New to chickens & new to BackyardChickens, but loving it!!

[AllensBackyardBarnyard]

Hubby and I started our very own flock in the spring of this year (2017). I had absolutely no experience with fowl, except faint childhood memories of my daddy having fightin chickens, and my uncle's farm where they roamed free & pooped everywhere. Bleah!!
He talked me into it, and I agreed reluctantly, after I saw the Barnevelders at our local feed store.

We ended up taking THIRTEEN chicks home that day. 13. We don't even eat eggs!! That brought our flock up to 18, as we had already taken in some adoptees from friends, and purchased 2 just to get them out of the conditions they were living in.

We love every one of our girls, and they all have names, and personalities!

We've got (pullets) 3 Barnevelders , 3 Barred Rocks, 3 Speckled Sussex, 3 Brown Leghorns, 1 Black Minorca (our first pullet layer), (mature girls...1 Russian Orloff, 1 black Cochin, 1 White Leghorn (who doesn't lay), 1 Barred Rock, and 1 Easter Egger (who is well past her prime, but is one of our best layers).

And then we got turkeys. Lol
We chose the heritage breed, Bourbon Red. 3 males for holiday table, and one as our breeding tom, 1 BR hen and 1 Red Bronze hen.

Our fowl are free roaming, pasture-raised, bug-eating, dust bathing, talkative, healthy and happy birds.

We live in a small town in Northern Arizona (no, it's not hot), and it's a 'truck town'. The house lots are big, so anybody can have chickens or livestock. The generality of the people here are the 'give the shirt off of their back-kind, non-pretentious, down home, salt of the earth, farming, ranching, horse/livestock, beat up truck driving-kind of people. We fit right in!

Finding BackyardChickens has been great. What an informative website! I (we) love being amongst our fellow fowl loving people. It's been a huge help, several times, as we're new to raising chickens.
I found an answer to my sick hen problem just this morning.
Everybody's input is gold. Thanks soo much! I hope that we can be of help in the future, as we learn from all y'all.

We don't have kids together, but Hubby has 4 that are 24, 22, 18, and 13. The eldest is my bestest bud, and she left Hawaii at 18 to come to Arizona to be with her daddy, and I'm so glad that she did, because not only did I get an awesomepossum friend, she introduced me to her daddy (and we found in each other what we had been needing our whole lives), and we now have a 1 1/2 year old, absolutely incredible, amazing, wonderful grandson!
The two younger are in Alabama, and are freakin awesome kids.

Our little farm is our kids now.
Add 2 goats to the flock of 25 fowl, a large garden, 3 barn kitties, and one very senior dog, and you have the zoo that is us. Lol

It's fabulous, though. It's the life we've both always wanted to live, but never got to, and this backyard barnyard life is the only way to go.
Doesn't get much better than this, does it?

Unless you get to get out in the woods & mountains for some hiking, exploring, small game hunting, cutting firewood and camping, that is.

It's the little things in life that are precious to us.

We're tickled pink to be part of this Backyard fun, and thank you for all for sharing your advice and experience!!!

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC, and thanks for all of the pictures. I flat out cracked up over the 'kid in the cage' picture.

 

[Lauren Kim]

Hi! Welcome to BYC! I'm sure that you will have a great time in our community. Have fun and don't be afraid to post away!!

Lauren

 

[RodNTN]

Hello there! And It is wonderful to have you here with us!
I love the pictures! Especially the one with the kid in the cage

Best wishes!

 

[barred2rock]

Hubby and I started our very own flock in the spring of this year (2017). I had absolutely no experience with fowl, except faint childhood memories of my daddy having fightin chickens, and my uncle's farm where they roamed free & pooped everywhere. Bleah!!
He talked me into it, and I agreed reluctantly, after I saw the Barnevelders at our local feed store.

We ended up taking THIRTEEN chicks home that day. 13. We don't even eat eggs!! That brought our flock up to 18, as we had already taken in some adoptees from friends, and purchased 2 just to get them out of the conditions they were living in.

We love every one of our girls, and they all have names, and personalities!

We've got (pullets) 3 Barnevelders , 3 Barred Rocks, 3 Speckled Sussex, 3 Brown Leghorns, 1 Black Minorca (our first pullet layer), (mature girls...1 Russian Orloff, 1 black Cochin, 1 White Leghorn (who doesn't lay), 1 Barred Rock, and 1 Easter Egger (who is well past her prime, but is one of our best layers).

And then we got turkeys. Lol
We chose the heritage breed, Bourbon Red. 3 males for holiday table, and one as our breeding tom, 1 BR hen and 1 Red Bronze hen.

Our fowl are free roaming, pasture-raised, bug-eating, dust bathing, talkative, healthy and happy birds.

We live in a small town in Northern Arizona (no, it's not hot), and it's a 'truck town'. The house lots are big, so anybody can have chickens or livestock. The generality of the people here are the 'give the shirt off of their back-kind, non-pretentious, down home, salt of the earth, farming, ranching, horse/livestock, beat up truck driving-kind of people. We fit right in!

Finding BackyardChickens has been great. What an informative website! I (we) love being amongst our fellow fowl loving people. It's been a huge help, several times, as we're new to raising chickens.
I found an answer to my sick hen problem just this morning.
Everybody's input is gold. Thanks soo much! I hope that we can be of help in the future, as we learn from all y'all.

We don't have kids together, but Hubby has 4 that are 24, 22, 18, and 13. The eldest is my bestest bud, and she left Hawaii at 18 to come to Arizona to be with her daddy, and I'm so glad that she did, because not only did I get an awesomepossum friend, she introduced me to her daddy (and we found in each other what we had been needing our whole lives), and we now have a 1 1/2 year old, absolutely incredible, amazing, wonderful grandson!
The two younger are in Alabama, and are freakin awesome kids.

Our little farm is our kids now.
Add 2 goats to the flock of 25 fowl, a large garden, 3 barn kitties, and one very senior dog, and you have the zoo that is us. Lol

It's fabulous, though. It's the life we've both always wanted to live, but never got to, and this backyard barnyard life is the only way to go.
Doesn't get much better than this, does it?

Unless you get to get out in the woods & mountains for some hiking, exploring, small game hunting, cutting firewood and camping, that is.

It's the little things in life that are precious to us.

We're tickled pink to be part of this Backyard fun, and thank you for all for sharing your advice and experience!!!

Welcome to the flock! Lovely humans & animals you got there.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

 

[N F C]

Great intro, thanks so much for sharing photos! It's always fun to see one another's coop, birds, and all.

Make yourself at home here, thanks for joining us!

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us What a great intro and pix

 

[Kiki]

Welcome to Backyardchickens.com aka BYC!
We are glad you joined our flock.
GREAT photos!
This video will help you learn how to navigate this site:

Please check out and enter this current contest:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...test-09-25-2017-pic-by-chicken-girl1.1200378/

 

[pennyJo1960]

loved the kid in cage there many, many years my daughter would crawl in a dog crate for naps I am Mossyrock, Washington State here awful glad you decided to join us thank you for all the photos