I would love to be a preservationist. I lean towards adding heritage breeds to my small flock, but I'm not into breeding true lines. I just love how they look.
I honestly do NOT know how I got into this. Some wild hair last Spring, and I wanted to build a chicken coop. I'm not even sure I wanted chickens before I thought about constructing a coop, to see if I could. It took me all summer to build an A-Frame "tractor" that will never meander from where I built it, because I live alone and the thing is too heavy for me to move. Looks like a "girl" built it, too (if that won't offend anybody's sensibilities).
As time passed during the weekends and weekends of construction, I read up on chickens, here and elsewhere. Got the Dummies book here, bought poultry magazines, browsed in the feed store on my lunch breaks. I knew I wouldn't be able to tell chickens apart if I bought all one breed - Good morning, Rhoda, and Rhoda, and Rhoda, and Rhoda, oh, and Rhoda, and you too, Rhoda! - so I got interested in the heritage breeds. If I was gonna do this, I wanted some eggs. I don't bake, wouldn't need a LOT of eggs, so the chickens didn't have to be just good layers. Dual-purpose sounded good. Not gonna eat any of the Rhodas (or whomevers), though.
Even though I now DO have two girls of one breed in my colorful flock of 9 chickens, I CAN tell them apart. It took a while, though. I got brave and bought two Welsummer chicks along with a Rhode Island Red (finally!) and a Plymouth Rock Barred to increase the flock to 13. Uhhh.. and two Cayuga ducklings.... That's a different wild hair.
So, anyway, now I keep chickens and have decided I will ALWAYS keep chickens because they make me smile. I love watching them, listening to them, patting them when they sit in my lap or on my shoulder. They're just fun to have around.
