Big question, why did all of you new chicken owners get chickens?

[kendra1178]

I got chickens for the eggs. Both of my bosses have chickens... one keeps chickens for eggs, and the other raises chickens for meat each year. This spring, they were both telling me how easy chickens are to care for, and I had just moved (to a different area that probably wouldn't make a big stink about having chickens in my back yard). Also, my friend had just brought home some eggs to hatch... so I started looking online to find a coop. During that search, I found this forum and got addicted to the idea.

The next thing you know, I have hubby in the back yard building a wonderful coop and run so that we could move our new chicks out of their box in our living room ;-)

I wanted 6-8 hens. So I had hubby build the coop to fit 8-10 hens for good measure. Now I have 10 (LOL). No more allowed! We will see how that goes in the spring when I start seeing all the cute chicks again

 

[Oscgrr]

My venture into chicken keeping took three years of planning. I wanted a chemical free way to help control the bug population in my yard as well as to protest the commercial "egg factories." I also figured that it would be a good father and son(s) project to build a coop and run as well as a way to teach the boys (14 and 4) some responsibility and give them a sense of accomplishment. We love caring for our little (11 birds) flock and we especially love the fresh eggs. My wife didn't think I would follow through with it and made no secret that she didn't want any pet chickens but since getting them she has informed me that the "girls" are for eggs only and we are never to slaughter a single one of them. To make her point, they all now have names. I'm cool with that, I'm not interested in slaughtering and cleaning a chicken that will give me more eggs than it's worth in meat but they're still livestock to me. The only problem I have now is that I want to build another coop and get more chickens, it's addictive.

On the topic of commercial "egg factories", I'm not going to preach against them and I don't want to see them shut down, they have the freedom to opperate the way their clientelle will support, but I won't support them any more. It makes eggs an unappatizing food to see how they're produced in one of those factories. I'm doing my part and I will supply eggs to any of my neighbors (not for free! but just enough to cover feed) and with enough of us doing that, we can affect the "factories."

 

[MsL]

In an effort to be more self-sufficient while increasing the quality of our food, I thought chickens would be a great addition to our suburban homestead. And I love projects. So we built the coop, and acquired three young, lovely layers (just two weeks ago!). We are having a great time getting to know each other, I must say. Who knew it would be so much fun? Yep, I love chickens.

 

[SkyWarrior]

I wanted chickens years ago but it took us a move to Montana and me convincing my DH chickens were okay.

The current popularity really had nothing to do with it.

 

[Daisygirl]

Well a year ago I was handed the job of egg seller at a market. Being a teen, me and my little bros had to come up with the best buisness plan in THE WORLD! so we got down to buisness and started drafting

About a week later, Mum had left for a tiki tour of the US, so it was just me, my brothers and Dad. We were coming back from the market (which was a fair way out from where we lived) and I saw some chickens on the road. I thought- - - how hilarious it would be if we got some chickens and let them wander around the market...I asked dad, and since he had recently come home to our new darling kitten ("screeching, scratching, little lump...") he was all game; mainly for the look on mum's face.

So the plan had to be this; we would ring all the known suppliers of chickens from here to kingdom come. As we started ringing a particular theme came up; "its the middle of winter, we dont have any fuzzy butts". We were reffered (after a few days) by our supplier of the eggs, who told us the name of the local hatchery who does orders for the big farms, and sells the extra quota in small groups to fellas like us. With one week left, the $5 per chicken price tag did not defer us.

So after a quick phone call to the hatchery (mabe, mabe not, we may not have any chicks left over) we waited in anticipation from ANYONE who could get us chooks at this time of year. The clock was ticking; it was thursday, and our darling mother would come home on friday and shut down our dreams forever.

so finally on friday afternoon, we got a voice message; come and get your chicks before five or we'll find another home for them! So dad quickly drove us out to the farthest corner of the city, and we got there at 4.45! Mum's plane arrived at 8, so we skedaddled back home, put the little box with the peepers in a dog cage with a lamp, fed them some rolled oats (we dont get porridge tomorrow? how terrible!) and tensly awaited mothers arrival home.

Sure enough, the look on her face was priceless.

 

[sheaviance1]

My husband and I both hunt, fish and garden. We harvest only the game that we can eat in one year, and can, freeze, or root cellar all of the produce that we grow. We burn wood in our woodstove that we harvest only from fallen trees on the property behind us (or this year, in our own yard). Earlier this year, I went to the store to purchase chicken breast to make cordon bleu, and two breasts cost me a whopping $9.00. I was furious! We are not poor by the national standard, but we are working poor. We both work at the same place, which for several years now has been very rocky. I have seen my weekly hours as low as 18, and the average high has been 36 (and yes, I am a full-time employee). So, I went to Rural King earlier this year to pick up a few gardening supplies, and lo and behold, they had fuzzy butts. I am not one to have more than what I need, so I started out with 4 chicks and brought them home, they were buff orpingtons. I figured that 4 would give us all the eggs we would need considering that my older children were never home and we were down to just 3 at most times. Well, hubby had always wanted PBR's, so we went back, they didn't have any, so my son brought home 2 BA's. The next weekend, my car ended up back over there (don't know how that happened) and they had PBR's and RIR's. Two of each came home. Then I found BYC. I had never seen a SLW, until this forum. I had fond memories of being a child and my Aunt getting green eggs from one of her chickens, but I didn't know what kind. Well, I found a small hatchery about three hours away that had both SLW's and EE's. I now have 13 chickens. Things are still very rocky at work. My co-workers love the extra eggs that I bring in and give away. My whole purpose of starting a laying flock was to see if I would enjoy raising chickens. I figured that if we hated it, we could always find someone to give them to. I started out with a converted dog house for a coop for my small flock. I now have two coops with room to expand my flock if I choose to. I love having my laying flock. I enjoy relaxing in my back yard and watching them. I do not have an enclosed run, and I can definitely tell that before gardening season begins next spring, that will have to change. I have no fall crops left in my garden, except for one little struggling broccoli plant. They did not bother my garden plants this past year because the garden was established, but you should see the huge bald patches in the cover crop we sowed, it looks pathetic! Anyway, next spring, we are going to order meaties, now that we know we enjoy raising chickens. I have a friend that is setting up to raise meat rabbits in the spring. We have decided to trade. We are going to raise enough meat chickens for our family and his, and he is going to give us a steady supply of rabbit for our freezer. I do not have to go to the expense of buying/housing/feeding rabbits, and he doesn't have to equip himself to raise chickens. It's a win/win. I like being able to say that I know how to provide for my family, not only in a financial way. I will never be fully sustainable, because I do not have the land that I would need for that, but the little efforts that I am making are really making a huge difference in my monthly output. I only free-range my chickens when I am home (however, some of them do fly out during the day). The amount of time that they do free-range makes a tremendous difference in their feed usage. One of the benefits of using a cover crop on our garden this winter will be that the chickens can still get plenty of vegetation in their diet.

 

[kburen]

My Fiance had chickens growing up.....For the past 3 or 4 years we've talked off and on about getting them for his house again where he gets ticks really bad, but never had them when they had the chickens. That was the reason for his place. He asked me again about a month and a half ago if I wanted some for my place.....of course I do! I'm an animal lover...my family has been known to call my house the zoo (no less than 3 species of animals at any given time). I'm facinated by chickens and love the idea of walking out to a coop and getting breakfast :-D He toyed with the idea of getting some meat birds, but didn't think I'd let him kill them....I agreed as long as it was only the meat birds and none of my "pets"....then he decided that he didn't think HE'D be able to kill them.

So.....here we stand......Waiting on a batch of chicks from a fellow BYCer.....If I'm not mistaken, they should have hatched yesterday or be hatching today and should be on their way to me tomorrow.

 

[chicken boy sam]

I had wanted chickens for 4 years until my parents finally caved in. I wanted them for eggs and, mostly, pets (I'm allergic to dogs, cats, hamsters, etc.)

 

[mrs_woodguy]

I got chickens after chatting with my two brothers on several occasions.. it seemed some of our fondest childhood memories revolved around playing with, feeding, or riding our bikes with our favorite hen on the handle bars (no hen was ever injured!) We all had great memories of our chickens. I decided it would be a great idea for my youngest son to have some of the same memories. So when Easter rolled around I went to the local farmers market and purchased 6 chicks, fearing some would not make it I purchased 6 more. On the ride home a few got wet and I was sure they would not make it so I went back and purchase a replacement 6... all but 2 survived. Out of the lot I had 9 roosters which went to a local Amish kid who purchases roos. We have replaced the roos with Bantams, 2 serama hens, 2 polish, a silver laced polish, a wyandotte, and 2 buff orpington chicks. We still want a few dominiques, and I would love a coco marran. It is a good thing I wanted my son to have this memorable experience because my husband and I are loving it. The eggs are just a wonderful bonus!

 

[Sootsie]

my grandson visited a family friends chickens last year and a couple of months later at a local agricultural show he fell in love with 1 chicken which he had to have, and then chicken fever was caught by my daughter she now has about 40 then i went to a breeder with her to fetch some more and bought 1 myself i can only have 6 at home but talking to my friend across the road who fancys some eggs may be able to persuade her to let me have a coop over there and an additional 6 chickens and split the eggs.