olepackrat
In the Brooder
I'm copying my original introduction from the previous site with updated notes 
This site is such a FANTASTIC resource! I've been finding useful information on practically every question I have.. you all rock!
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
With the exception of unexpectedly getting a few fighting roosters from a friend in FL back in mid-80's, I'm pretty new to all of this! He came over one day, with chickens in his truck and said, "Hey! Here are some fighting roosters for you!" He put up a make-shift fence around a few palm trees that I had behind my cottage and said he'd bring me left-over greens and such that he would get every week from the local grocery store for his horse. Of course, it didn't take too long before the roosters kept getting out of the make-shift area and eventually met their demise
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
I'm working on building a coop/run out of a truck topper that's been laying around my yard since one of my sons totaled my old Dodge pick-up truck, over a year ago. I also have accumulated some scrap landscape timbers and 2x4's that I'll be putting to use for it. Over the last several weeks, I've been feverishly researching everything chickens! I'd like to have it up and ready in the next 2-3 weeks. (Got the coop/run built not long after the post
(3) What breeds do you have?
I will be getting 6 Lavender Ameraucanas from a friend who's been raising chickens for almost 2 years, and I just found out this evening that my landlord, who also has 8 chickens and said he wants to get rid of 2 rock chickens before winter comes, so I think I'll be getting those, as well. (Edit - I ended up starting with 4 of the grey Ameraucanas and the Rock hens were so vicious to them I traded them for a Red Comet and another red chicken that I'm not quite sure what breed she is. (I call her Cinnamon and she's the second prolific layer that lays cream colored eggs)
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Practically everything I've been researching on chickens brings up this site - usually at, or near, the top of the SERPs! (Pretty good SEO going on here)
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I work from home, and tend to do a lot of it. When we can coordinate it, my 2nd son and my 4 yr old grandson go out on his boat fishing - we love fishing! I also do a little, very little, gardening, as I like to grow grape tomatoes and purple basil in containers every year. I once had several big gardens in another state. However, I'm getting older, have been single for about 7 yrs, (definitely now and forever hehe...), and have backed off from it over the last few years...it's just too much work any more and my old bones can't keep up with it!
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I became a city-dweller again about 6 yrs ago, have 3 sons, 35, 26, 21 and 1 grandson. One son lives in a duplex on my left with my grandson and his Dad (an X of nearly 15 yrs), one lives in a duplex on my right, and my oldest recently moved here and lives with me - he'll be doing all of the actual building - I'm tasked with making all of the plans! (Turned out that Son # 1 could never get motivated to start it, so my X did - and he changed a couple of things, but it turned out great)
I also have a 9 yo chihuahua that likes to go out in the fenced back yard during the day and bark at anything that moves! I'm still not sure what she's gonna think about the chickens when we have it all set up! (She and the chickens get along just fine! She is a true protector lol - sometimes I catch her eating the chicken treats along with them, especially when I give them some yogurt, cottage cheese, or eggs!)
So, that's my story. I look forward to spending time here browsing and if I run into any problems that I just can't seem to find good answers to, I'll certainly ask here. Thanks for having me!
P.S. This is the only forum that I have officially "joined" since running several of my own over 10 years ago! They were on different, yet in a small way similar, topics related to raising babies and toddlers
Update - I lost a chicken, one of the Americaunas a few months after posting this. She got pecked in the eye by one of the others and got a severe infection. I brought her (Phyllis Diller) into the house, we tried neosporin, we tried flushing it, we tried collidial silver, but it just kept getting worse. She was in much pain and I couldn't afford a vet visit. So far, they're doing really good. I let out into the yard in the afternoons, they have keen sense of time! They know when it's time for them to get let out and when the early evening treats are served.
I bought some meal worms to raise for the winter and started seeing babies about 1 1/2 months ago. I think I timed it right, and soon, I hope to stop buying dried. They also love the organic red wheat, white wheat, flax seed, BOSS (just started it and oats again for the winter), millet, some quinoa seeds, kale, spinach, broccoli, pumpkin, yogurt, cooked oatmeal (just recently), macaroni, unsweetened applesauce, bananas, and cabbage, that I divvy out them a bit sparingly and in obscure rotation fairly regularly just before it's time for them to go back into the coop. (last year, I grew some sprouts for them and I think it's that time again!)
During the heat of the summer, I was fermenting their organic pellets, along with some organic seeds, but stopped that a couple of months ago. It, along with the chopped berries, picked clover or leaf kale, I was feeding them seemed to cause a bit of diarrhea. Even though I was consistently getting 3-5 awesome eggs a day!
This winter is predicted to get quite cold, so I'm hoping they do as well as they did last year. They follow me everywhere in the yard, the moment I come out of the back door, after I've let them out. I keep some logs in the yard, and the stones that used to be a small fire pit in my yard are now scattered about and I turn them over several times a week so they can gather the nuggets beneath. Whenever my grandson comes over he turns everything over too! lol Now that it's getting colder and those under rock/log bugs and worms are scarce! Their egg production has also slowed down, except for my Queenie; she's the Comet and the top-dog! She's the first one out in the run and the last one to go in hehee...
With all of this said (some of it a repeat, I want to thank everyone in this group for sharing their knowledge and experiences! Also, a big shout out to the site owners and techs who made the transition to the new site platform! I know that it had to be a huge undertaking (I administer much smaller, and simpler sites than this) and everything, from a User's end, seemed to transition well.
Merry Christmas to everyone, including the chickens, ducks, geese, goats, cattle, turkeys, and all of the other wonderful animals you care for and about, and may the New Year bring you even more joy and happiness
This site is such a FANTASTIC resource! I've been finding useful information on practically every question I have.. you all rock!
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
With the exception of unexpectedly getting a few fighting roosters from a friend in FL back in mid-80's, I'm pretty new to all of this! He came over one day, with chickens in his truck and said, "Hey! Here are some fighting roosters for you!" He put up a make-shift fence around a few palm trees that I had behind my cottage and said he'd bring me left-over greens and such that he would get every week from the local grocery store for his horse. Of course, it didn't take too long before the roosters kept getting out of the make-shift area and eventually met their demise
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
I'm working on building a coop/run out of a truck topper that's been laying around my yard since one of my sons totaled my old Dodge pick-up truck, over a year ago. I also have accumulated some scrap landscape timbers and 2x4's that I'll be putting to use for it. Over the last several weeks, I've been feverishly researching everything chickens! I'd like to have it up and ready in the next 2-3 weeks. (Got the coop/run built not long after the post
(3) What breeds do you have?
I will be getting 6 Lavender Ameraucanas from a friend who's been raising chickens for almost 2 years, and I just found out this evening that my landlord, who also has 8 chickens and said he wants to get rid of 2 rock chickens before winter comes, so I think I'll be getting those, as well. (Edit - I ended up starting with 4 of the grey Ameraucanas and the Rock hens were so vicious to them I traded them for a Red Comet and another red chicken that I'm not quite sure what breed she is. (I call her Cinnamon and she's the second prolific layer that lays cream colored eggs)
(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com?
Practically everything I've been researching on chickens brings up this site - usually at, or near, the top of the SERPs! (Pretty good SEO going on here
)(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
I work from home, and tend to do a lot of it. When we can coordinate it, my 2nd son and my 4 yr old grandson go out on his boat fishing - we love fishing! I also do a little, very little, gardening, as I like to grow grape tomatoes and purple basil in containers every year. I once had several big gardens in another state. However, I'm getting older, have been single for about 7 yrs, (definitely now and forever hehe...), and have backed off from it over the last few years...it's just too much work any more and my old bones can't keep up with it!
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I became a city-dweller again about 6 yrs ago, have 3 sons, 35, 26, 21 and 1 grandson. One son lives in a duplex on my left with my grandson and his Dad (an X of nearly 15 yrs), one lives in a duplex on my right, and my oldest recently moved here and lives with me - he'll be doing all of the actual building - I'm tasked with making all of the plans! (Turned out that Son # 1 could never get motivated to start it, so my X did - and he changed a couple of things, but it turned out great)
I also have a 9 yo chihuahua that likes to go out in the fenced back yard during the day and bark at anything that moves! I'm still not sure what she's gonna think about the chickens when we have it all set up! (She and the chickens get along just fine! She is a true protector lol - sometimes I catch her eating the chicken treats along with them, especially when I give them some yogurt, cottage cheese, or eggs!)
So, that's my story. I look forward to spending time here browsing and if I run into any problems that I just can't seem to find good answers to, I'll certainly ask here. Thanks for having me!
P.S. This is the only forum that I have officially "joined" since running several of my own over 10 years ago! They were on different, yet in a small way similar, topics related to raising babies and toddlers
Update - I lost a chicken, one of the Americaunas a few months after posting this. She got pecked in the eye by one of the others and got a severe infection. I brought her (Phyllis Diller) into the house, we tried neosporin, we tried flushing it, we tried collidial silver, but it just kept getting worse. She was in much pain and I couldn't afford a vet visit. So far, they're doing really good. I let out into the yard in the afternoons, they have keen sense of time! They know when it's time for them to get let out and when the early evening treats are served.
I bought some meal worms to raise for the winter and started seeing babies about 1 1/2 months ago. I think I timed it right, and soon, I hope to stop buying dried. They also love the organic red wheat, white wheat, flax seed, BOSS (just started it and oats again for the winter), millet, some quinoa seeds, kale, spinach, broccoli, pumpkin, yogurt, cooked oatmeal (just recently), macaroni, unsweetened applesauce, bananas, and cabbage, that I divvy out them a bit sparingly and in obscure rotation fairly regularly just before it's time for them to go back into the coop. (last year, I grew some sprouts for them and I think it's that time again!)
During the heat of the summer, I was fermenting their organic pellets, along with some organic seeds, but stopped that a couple of months ago. It, along with the chopped berries, picked clover or leaf kale, I was feeding them seemed to cause a bit of diarrhea. Even though I was consistently getting 3-5 awesome eggs a day!
This winter is predicted to get quite cold, so I'm hoping they do as well as they did last year. They follow me everywhere in the yard, the moment I come out of the back door, after I've let them out. I keep some logs in the yard, and the stones that used to be a small fire pit in my yard are now scattered about and I turn them over several times a week so they can gather the nuggets beneath. Whenever my grandson comes over he turns everything over too! lol Now that it's getting colder and those under rock/log bugs and worms are scarce! Their egg production has also slowed down, except for my Queenie; she's the Comet and the top-dog! She's the first one out in the run and the last one to go in hehee...
With all of this said (some of it a repeat
, I want to thank everyone in this group for sharing their knowledge and experiences! Also, a big shout out to the site owners and techs who made the transition to the new site platform! I know that it had to be a huge undertaking (I administer much smaller, and simpler sites than this) and everything, from a User's end, seemed to transition well.Merry Christmas to everyone, including the chickens, ducks, geese, goats, cattle, turkeys, and all of the other wonderful animals you care for and about, and may the New Year bring you even more joy and happiness
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Thank your for your very fine updated introduction.
Welcome Back!
Nice reintroduction.
