Hello Everyone!
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? I grew up with my grandmother having chickens, and then my husband and I got our first flock around 2006.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? About 20 adults, 25 new young barred rocks, 30 baby meat chicks, plus 3 setting hens.
(3) What breeds do you have? RIR, some Barred Rocks, White Rocks, a few colored-egg layers, some home-raised mixed ones, and 2 Silkies
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? When I was looking at chicken tractors the name came up on my search engine.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? Needlework, historic crafts, a little music
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. My husband, myself, and our daughter live on a small 36 acre farm. We've been here since 2006, and our goal is to have a small but working multi-species "heritage" farm (I'm a historian and my husband is a history buff.) We started out raising miniature goats, (and I still love my goats), but we've shifted more toward sheep, pigs, and cattle. We have the chickens and also some ducks, horses, and rabbits. Somehow, along the way, we managed to "adopt" 8 dogs, or they adopted us, and each of them has a particular job or role.
We're just getting to the point of being able to provide a goodly amount of what we eat: pork, beef, lamb, chicken, eggs, rabbit, catfish, vegetables, pears, and some wild berries/plants, and we're working on producing honey, apples, domestic mushrooms, plums/prunes, grapes, turkey, and duck. I milk the goats part of the year and could milk one of the cows if push-came-to-shove. We occasionally have goat-cheese, and now I can make soap using not only our goats' milk but also lard from the pigs. We shear the sheep, and I can show children how to spin the wool and how to knit or weave it. While I'm not a professional driver, we can also demonstrate how to harness and drive a draft horse, or a mini horse.
It's great to see so many people starting to re-learn some of the old skills and produce at least some of their own food. You don't have to have a farm. Even on a "backyard" scale, with a little work many families can really add to the quality and variety of their food, stretch their budget, waste less, and have healthy food to eat and share with others.
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? I grew up with my grandmother having chickens, and then my husband and I got our first flock around 2006.
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? About 20 adults, 25 new young barred rocks, 30 baby meat chicks, plus 3 setting hens.
(3) What breeds do you have? RIR, some Barred Rocks, White Rocks, a few colored-egg layers, some home-raised mixed ones, and 2 Silkies
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? When I was looking at chicken tractors the name came up on my search engine.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies? Needlework, historic crafts, a little music
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. My husband, myself, and our daughter live on a small 36 acre farm. We've been here since 2006, and our goal is to have a small but working multi-species "heritage" farm (I'm a historian and my husband is a history buff.) We started out raising miniature goats, (and I still love my goats), but we've shifted more toward sheep, pigs, and cattle. We have the chickens and also some ducks, horses, and rabbits. Somehow, along the way, we managed to "adopt" 8 dogs, or they adopted us, and each of them has a particular job or role.
We're just getting to the point of being able to provide a goodly amount of what we eat: pork, beef, lamb, chicken, eggs, rabbit, catfish, vegetables, pears, and some wild berries/plants, and we're working on producing honey, apples, domestic mushrooms, plums/prunes, grapes, turkey, and duck. I milk the goats part of the year and could milk one of the cows if push-came-to-shove. We occasionally have goat-cheese, and now I can make soap using not only our goats' milk but also lard from the pigs. We shear the sheep, and I can show children how to spin the wool and how to knit or weave it. While I'm not a professional driver, we can also demonstrate how to harness and drive a draft horse, or a mini horse.
It's great to see so many people starting to re-learn some of the old skills and produce at least some of their own food. You don't have to have a farm. Even on a "backyard" scale, with a little work many families can really add to the quality and variety of their food, stretch their budget, waste less, and have healthy food to eat and share with others.
and Welcome To BYC! Sounds like you have a busy farm!
