Hello, I joined about 1 1/2 years ago and I now realize I was supposed to do an intro post.
I'm in Berkeley, CA with a husband, two kids, two cats, and currently four backyard hens.
I grew up in a small town in central CA. We had chickens and it was always my job to take care of them. (It turns out this was because my mom, born and raised on a farm, was afraid of the rooster, but more on that later perhaps.)
Fast forward to living in urban Berkeley. My kids' public elementary school had chickens as part of the Edible Schoolyard project, and I volunteered to care for them when the science teacher was away.
On one of my visits I noticed a little hen who would not come out of the nesting box. She was in there head first and the other chickens were mercilessly pecking her tail feathers out.
I am familiar with the pecking order but this seemed extreme, so I asked the science teacher about her. The teacher had adopted the hen recently but the flock was not accepting her, so she was looking to rehome her. And that's how I got started in the chicken business with my first hen, Scarlett. The teacher told me she was an Orpington, but now that I have a real Orpington, I realize Scarlett was a Rhode Island Red. She is my avatar photo and will always be my favorite chicken.
After Scarlett was acclimated and began laying regularly, we added Belle, as sex linked Red, and Belle and Scarlett were buddies and fairly good layers for a couple of years.
Scarlett died unexpectedly this spring of apparently natural causes, so we were down to just Belle. Then a coworker of my husband's offered him three just-feathered chicks. They had raised a dozen baby chicks expecting a 50% mortality rate and instead had a 0% mortality rate, so they had too many!
We adopted Buffy, an Orpington, and Betsy and Feathers, black/white Rocks. I think you can tell my kids named them.
Over the two years I've been a backyard chicken farmer, I've learned a lot. We've had a mite infestation, molting, brooding, jelly eggs, hawk attacks, destroyed herb gardens (learned the hard way that free ranging is not for us!) and attempted skunk invasions. But we've also had delicious eggs, sometimes hilarious chicken drama and a real education for my kids about where at least part of their food comes from.
I've learned a lot from this forum in my times of need and I really appreciate you all sharing your knowledge.
Rose
I'm in Berkeley, CA with a husband, two kids, two cats, and currently four backyard hens.
I grew up in a small town in central CA. We had chickens and it was always my job to take care of them. (It turns out this was because my mom, born and raised on a farm, was afraid of the rooster, but more on that later perhaps.)
Fast forward to living in urban Berkeley. My kids' public elementary school had chickens as part of the Edible Schoolyard project, and I volunteered to care for them when the science teacher was away.
On one of my visits I noticed a little hen who would not come out of the nesting box. She was in there head first and the other chickens were mercilessly pecking her tail feathers out.
I am familiar with the pecking order but this seemed extreme, so I asked the science teacher about her. The teacher had adopted the hen recently but the flock was not accepting her, so she was looking to rehome her. And that's how I got started in the chicken business with my first hen, Scarlett. The teacher told me she was an Orpington, but now that I have a real Orpington, I realize Scarlett was a Rhode Island Red. She is my avatar photo and will always be my favorite chicken.
After Scarlett was acclimated and began laying regularly, we added Belle, as sex linked Red, and Belle and Scarlett were buddies and fairly good layers for a couple of years.
Scarlett died unexpectedly this spring of apparently natural causes, so we were down to just Belle. Then a coworker of my husband's offered him three just-feathered chicks. They had raised a dozen baby chicks expecting a 50% mortality rate and instead had a 0% mortality rate, so they had too many!
We adopted Buffy, an Orpington, and Betsy and Feathers, black/white Rocks. I think you can tell my kids named them.
Over the two years I've been a backyard chicken farmer, I've learned a lot. We've had a mite infestation, molting, brooding, jelly eggs, hawk attacks, destroyed herb gardens (learned the hard way that free ranging is not for us!) and attempted skunk invasions. But we've also had delicious eggs, sometimes hilarious chicken drama and a real education for my kids about where at least part of their food comes from.
I've learned a lot from this forum in my times of need and I really appreciate you all sharing your knowledge.
Rose
and Welcome To BYC!
