BYC Member Interview - Acre4Me

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N F C said:
@Acre4Me


Come say hello to @Acre4Me who comes to us from Ohio and has been a member since November 2017.​



1. Tell us a bit more about yourself. And is there a story behind your member name?
My member name is pretty self explanatory. We have just shy of an acre! Once we moved here a few years ago, it gave us the opportunity to have a large garden and for some chickens. Well, the youngest was 11 yo at the time and joined 4H bc a friend was in it. We’ve expanded the garden to around 2000 sq ft of raised beds, plus beds for raspberries and rhubarb. In addition, we have planted 14 fruit trees, still young, not producing. Over the years of 4 H, the youngest has shown fancy chickens and we’ve raised hundreds of chicks, across hybrids (like EE or high production), and APA breeds. This has been really interesting bc we definitely have really enjoyed the varying birds and their personalities.

One pic of the 4H kid winning second place at first fair experience and the first year we raised chickens!! This was a 5 month old Black Jersey Giant-not yet fully grown. It was a great experience!
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We really like to garden. There were a few raised beds here when we bought the place. But big puddles would form. Drainage was bad, and it seemed as if they looked for high clay soil for the beds.

So, go big or go home, they say! We bought several truckloads (102 tons) of dirt, and leveled out the area to begin again.
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We built more raised beds (some are not in this pic) and have a great garden space now!
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2. Why and when did you start keeping poultry?
We started raising poultry bc we moved to a rural setting, and the neighbors had a small flock. We love to try new things, and raising chickens was appealing to us. There was a fenced dog run along the entire back of the barn, so it made an obvious location for a coop and run.

Here is where we started. A previous fenced dog run. It extended the 50’ length of the barn, and out about 10’. It was lined with pavers on a thin sand base on top of dirt. We removed the pavers and built a coop within the run.
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Now, 6 years later we are almost completely predator proofed! We just need to add some metal roofing panels along the top edge of the roof to keep any raccoons out. But, we now have 3 heavy duty doors into the run from outside, and a secure goat pen on one side of the chicken run. We took out a window in the barn and put a door in its place, directly into the run (so nice). We also built a separate pen (that can be divided or open) to house meat chickens or garden supplies…or whatever. Currently it houses bantams.

Goat pen on right, new door into barn on upper left, and most used door to the outside.
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Small door on far end of the run. Letting it dry out and shrink before adding hinges, etc.
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Large 4’ wide door- coop straight ahead. Great for clean out days.
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Alternate pic of run:
Shows the one end of the run, coop is behind me. This is before we changed out the chain link to the fixed welded wire.
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The other coop.
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3. Which aspects of poultry keeping do you enjoy the most?
Aspects we enjoy the most: seeing and experiencing the various breeds we’ve raised. They do have ranging personalities! For example all Salmon Faverolles have been the most relaxed, chill chickens. We’ve tried those 3x from 3 sources. They are actually too chill for our mixed flock. There have been really flighty ones - some very curious and friendly ones, and even a few not-so - nice males and females. Raising chicks and seeing them grow and become a part of the flock is always interesting. Pecking order is very real and interesting to watch.

We find pecking order interesting! Here is a pic I wrote notes on a few years ago depicting the pecking order of that night.
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4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
We still have three of our original flock. Galadriel and Kili are EEs. Galadriel is the white and grey one and a favorite of my teen. She gets taken out by teen to enjoy some tastiness in the clover patch-she can munch to her hearts desire. Both Galadriel and Kili spent a week at fair (entered in “egglayer” category) five years in a row! It never seemed to phase them, but we’ve decided that they don’t have to deal with all that now, and we bring other chickens. Sylvia is their flock mate, also from the original flock. She is a Silver laced Wyandotte and feisty. She is definitely at the top tier of pecking order, and has been from early on. All three of these girls know their names. We’ve had a few other ones that were particularly curious and friendly. They come up to us, and seem to enjoy being around us, and they liked to be talked to, which is notable bc often, the rest of the chickens aren’t too attentive unless food is involved!

Here is Galadriel around 3 years old getting special attention.
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Here is Galadriel just chillin on the railing.
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5. What was the funniest poultry related thing that has happened to you in your years as an owner?
There are many little ones the first 6 months to a year of chicken ownership. It’s also memorable when you discover the game of “catch and steal” they play with things like frogs or baby birds that fell out of the nest…we’ve also gad to retrieve a cockerel that managed to get up to the roof peak of our 2 story barn. But, one notable incident happened when we opened the gates to the run. We were doing yard work, and chickens were scratching around outside of the run. Well, some plastic got rustled up by the wind (and rustling plastic is always terrifying to all chickens we’ve owned), and an EXTREMELY FLIGHTY EE WAS TERRIFIED…she jumped UP HIGH into the air, legs pedaling as if she was trying to run while in the air, she hit the ground, still pedaling her legs, she propels hearself forward very fast… right into the chain link gate that was opened. This springs her back several feet (bc she ran into it very fast), she’s pedaling her legs still, hits the ground again, but this time managed to run into the run. This all happened within a few seconds. She was clearly in a blind panic. She survived the experience, and we got the plastic put away so the wind couldn’t rustle it again.


6. Beside poultry, what other pets do you keep?
We are not indoor pet people. We’ve tried a few small things now and again as the kids grew up. But when we moved here we adopted a young cat/kitten (about 6 months old?) from the shelter. She is our well cared for barn cat-she is fixed, and gets her shots. She lives in the barn, and loves it in winter when the wood stove is on in the workshop and she is stretched out soaking in the warmth.

Here is Penny enjoying the shade from some mustard in the garden.
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In 2022 we bought two Nigerian Dwarf sisters, bc teen had wanted goats for a few years. The opportunity arose to buy this pair, and they are cuter than I expected!!

Here is Roxie (looking up) and Molly (eating from bowl).
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We enjoy all the animals that we’ve had, but enjoy them best outside!


7. Anything you'd like to add?
It’s very fun to learn new things. We certainly enjoy the experience of raising chickens and other animals. BYC has been a great help in learning about many things!



@Acre4Me

For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews​
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I enjoyed reading this interview. I remember seeing your build in another thread, and envy the skill you have to build doors
 
fuzzi said:
envy the skill you have to build doors
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LOL, Thanks! - It's my husband's skill! I'll definitely show this to him bc I had to work at getting him to build that third door on the far end of the run - its the smallest run door, but I figured easiest to put it in now, in case we ever needed it. He tried talking me out of it, but I persevered!
 
I laughed out loud reading the plastic story. 🤣
We too had a plastic blue tarp blow by & you'd think it was the end of the world...all hens running like crazy then all Very Vocal about it for 10 minutes straight, especially the Roosters. A neighbor 2 acres away actually texted me, asking if everything was OK. She thought a coyote was attacking. That's how loud my flock was!
Thanks for sharing your story. Great idea to utilize the existing dog pen. Your goats are also totally adorable. 😍
 

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