Welcome to The BackyardChickens.com Forum! + Newsletter Archive

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent Febuary 21, 2009

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Hi BYCer!

We're seeing evidence all around of the end of Winter. One of the most clear signs is the huge "spring" we've seen in new visitors and members at BYC. Pretty soon there will be baby chicks tempting us all at our local feed stores. In addition, we'll see even more activity on our huge community forum.

New Member Introductions:
With the hundreds of new members each week we decided to devote an entire section of the site just to new member introductions. Even if you are not "new" feel free to introduce yourself to all the thousands of new members that have joined since you came aboard. Either way, stop by and say hi to some new friends:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=44

Two $20 Gift Certificate Contests:- Coop Design Contest - https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=113624
- Incubator Design Contest (ends 2/27) - https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=118282

Paying It Forward:
One of the best aspects of the BYC community is how our members "pay it forward". Many of us came to BYC not knowing much about chickens. Fortunately we found a place with thousands of friendly people who provided knowledge, support, and friendship. We can all "pay it forward" by turning around and assisting new members. Even if you aren't a chicken expert, there are plenty of ways to contribute. Some members offer technical help with using the forum, others simply provide encouragement and friendship. Every contribution is important in building our community. This will become even more important as we head into Spring and add thousands of friends looking for help and a place to belong.

15% Off - BYC University Clothing:
Our store manager is moving, which means so is our store! For this reason we're cutting the prices on some of our excess inventory to lighten her load!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1647977

25,000 Member Contest:
The 22,222 member contest was super fun. We reached the goal faster than most people expected... that's a lot of new peeps, in fact two weeks ago 686 were online at the same time. With all the growth and fun, we decided to start a new 25k member contest. The winner gets a free Golden Feather Membership to use for themselves or give away as a gift. Keep your eyes out for when we hit this goal because we'll start a new contest right after we reach 25k members:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=127856

Featured Sponsors:
Here are some of our long term sponsors. They have helped keep BYC running and we are grateful for their support. Please visit them and tell them you appreciate their sponsorship of BYC.

www.ShopTheCoop.com - Where having pet chickens is the norm
www.McMurrayHatchery.com - The world's largest rare breed hatchery
www.IdealPoultry.com - Breeding farms & hatchery - breeds chickens bantams & ducks
www.Henspa.com - Maker of the "Ultimate Backyard Coop". With and without wheels
www.EggCartons.com - Discount supplier of egg cartons, egg boxes, egg trays, poultry supplies

Thanks to everyone for making BYC such a wonderful place to learn and share.

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent March 28, 2009

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Hi BYCer!

Lots of great things going on, so let's jump right in! (BTW, to unsubscribe to this newsletter please follow the link at the bottom of this page).

New Homemade Incubator Section:
The BYC incubator contest was a huge success! We've added 15 homemade incubator pages to BYC just in time for the Spring egg hatching fever! https://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken-coop-incubator.html

New Geo Member Feature:
One of the most requested features has been to allow members to post and search on specific location information. We've added the first phase of this feature and would love to have you update your location and give the tool a try: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=153436

New Contests:
• We had a super fun time guessing when BYC would hit 25,000 members (which ended up happening faster than most expected) so we started a new contest to guess how many new members we'll have on 5/6/09. Post your guess and you may win a one year Golden Feather Membership: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=150323

•BYC Trivia Contest - This Sunday evening at 5:00 PM PST (8:00 PM EST)! Know the answers to the questions and win! For details, click here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=147396

25,000 Members = 25% Increase in Image Storage:
As mentioned above we zoomed past 25,000 members. To celebrate we increased all the members' image storage space by 25%: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=146039

Chickens in the White House?:
As you hopefully know, our vision is to have a chicken in every yard. Well, who to set a better example for this than the new US President and his family? Help us brainstorm ways to get chickens into the White House (or at least next to the new garden to help eat all the food scraps). https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=152014

Thanks to everyone for making BYC such a wonderful place to learn and share.

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent April 30, 2009

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Hello Poultry Proponents!

What an amazing month! In April we've broken pretty much every single record that we track on BYC. The world is learning about the wonderful benefits of raising backyard chickens and our HUGE community spreading the word is a big part of the growing trend. Below are some highlights since the last newsletter.

50 New Chicken Coop Pages Added:
Once again we've had another amazingly successful chicken coop contest. We had about 50 new chicken coop pages submitted and we are thankful for each and every one of them. We set out to choose a winner (which proved impossible, so we chose 10)! https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1994011#p1994011

Every coop design submitted by our members helps thousands of people. We've started a new coop contest at the link below. NOTE: The purpose of this contest is to get you to create a coop page. Even if you don't care to win or think you will win PLEASE still create a page and submit it to the contest so we can add it to the coop section of BYC. If you have a coop, take pictures and write up some information for the world to learn! Here is where you submit your coop page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=165579

You can view all the coops here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html
We also have the incubator contest here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=145158

Official BYC Cookbook:
We're excited to announce that we're working on an official BYC Cookbook! To submit your favorite chicken and egg recipes click here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=162422

Those who have already submitted recipes please check your email and follow the instruction for typesetting and proofing your recipes for the published book. Any questions should be directed to the cookbook email address ([email protected]) and MissPrissy (Angie) will assist you.

New Private Message Feature - Folders:
BYC is an incredibly social community. With all these social butterflies er... peeps we've seen a lot more use of our private message system. You've been asking for a way to organize your messages and we've been listening. A few weeks ago we released an upgrade that allows you to create folders and organize your messages. See more here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=166696

If you're really a social peep and you need more PM storage space (and want to support BYC) upgrade your BYC membership to a Golden Feather Membership: https://www.backyardchickens.com/gfm.html

Breaking Records:
As mentioned above we've been growing like crazy. Here are just a few amazing stats:

Members Online: 979 (almost 1,000 at the same time!)
Posts Per Day: 6,800 (that's 4.75 posts every minute 24/7)
New Members Per Day: 106 (How many will we have on 5/6/09? See here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=150323 )

Featured Sponsors: Our sponsors keep BYC alive and thriving and have allowed us to scale our servers with the amazing growth mentioned above. Please visit them and send them a quick comment (via contact form or email) mentioning that you appreciate their sponsorship of BYC.

FlemingOutdoors.com - Your Online Farm & Outdoor Supply Store
Critter-Cages.com - Your one stop shop for all your critter's housing needs
PurelyPoultry.com - Great prices on chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and more
HomeAndBarnBasics.com - Products for your home and barn, house and farm

For all our sponsors visit our Supplies Page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-supplies.html

BYC Trivia Challenge:
This Sunday at 6:00 Pacific Time we'll be having another fun and exciting trivia contest. Come and play with us. Winner will get a free 6 Month Golden Feather Membership for themselves or a friend! See here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=173361

Thanks to everyone for making BYC such a wonderful place to learn and share.

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent May 31, 2009

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Hello BYC Friends,

May has been another busy busy month at BackYardChickens! While our members have been active posting about 7,000 times a day the BYC staff have been busy on the backend making BYC even better. Below are some highlights of the updates along with some important information:

Private Message Notification & Mass Move PMs:
We've heard your feedback and your requests and have added new features to our Private Message system. The first is the ability to move multiple Private Messages into a folder. The second is a new optional "New Private Message" email notification system. Read more here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=180854

Homemade Incubator Contest Winners:
We're so excited to have the largest and best collection of homemade incubators anywhere. We now have over 25 homemade incubators created by our community members. Below is the link to the BYC Homemade Incubator Section of BYC:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/chicken-coop-incubator.html

You can also read about the winners of the recent incubator design contest here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2205390#p2205390

Forum Reorganization:
Some key sections of the site have been moved and a new "Other BackYard Poultry" section has been added:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=184987

On a related note we made some HUGE changes to one of our sister sites, www.BackYardHerds.com
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=768

Collapsible Categories:
With the addition of new sections over the years, the BYC index page has grown quite a bit. To make navigating the forum index even easier we've added a new feature that allows you to collapse or expand each category. Instructions for how to use this feature are here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=184299

Featured Sponsors: All of our new features above and many more are made possible by support from our Golden Feather Members and also by the BYC Sponsors. Please visit them and send them a quick comment (via contact form or email) mentioning that you appreciate their support of the BYC community.

HorizonStructures.com - Coops delivered, fully assembled & ready for same day use!
RandallBurkey.com - Traditional poultry products, animal healthcare products, and specialty items
Mt. Health Hatcheries - A hatching tradition for over 80 years!
MyPetChicken.com - Everything you need to get started including baby chicks, accessories and books
For all our sponsors visit our Supplies Page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-supplies.html

Past Newsletters:
A quick reminder that all of our past newsletters can be found on the forum at the link below. There is lots of great information about forum updates and announcements:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3

Thanks to everyone for making BYC such a wonderful place to learn and share.

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent June 27, 2009

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Hello BYC Friends,

Lots of things going on, so let's just dive right in, okay?

New Chicken Breed Database:
We're undertaking the biggest project at BYC in years! We are setting out to create the biggest and best chicken breed database on the planet. Basically we want to do for chicken breeds what we did with chicken coops! You can read all the details at the link below, but here is the bottom line: We need YOU to submit pictures and information about a chicken breed of your choice. So please join us in this amazing project!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=205856

Coop Design Contest Winners:
A ton of new chicken coops were added to our coop design pages. You can read about the winners here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2294572#p2294572

As always, we've started a new coop contest, so if your coop still isn't featured in the amazing BYC Coop Designs section please reply to this thread with a link to your coop page!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=192317

New Feature - BYC Buddy Lists:
With 35,000 members in our community, it becomes hard to keep track of your peeps. For this reason we've added the BYC Buddy List. You can add all your buddies and even make notes to remember who is who.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=201968

More Image and PM Storage Space:
Yes, we hit the amazing 35,000 member mark on 6/22/09! To celebrate this great achievement we've increased the image storage space for our standard members and the PM storage space for our Golden Feather Members!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=203864

BYC Pass Along Business Cards:
We all run into people that either don't have chickens or, amazingly enough, have chickens and haven't been to BYC (crazy, we know!). For this reason we've designed and ordered a bunch of BYC cards that can be handed out. We'll include a few free ones in each order shipped from the BYC store and we've also got a stack available at a great price that can be ordered in our store.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2436499#p2436499

New Feature - Show All Topics:
Now you can go into a user's profile and see all the topics started by that person. Details here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=191397

The first 6 months of 2009 have been absolutely AMAZING and we look forward to more of the exciting things we have planned for the rest of the year, so stay tuned!

Thanks to everyone for making BYC such a wonderful place to learn and share.

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent July 17, 2009

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Hello BYC Friends,

Hopefully you and your chickens are enjoying summer without getting too hot! Things at BYC continue to heat up, but in a good way! Our wonderful community continues to receive some amazing press and our members continue spreading the word in an effort to get a "chicken in every yard!"

Below are some recent announcements and important information:


New "Breakfast" Clothing:

This has been a long time coming! The BYC Golden Feather Members have known about this for a while but we're excited to officially announce the new FULL COLOR: "My Pet Makes Me Breakfast" clothing line!

We've worked hard to order a variety of clothing types, colors and sizes, but we're sure some of the more popular combinations will sell out soon.

Visit the BYC Store: http://www.coopedup.net/store/index.php?cPath=10_42

BYC In The News:
There continues to be a huge surge in the trend towards raising backyard chickens and BYC is on the forefront of that trend. This year alone BYC has been featured in a ton of news stories. We can't list them all, but you can see a bunch of the bigger ones here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-links.html

Chicken Breed Database:
Our new chicken breed database system has been growing faster than a Cornish X chick on a high protein diet! You can see all the pages submitted so far:
Main Breed Pages - https://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/breed-chart
Simple Breed Pages - https://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/chicken-breeds

If you have chicken pictures and information please join this great project!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=205856

Featured Sponsors: A reminder that our community sponsors keep BYC alive. Please visit their sites and tell them you appreciate their sponsorship of BYC.

BuyGameBirds.com - Gamebird hatching eggs, day old chicks, and mature birds
HenSaver.com - Protect Your Hen! Triple-layer patent-pending chicken saddles
HorizonStructures.com - Coops delivered free, fully assembled & ready for same day use!
J.M. Hatchery - Specializing in colored, free range chicks suited for the pastured or backyard environment.

You an see a list of all the BYC Sponsors here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-supplies.html

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent August 22, 2009

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Hello BYC Friends,

Summer continues to bring a lot of fun and exciting things over at BYC. Below are some highlights:


Tudy Photo Contest:

BYC welcomes a new member to the family: Tudy (2-D since she's only got two dimensions). Take Tudy on a trip, snap some pictures, and you could win a Golden Feather Membership! Read more here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=226049

If you're looking for something a bit more fluffy (3-D), you can check out the BYC Traveling Mascots: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=180862

Coop Contests:
We had some amazing submissions and winners to our coop page design contest. The winners are announced here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2632095#p2632095

New coop page contest: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=222361
New incubator page contest: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=224640

BYC Trivia Contest - Free Book: "Raising Chickens for Dummies "
On Sunday evening we're having a special BYC Trivia Contest to celebrate our 40,000 members and the success of the book, "Raising Chickens for Dummies". Log into the forum this Sunday night (8/23) at 9:00 pm EST (6:00 pm PST) to either compete or watch the fun in real time. More details here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2752499

New Feature - Polls:
We've been wanting to add this feature for a very long time and we're happy to announce the addition of polls to BYC. Learn more here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=229522
Give poll voting a try by telling us why you own chickens: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=232357

Featured Sponsors: BYC Sponsors keep BYC going! Take a few minutes to visit their sites and tell them you appreciate their sponsorship of BYC.

www.EggCartons.com - Discount supplier of egg cartons, egg boxes, egg trays, poultry supplies
www.IdealPoultry.com - Breeding farms & hatchery - breeds chickens bantams & ducks
www.McMurrayHatchery.com - The world's largest rare breed hatchery
www.ShopTheCoop.com - Where having pet chickens is the norm
You an see a list of all the BYC Sponsors here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-supplies.html

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent September 17, 2009

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Hello BYC Friends,

Please Vote For BYC - Today!
BYC needs your vote! We've entered a video contest and would love your help to get to first place. You have to have a Facebook account to vote, but anybody can watch the video: http://www.bigsuccess.tv/watch/?contestant=4276

If you really want to spread the word, put the link in your facebook status with some fun text like: "A Chicken In Every Yard. Vote for BYC: http://www.bigsuccess.tv/watch/?contestant=4276"
CONTEST ENDS Thursday at 9:00 pm PST, so vote soon.


Coop Contest - You Pick A Winner:
We're going to try something new.... you guys pick the winner of our most recent coop contest!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=244687

BYC T-Shirt Summer End Super Sale:
For the next 4 days only you can get up to 30% off our two newest shirt designs! Only $12 per shirt is lower than they've ever been. Hurry, supplies are limited:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=244603

More Voting?:
Have you not had enough chances to vote? Well, here's one more! You can vote for BYC to be HOT:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=244042

Featured Sponsors: BYC Sponsors keep BYC going! Take a few minutes to visit their sites and tell them you appreciate their sponsorship of BYC.

MyPetChicken.com - Everything you need to get started raising chickens
FlemingOutdoors.com - Your Online Farm & Outdoor Supply Store
PurelyPoultry.com - Great prices on 200+ breeds of chickens, ducks, geese and more
Mt. Health Hatcheries - A hatching tradition for over 80 years!
You can see a list of all the BYC Sponsors here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-supplies.html

Don't Forget To Post: - Here are two of our favorite social threads:
How'd you get your screen name? https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3000
Submit your mug (or update it): https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=20934

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent October 17, 2009

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Hello BYC Friends,

We've been seeing some leaves falling from trees and feathers falling from chickens ! Are y'all ready for some season changin'?

Getting Ready For Winter:
Now's the time to get ready for the quickly approaching cold weather and rains. Here are some helpful areas of BYC to get you on the right path:
The Cold Coop - Great information about keeping your coop warm
Fix Muddy Run - Ideas on how to keep your chicken run dry
Forum Discussions on winter advice & when to use heat lamp

New Buy-Sell-Auction (BSA) System:
One of the busiest, most disorganized, and most time consuming (for the Staff) areas of BYC has been the Buy/Sell forums. We've recently announced the very first version of the new BYC Buy~Sell~Auction system. We still have a lot of improvements to make, but we're very pleased with the new system. You can read about the new system here and post a test listing here .


Once again our members pulled together to submit some amazing chicken coop designs! You can see the winners of the most recent contest here , or submit your own coop to the new contest here . Remember, even if you don't have in-process coop building pictures, we would still love it if you could create a BYC Page with pictures and information on your coop. Just create a page and post a link to your page here .


BYC Breed Database - Sponsored By Randall Burkey Co :
We've had a fantastic response to our new Chicken Breeds Database . We still have a handful of breeds that need "main" pages created. If your page is approved you'll get a free 4 month GFM! Learn more here .

Note: If you have great pics of your breed but a "main" page already exists, please create a simple page to be entered into a contest for the best simple chicken breed page .


Things To Come:
We're working diligently on some exciting projects including a BYC 2010 Chicken Calendar and the official BYC Cookbook. More details are on their way, but we'll be sure to have these in plenty of time for Christmas delivery.

Featured Sponsors: Please take a few minutes to visit the BYC Sponsors' sites and tell them you appreciate their support of our great community:

www.Critter-Cages.com - Your one stop shop for all your critter's housing needs
www.JMHatchery - Specializing in colored, Freedom Ranger chicks
www.HenSaver.com - Protect Your Hen! Triple-layer patent-pending chicken saddles
www.BuyGameBirds.com - Gamebird hatching eggs, day old chicks, and mature birds

You can see a list of all the BYC Sponsors here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-supplies.html

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sent November 21, 2009

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Hello BYC Friends,

The BYC Staff is hoping you are getting ready for some fantastic holiday festivities! Here are a few things we're doing to celebrate the holidays:

First Ever BYC Calendar:
Can you believe 2010 is almost upon us? Well, we still don't have flying cars, but we do have a 2010 BYC Calendar! We've taken some our favorite Pictures Of The Week and put them into this beautiful 8x11.5 inch, 13 month wall calendar.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=268651

BYC Trivia Challenge:
Tomorrow (Sunday) at 6:00 Pacific Time we'll be having another fun and exciting trivia contest. Come and play with us. We'll have three winners this time! See here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=268738

BYC Sister Sites:
Even though we've got links at the bottom of all the forum pages, we're surprised that so many members don't know about our sister sites! Come by for a visit and meet some old and new friends!

www.SufficientSelf.com - Learn how to be more self-sufficient
www.TheEasyGarden.com - Easy - Fun - Fulfilling... How Gardening Should Be
www.BackYardHerds.com - Raising Cows, Goats, Sheep, Horses and More... in your BackYard

Tudy's Back For More Fun:
Our favorite two-dimentional friend is back for a new contest. She's in a party mood and wants to be included in all the Holiday festivities. You can read more details here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=269496

Featured Sponsors:
Please take a few minutes to visit the BYC Sponsors' sites and tell them you appreciate their support of our great community:

www.TractorSupply.com - The largest retail farm and ranch store chain in the United States
www.McMurrayHatchery.com - The world's largest rare breed hatchery
www.IdealPoultry.com - Breeding farms & hatchery - breeds chickens bantams & ducks
www.ShopTheCoop.com - Where having pet chickens is the norm
www.EggCartons.com - Discount supplier of egg cartons, egg boxes, egg trays, poultry supplies

You can see a list of all the BYC Sponsors here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-supplies.html

We'll see you in the forum!

The BYC Team