Newbie to BYC; Chicken Farmer Since 2019

Piskie

In the Brooder
Jul 11, 2022
4
19
26
Hello, all!

I am a pretty new chicken farmer, but I love it!

What got me started was two things: Drawing caricatures of kids (it was one of my regular jobs for decades!) and the Mark Lewis documentary, "The Natural History of the Chicken". If you haven't watched that, you can see it for free in 6 parts on YouTube! The caricature story goes like this tho: I always got kids to tell me about their pets. It relaxed them and made them smile more and made my job of drawing them quicker and easier. This was a regular gig for me--I drew 3 classes of 4th graders every year for nearly two decades. I'd heard about dogs and cats for YEARS. Listening to kids describe their love for their pets was heartwarming and entertaining. I am a cat-person myself. Anyway, one year, I drew a whole slew of kids who loved their chickens. And the way they described their adventures and just what made them love their birdies was way different than the cat n' dog stories I'd heard. I still think about the wide-eyed girl who told me, with her distinct impediment, about her Luuthy, and how "she gotted out one morning but I got her back in and BOY did she have thories to thell me!"

Two close friends had gotten chickens, years later, and one of them built me a coop and the other helped arrange for me to get birdies (6 to start). I've flunked chicken math, and now I'm here.

Currently, our older/first coop is called Mexico. For two reasons: it's more fun to say, "I'm going to Mexico to clean up poop" over, "I am going to the coop to clean up poop." Mexico is surrounded by a great big beautiful wall, which is the sarcastic reason it got its name. My first flock was given names/words for terrifying Spainish and Mexican beasties. We are surrounded by predators, and given them scary names rather than cutesy names or food names seemed like the better choice. And they lived in Mexico. It was a mixed flock, one of each: Autralorp, orpington, barred rock, easter egger, red star, copper maran. I called them Parca (Spanish for "grim reaper"), The Generalissimo (huge 30 Rock fan), Beetle Jugo ("Beetlejuice!), Chupacabra and Arpia (Spanish for a winged, screeching creature with big fangs). The red star didn't make it her first night--I suspect her move into Mexico was a strain on her senses and her heart gave out. I'd found her stiff in the nesting box.

Anyway. I am never going to flunk chicken math again, and New Mexico (of course) is going to be WAY bigger, stronger and more durable.

Skillset includes: speaking chicken fairly fluently, observing chicken behaviors, bathing chickens and fretting intensely about chickens, because everyone and everything likes chicken.
 

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