The Crazy Chicken Lady: an introduction

Hello! I'm The Chicken Lady.

Or as I'm more commonly called, The Crazy Chicken Lady.

Actually it's more like "obsessed, crazy, chicken lady."

To cut to the chase, I am crazy about chickens. (But you've probably already guessed that.)

But how did I become so obsessed with chickens? I might as well give the back story since you'll be joining me on my chicken endeavors from here on out!

Several years ago, my mom decided to get chickens, I wasn't as crazy about as I am now but I was on board, who wants to eat disgusting store bought eggs anyway? Dad built a run for them and soon 12 Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers made it their home.

It didn't quite escalate that much from there as you might immediately think, I liked the cute baby chicks but that was about that. I fed them in the morning and evening and that was about it.

No, the moment the obsession started was when we decided to get a rooster.

Mom decided it would be awesome to hatch and raise our eggs, forget getting everything from an hatchery we were going to be completely chicken and turkey independent!

Now this was something I could get into.

I started doing A LOT of research, as one should do before going forth on something that was going to bring new life to (hopefully) fruition. 

Suddenly a whole community was opened up to me. The wonderful forum that is backyardchickens.com was a huge help in learning the ropes of incubation. However, I wasn't quite ready to partake in the community yet, I still wasn't to the point of complete and utter love for these birds quite yet.

No, that point would come almost exactly 21 days later. Suddenly I saw the work of my labor, I had been the keeper of the holy grail of temperature and humidity for these budding life forms for 21 days, more work had been put into their parents, feeding, tending to them. Hour's of my life had been eaten away by research and here they were, slowly chiseling their way out of the eggs that had once protected and sheltered them, the thin shell was no longer needed in their eyes,they were ready for the real world.

It enchanted me.

It captivated me.

I was enraptured.

And since that moment I've wanted nothing more than to hear the soft sound of cheeping as a little ball of wet fluff tastes the air for the first time. 

As the babies grew, I suddenly became aware of this thing called genetics and how interesting and fun it can be!! All the babies we hatched were interesting crosses of a White Plymouth Rock  and either a Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red, or Easter Egger. They were such cool little chickens! And very popular with some of the people we gave them to I mean look at these guys!

Parmesan, easily the most extravagant of the roosters we hatched!

Oregano, a beautiful little EExWPR cross.

Young rooster.

Kind of a bad picture but this is Cardamon, in my opinion she's the most beautiful bird I have hatched so far!  

They were beautiful, grew incredibly fast and were BIG! What wasn't to love?

Immediately the possibilities were present, could I make more unique and beautiful birds? How could I improve upon these birds? I was hooked and I wanted more. MORE birds! MORE breeds!! Breeding pens, punnett squares! It's amazing what hatching eggs can do to you.

I'm still just experimenting a little bit, I'm still not set in stone the kind of chicken I will be creating and where this breeding adventure will take me but I've decided to bring others in along for the ride. 

I don't know what crazy chickens I will create but I can't wait to get started! And I can't wait to share my journey with others! :)