerous wild hares. I am always amazed at how much life we have here on our small amount of land. We have large trees and we're next to a canal and fields, which is why we have so many interesting species of animals. It doesn't hurt that we have learned to leave them alone, and the dogs ignore everything except the rabbits and snakes!
