Are people ever surprised that you own chickens?

[chocolate m'scovy]

I don't look like a city girl so I've never surprised anyone. I even had someone ask my brother and I, when we were at a laundromat, whether we "lived on a farm." I asked him why he thought that and he didn't really give a reason. Oh well...I think I'd rather be a country person than a city one...right? Of course, most the people reading this will probably be city people who raise chickens...

lol

 

[yomama]

This happens to me all the time! I've noticed people think that only "hillbillies" have chickens. We get made fun of a lot, too, by family members and friends. Even though they are technically just "poking fun" or whatever, it's still not nice Chickens are awesome! People are so close-minded.

I get this reaction from my side of the family alot.My husband's side all grew up on farms, so even though none of them have chickens, or any farm animals for that matter now, it's not such a foreign idea to them. Still surprised by how little they all know about chickens, though

My family is a different story. It's bad enough that I'm the only one in the family that a)lives in a small rural town in the country b)has more than 1.5 animals and c) lives in a manufactured home. Though I'm sure they are not surprised by it, I do think that some of my family thinks of me as the hillbillyish one, even though we are nowhere near being hillbillies. My brother, or more his hoyty toyty wife, I feel the most "shunned" from. But she's just snobby all around. My dad and his wife, who are very jet setting, high class (but very down to earth) actually think its very cool that I have chickens! My mom, who is NOT an animal lover, just thinks I'm weird, lol. Everyone thought it was weird at first, but most are coming around. The hardest thing I come across from both sides of the family is that most think that chickens are just dirty "things", not pets with individual personalities, like I do.

 

[Chemguy]

All of the time. But they forget all about it when they see the eggs.

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

I hate it when people are scared of chickens!

I've been beaten up by roosters but I still love chickens

 

[stilldeb]

We were on a cruise and stopped at the private island for the day and at the barbecue we were eating and there were chickens wandering around. I don't know what kind they were, but i thought they were beautiful (and this was before I had chickens!) but this one woman was terrified of them and everytime one came around, she would jump up on the picnic table and scream. I thought - really? It's a chicken! (and it wants some of your food, lady)

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Probably Junglefowl

 

[Nitrous]

I hate it when people are scared of chickens!

I've been beaten up by roosters but I still love chickens

People are just scared of what they don't know. If they ran over to pet your bull or your pig and got injured, we'd call them stupid for being so trusting of an animal. Sure, *we* know chickens are relatively harmless but a little fear before they are put at ease is fine with me .

Besides it is fantastic to drag it out, at a party, how they were scared of your chickens. "Who's the chicken now? Bawk."

 

[theoldchick]

I did have one person ask me how I bought chickens. She wanted know if they sold pet chickens at PetsMart.

 

[Kaitie09]

I get a lot of mixed reactions, but I think the biggest problem people have is the number of animals. Most people have one or two animals. When you tell someone you "only have ten chickens" they start asking questions like "Are you one of those animal hoarders?" NO!!!

The other thing that people are confused about is my loving nature towards my chickens, they see them as food and nothing else, that all changes when they come over to my house and sit on the swing to watch them. I have a welcoming committee that will hop up on some on someones laps if they get the signal. That normally changes people's perception

I've gotten the animal hordes one before too. I was in a class one time and the professor asked how many pets everyone had. Most said 1-3, and then I chimed in with 34. Everyone looked at me like I was a complete nut. My family likes it because we are known as "the farm" even though my aunt has a horse farm. All the little cousins come and visit and help with feeding the chickens and goats, and collecting eggs. My one cousin is 3 and comes here so often, we have special rubber boots just for her. Every time we have a party here, all the guys can been seen checking out the chicken coop. We recently just raised 27 broilers and 8 of my aunts, uncles, and cousins came to help slaughter and clean. Now, 90% of these people live in townhouses in the middle of town, yet they were really interested in the whole process.

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

I did have one person ask me how I bought chickens. She wanted know if they sold pet chickens at PetsMart.

You'd think PetsMart would have chicks if they have Chinchillas!