@ChicksnMore
Come say hello to @ChicksnMore who comes to us from Arizona and has been a member since July 2013.
Come say hello to @ChicksnMore who comes to us from Arizona and has been a member since July 2013.
1. Tell us a bit more about yourself. And is there a story behind your member name?
I was born in Korea and came to America when I was very young. I've lived in Alaska, California, Virginia, Kentucky, Washington...and the last 30 years in Arizona.
I first came to BYC because a beautiful neighbor gave me a pair of peafowl chick's. My first peas ever, and I was eager to learn everything about them. Google anything poultry, and BYC is guaranteed to pop up! Ten or so years later, and I'm still here
2. Why and when did you start keeping poultry?
I've been around poultry my whole life! No matter where we lived, my family always had chickens. We owned a farm in Kentucky when I was young, but after my dad retired, we moved to Washington and city life. We still kept chickens, ducks, geese and rabbits. I don't know if laws have changed since my childhood...but we never had any complaints about our little midtown mini farm. Everyone knew where to go if they wanted fresh eggs, fresh veggies, or if they had bunnies they no longer wanted. My life now is actually much the same...just a bigger property outside of town. Not a farm, not a zoo...but rich in animals, vegetables and great neighbors. I spent my college years poultry free, but add a husband and kid to my life...and well, I had to add chickens too right?
Some of my childhood pets
3. Which aspects of poultry keeping do you enjoy the most?
Thats a hard question! I love watching the birds as they go about their birdy lives. It's peaceful watching them interact with each other, scratch in the dirt, dust bathe, chase bugs (or mice!), and just be their beautiful and sometimes goofy selves. I love the surprise when one of my banties decides to fly up and land on me...their excitement when my gardening turns up juicey grubs for them to squabble over...the tender care moms (and dads!) give their chicks. Watching the birds just enjoying their day adds an awful lot of pleasure to mine!
Hard not to enjoy sharing life with all of these birds
4. Which members of your flock, past and present, stand out for you and why?
The most unforgettable bird we owned was our first chicken after my college years. I was a young mom and my husband was still in college so we were renting. But...we went to the pumpkin farm and they had chick's for sale at their petting zoo. There was only one chick left and a little girl still in diapers was holding it by the neck with no idea she was hurting it. No one seemed to notice what was happening...so meany that I am...I took the chick away from that little girl and bought it. By the time we got home, that little chicky was certain my own kid was her mom and would chase after her flapping and crying. My daughter named her Esmerelda and the 2 were inseparable. We built her a little coop in our backyard and moved her outside as soon as she was big enough. But she spent most of her time outdoors finding windows to peer through to watch us. She was quite inventive about finding ways to keep us in sight! My daughter would go outside, crouch down, hold out her arms and call her...and Essie would come running between my kids legs, drap her head across her knee in such a clear hug, and close her eyes. Essies life was an unusual one, but no one can tell me chickens don't love after watching her and my daughter. O how my girl cried when Essie died from old age! She noticed Essie wasn't herself and we sat up most the night so Kimi could just be with her til the end. She was a very special bird.
Baby Essie and Kimi
We've own a lot of wonderful birds over the years, but no others like that one. My current favorites are an old lady bantam named Heniviere and her rooster Sir Clucks A Lot. They weren't held as babies, but none the less, they grew up friendly. Henivieres my garden buddy. She likes to fly up and land on me and ride around, watching what I'm doing. Sir Clucks will sometimes attack me...but when he's not mad at me, he'll join me too
. They're getting old now and visit me less often. These days they spend most of their time on the ground just doing typical chicken stuff. But every now and then they surprise me and I'll still drop everything to say hi and see if I can dig up a grub or two for them.Henny
Henny with Sir Clucks
5. What was the funniest poultry related thing that has happened to you in your years as an owner?
O gosh...that has to be when I was working on our horse stall and discovered meal worms! I got so excited that I plopped right down in the dirt to hunt treasures for my birds! The only problem was, we'd just torn out a section of rotting wood and disturbed a bunch of spiders. My youngest said, "Hey mom, are those brown recluse spiders?" I told her don't worry... they'll run away. Maybe 5 minutes later, I'm down in the dirt scratching up mealies....
. I'm sure you can imagine the outcome! Yep, I got bit! It was kinda awful in the moment, but really rather hilarious in hind sight. After the hospital bills, those were the most expensive meal worms my chickens will ever eat! My chickens sure acted like those mealies were more precious then gold though! Chickens do know how to show pleasure in a gift don't they?
Precious "wild" meal worms!
6. Beside poultry, what other pets do you keep?
We've owned horses, goats, parrots, tortoises, dogs, cats, squirrels and rabbits. We're close to retirement though and have started to downsize. I just rehomed my last horse and last goat to a friend. Our parrot was also recently rehomed to another friend. So we're down to just our poultry, cats, dogs and tortoise. It's a bit of an adjustment, and we're waiting a bit to decide if we want to reduce our poultry as well. We still own peafowl, geese, turkeys and chickens. I think we might go down to just our chickens, dogs and cats though. Retirement feels like a good time to travel a bit.
Some of our past and present pets
7. Anything you'd like to add?
Gotta love BYC! I've learned so much here, and made some truly wonderful friends...BYC has been a blessing
@ChicksnMore
For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews
For more information about the interview feature and a complete list of member interviews:
introducing-vip-member-interviews
I'm glad you are ok! 
, you've lived a VERY interesting life. Thanks for sharing yourself with us! 
