Welcome. I say give the a&^hol* $100 and take the chicken to add to your flock and protect her.(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Yes! I've had family that kept chickens but I only occasionally helped gather eggs. I love all animals and I've been really into birds for a while. I've always thought chickens were really cute and funny.
In August 2023 a "stray" chicken showed up in our yard in rural NC so I took an interest and started feeding her. After much encouragement from chicken keepers in my Facebook groups I decided to build her a coop. On 2/14 I managed to get her in the coop! When I got home she was gone with no signs of any struggle or damage. I found out from a neighbor that another neighbor walked through the backyards and opened my coop to let her out.
After a confrontation the trespassing neighbor claims he spent $100 on a free-range chicken as a pet for his small child and he has no papers but that's HIS chicken and I shouldn't be putting her in a coop. Whatever.
The stressful part of all of this is that this guy is always outside watching me and has seen me feeding and interacting with the chicken for months, never saying a word. He specifically waits until I leave for work and comes into our yard to open the coop.
Yes, this guy has a single hen wandering around without concern for her safety or anyone's property. We have active raccoons, opossums, and a lot of stray cats that come around. I'm sure she's living up in a tree. This should be fun when our spring crops get going.
Sorry, this is all still pretty fresh.
Anyway, I had a coop and food and emotions with no chicken. A friend had too many hens and was happy to gift me two. They are about two years old and quite a bit larger than the free-range hen. So I'm finally a chicken mom and ready to commit to absolutely taking care of and loving these ladies.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
Two hens in a coop and a single free-range that's not mine but keeps coming back and asking for food.
(3) What breeds do you have?
I'm not 100% sure yet, my friend said one was an easter egger chicken. I welcome all advice and knowledge.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
I'm not sure yet. I do know we will enjoy the eggs. I just love animals and I look forward to making friends with these new chickens and forming a bond (I hope ). To me, they are more than livestock.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Bird watching, light gardening, my yard is a habitat so I love seeing various critters/insects/birds come through, movies/tv, and sometimes video games but I stay pretty busy, I'm active in local politics, and work.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I'm a 39-year-old woman with a teenage son and a husband. We have two dogs and two cats, all inside pets except for when the dogs go out for potty/play.
I own my own piercing business and gift shop in a small town.
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I found the site while searching google for random chicken info a few days ago. Now that I have chickens I might as well be here. You can never know enough to care for an animal and I want to do it right!
My girls! This was just yesterday ( day one in the coop ) so they were totally weirded out by me looking at them. We have the outer ground perimeter set with the gates for digging. The two coop wooden doors have keyed locks. The gate and the nesting box door have two different carabineer clips, one latch, and one screw-on. The lights are dim at night but motion sensor to bright.
I have some feeder cups coming in to clip to the inside to keep feed and water off the ground. I got a large pack so I can rotate and keep them clean.
More...
I do have several questions to start but I'm going to find the proper threads to those.
- The slide-out tray for this coop is rather slick. I used pine bedding, as per one website's suggestions but the chickens seem to slide around inside. I need advice for sure!
- We do plan on extending the run in some way when the weather warms up a bit. I told my husband we absolutely need a roof and a complete enclosure, I don't want to take any chances.
