[FONT=andale mono,times]Hi there, Chicken fans.....[/FONT]
I've been a chicken keeper for a little over 4 years. It started with two cute little fuzzy chicks named Tom Brunanski and JerryRemy. Tom was an EE and Jerry was a Leghorn. I lost Tom to a dastardly raccoon on the early morning of August 8th, 2003 and I had to rehome Jerry when a neighbour complained about his crowing.
After Tom died, we acquired Obelisk the Tormentor, another Leghorn (what was I thinking?) and Slifer the Sky Dragon,a light Brahma/Leghorn mix. Once Jerry was rehomed at a petting Zoo in Sanbornton, NH, I only had the two girls. Then, Slifer started crowing and it started all over again.The neighbour complained, the health dept got involved and I got mad. Jerry was so nice and sweet and I didn't put up any fight to keep him, because I didn't know any better. Slifer was a cantakerous bag of feathers, but I loved her greatly. I was the only person who could pick her up and hold her. I made out petitions and went around the neigbhourhood. I sent letters to the mayor and went before the health board to keep my crowing hen. I finally was able to keep her, as long as I could keep her quiet or inside. I became an expert at muzzling my chicken.
I lost my Slifer to a Bumblefoot infection last summer in the early hours of August 8th. I was so upset that I couldn't work or sleep or eat...until one night when she came and visited me. I felt her stubble of broken tail feathers. And I knew that I'd see her across the Bridge when it comes my turn.
We got a friend for Obelisk because I thought that she'd be lonely without Slifer...in December of 06 we brought home Miss Money Penny. She's a Silky/Cochin bantam. She's very sweet, very talkative, and loves to go broody at the drop of a hat.
That's the Reader's Digest version of my Chickens.
As for myself, I'm married(for 20 years next May), I have one spoiled Knowitall of a DS, 3 tanks of fish and a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach named George. I work(maybe worked, because I might be out of a job by now because of my car accident) at Petco. I've bitten by everything in the store from the Dwarf Hamsters, to the Quaker Parrots, to Tiger Barbs to Bitchy the Albino Nelson's Milksnake to a Rose Haired Tarantula.
DH works at the Emergency Desk of Boston University and doesn't understand what I was thinking when I brought chickens into the mix.