40 Years Ago Today

[ChooksChick]

Give us a pic of a younger you w/ birdies!!

 

[immyjay54]

WOW, this is neat. I was born in Washington Pa back in 1948 and was the last of the 12 children in our family. My dad was an old time farmer and coal miner. Didn't have our own farm because we were to poor. My dad always lived on farms and took care of the owners stock (usually beef cattle and pigs) to pay the rent. He would work the farm all day then go in and work the coal mines midnight shift then come home in the morning and work all day and just sleep a few hours before going back to the mine. We were always allowed to have our own chickens and ducks. Mom would take care them and would butcher and dress the ducks and sell them to help buy feed. We moved to Fayette County, Uniontown Pa. area when I was 5 and again always lived on farms until I was 15. At that time, my dad wasn't able to do to much, he had gotten crushed in the coal mine and his back wasn't to good. The kids all grew up and left home except me. lol I always kept chickens. Went to the Army in 1968 - 1970 and my parents took care of them for me. Well, like most, I got into the running stage and gave up the chickens for a few years but not to long. In 1981, I bought my own home and got back into the chickens again. I always had the hatchery ones until this year and decided to get into the old style birds and some of the more rare breeds. I will be cutting back to maybe 3 breeds next year and build my flocks from their. I am going to be keeping RIR and of course my Barred Rocks from Jeremy (BYC). The other breed that I am going to keep is Marans and maybe my Deleware (not sure about these yet). Can't give an exact amount of years that I've had them but it has been an awful long time. I do sell eggs and my customers drive me crazy when the girls decide to slack off a little and I can't supply the demand. I try to keep enough that there are always some laying. At this time I have over 200 but 65+ are old girls that I will be killing off as soon as I get the help to do it. I also have around 20 or so young roo's that I will be putting in the freezer. mmmmmm
I do not have any old time pictures but there are lots of pictures on my web site.
Jim

 

[<3 N.C Chicken Chick <3]

I had wanted them since I was 11 now I am 14 and have my own. I love your story it is so sweet.

 

[LadyBantam]

Great Story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

Quote:
I will see if there is a chance at all that I may find any. On July 7, 07' due to carelessness of a neighbor/s shooting off fireworks I lost my garage/office/coop and everything inside was completely destroyed including all of my child hood family pictures that I was in the process of scanning to a hard drive. I did save most of the birds though. I was sitting in the house when I heard crackling and smelled smoke. I immediately ran outside and turned out all of the birds/animals before the building became completely engulfed in flames. I did lose about 10 birds due to smoke inhalation, a couple of vehicles, and about 30grand worth of tools. It could have been worse though.

Thanks all for the compliments...

 

[Farm_Maven]

Quote:

 

[ChooksChick]

Crud.

I understand in the way that only another fire victim can. On August 16, 1999, we had our home gutted by a fire while we were at work and our kids were at preschool. Fortunately, our shepherd had always been mischievous and knew how to turn the knobs on the front door and storm door, so she stood up and held it for the 5 cats. I guess the firemen had just arrived and stood there aghast. I'm glad it worked out that way! We, too, lost tons of irreplaceable stuff.

Quote:
I will see if there is a chance at all that I may find any. On July 7, 07' due to carelessness of a neighbor/s shooting off fireworks I lost my garage/office/coop and everything inside was completely destroyed including all of my child hood family pictures that I was in the process of scanning to a hard drive. I did save most of the birds though. I was sitting in the house when I heard crackling and smelled smoke. I immediately ran outside and turned out all of the birds/animals before the building became completely engulfed in flames. I did lose about 10 birds due to smoke inhalation, a couple of vehicles, and about 30grand worth of tools. It could have been worse though.

Thanks all for the compliments...

 

[jbourget]

very cool story thanks for sharing. how bout some pics of your chooks?!?!?! 600 wow thats alot i thought i had alot of hens

 

[ChickInDelight]

Great story! Very inspiring.

 

[angie3881]

Loved your story!