hi all -
have been watching you guys for a while now and you all seem very friendly and helpful. so i thought i'd say hi - that way you'll know who i am when i have things to post...
my grandfather was a chicken farmer - eggs, we never kept roosters, so i grew up with chickens and occasional turkeys and peacocks... he delivered between north wales and philadelphia by horse/cart during the depression and ww2 years and lots of those families kept buying eggs for decades afterwards. but i haven't had chickens for years and have been wanting them since moving from pa to nm 10 years ago. so this year for my birthday (april 4) my husband and son helped me build a coop and fenced run area (pics coming soon) and i ordered some peeps. we're all VERY excited, as i've seen many of you in the forum be. they'll be delivered the last week of april to my son's school where dad is computer teacher, so all the kids can see them (from a safe distance!)
we have 2 acres in high desert/pinon-juniper environment, husband is an inventor trying to start an alternative energy business but mainly does repairs, renovations and yard work. i'm an archaeologist. rest of the family: one kid age 10, 6 cats all rescues/strays, 2 dogs also rescues. contemplating a goat or miniature cow for milk, but not sure what to do about having to have it bred in order to get milk, probably too expensive for us. farming here - even family farming - is ENORMOUSLY frustrating but i keep hoping sooner or later i'll figure out the secret. nothing if not persistant!
anyway hi - glad to meet you!
--cerridwenn
out of practice, lol
Hi and welcome to the forum, won't take you long and you'llbe right back into the things. We have a lot of fun here, and new people are always welcome. Be sure you post pic's of your new babies, Sometimes I think it should be called Daves Kindergarten due all the babies. Nice meeting you and don't be a stranger. Haystack.
Welcome cerridwenn! What kind of chicks did you get?
Welcome cerridwenn!
{{{She is one of us!}}}
it's the rainbow layers from mcmurray - and i get a free one too, which i'm sure will end up being a roo because they're harder to sell, but i won't worry about that for now.
my dad loves to tell about how he would take hard-boiled eggs in his lunch, and pop pop had bannys for a while, which some of them lay blue eggs (you probably all knew that already) - so people at work were teasing him because his wife dyed eggs all year long. they didn't believe him that they came out of the chicken that way. dad got all excited when he heard i ordered peeps, said he raised buffs when he was a kid, didn't know what breed but they had feathered feet, we think they were probably buff cochins.
pop pop (mom's dad) only raised rhodies, or at least by the time i was there that's what he had. they were down to about 200 when i was growing up. when my mom was young, they had 1000 or so, and always a male peacock in each henhouse to keep them safe, but we ate all the roos before they could start attacking the hens.
Welcome cerridwenn! This is a fun, crazy, and information group! I live in the city and don't have livestock or poultry (hoping to have ducks soon) but everyone has made me feel like part of 'the family'.
Welcome,glad you decided to join us.
Welcome Cerridwenn! I'm glad you joined us! I know the excitement you speak of here.. it's very contagious too. Sounds like you have a little piece of heaven there, and just made it better by having chickens!
Please post any questions/concerns.. someone will always be here to help.
Enjoy and Welcome!
some photos of us building the coop
from the front - it's tall because the top is my son's playhouse
with the whole run area
cerridwenn welcome. I am just the friendly lurker.
Cerridwenn, that is some impressive construction going on there. It looks awesome. Tell your husband he's doing a fantastic job, and congratulations on the new chickens. You are going to love them, and they will have such a nice place to live.
Welcome to the poultry section.
There is always room for more! Im glad you have joined us :)
Caren
Welcome Cerridwenn.... Been to see Clinton Anderson (Horse Trainer) in Farmington a few years back, loved the town and the area..
Billy and Roseane
What an impressive structure, and I love the idea of the playhouse atop the chicken coop!
What did the male peacock do to protect the chickens? I have never heard of that. We keep geese with our flock because they seem to play the same role; they do deter hawks and other predators. But we only have about twenty laying hens right now because a mink got into our coop. Make sure windows are blocked with rat wire; this one came right through the screen!
hmm... i KNOW i answered... but my post doesn't seem to have ever showed up! sorry about that. now what was it i said?
greenhouse gal - about the peacocks - you probably know they make a really loud noise that sounds like a person calling for help. so the noise scares lots of things off - in fact there was only one time we had a predator problem and it was because a neighbor's guard dogs (german shepherds) escaped his yard, broke into the coop and killed everything in the coop... but that is a pair of domestic and likely mistreated dogs, the wild animals did not put that much effort into it. also peacocks peck very hard, although in typical fowl manner they run away first. in our coops, which were very large so the chickens could get exercise even though they were not outdoors, if you startled the peacock he would run madly shrieking to the other end of the coop, then when he got there he'd turn around and tear right back towards you. they fan out their tails at the same time so between the beak, the noise and the fan they scare things off pretty well. also, we always kept the feathers in the house. they are sort of a protective talisman, you could say. you use them to decorate your house and the "eye" in each feather helps keep watch. we always had some around.
missjestr - i don't know clinton anderson, but i've only been in this part of new mexico for about 6 years. if you are ever in the area again, i'd be happy to give my dg friends a tour at one of the local archaeology sites!