One of the things I found strange about BYC is that the vast majority of chicken keepers on this site are female.
Hey!!! (Rooster Bob is just as vaild as Treacle or Chillin in their hens eyes , I’m sure!) And, it’s so not fair generalizing based on gender like that! I am deeply offended in my poor little snowflake heart!One of the things I found strange about BYC is that the vast majority of chicken keepers on this site are female.
Here one is far more likely to find men keeping chickens. I think this has a lot to do with most farm flocks have roosters. The men here adore their roosters; the hens, well they just lay eggs.
I am personally far more engaged with my roosters than hens, unless someone is needing extra attention due to illness. I tend the Boys, they Tend the hens, we all get on fairly well.
(Because I do.Very much)
You can also love your hens, and eggs too! And I can love my Roosters, despite being a woman! LolDoes this mean, I can love my roosters?
I think there might also be a little cultural machismo going on. “I’ll protect my flock and trap and kill them predators!” is seen as acceptable male behavior, but cuddling chickens is somehow less masculine? I’ve never been great at following gender norms... and see kindness and love for animals as a strength in anyone, regardless of gender. It’s one of those things we need to fix in society, like the beauty/body image Pressures that are so accepted that no one stops to consider how it is conditioning is to think as a society, or the heath affects on young girls.They're the killers maybe...?
Here, on the big stations, your hens would be close to the homestead & probably in the care of a woman while the men were out rounding up the cattle or sheep or whatever. I know my grandmother tossed the chooks all the kitchen scraps & got the eggs. My Poppy dealt with the cows.Hey!!! (Rooster Bob is just as vaild as Treacle or Chillin in their hens eyes , I’m sure!) And, it’s so not fair generalizing based on gender like that! I am deeply offended in my poor little snowflake heart!
I think it has less to do with the chicken keepers gender and if they have a Rooster, and more to do with to whom the pet, livestock, housekeeping duties are most likely to fall upon. I think in North American culture you’re far more likely to find a woman staying at home and tending the small livestock while the husband goes off to work. I’m definitely an anomaly on this site, as are you Shad, in my available area, freedom of keeping style, and in numbers of birds.
But that said, there are certainly a whole lot more ladies active here than men! (Do you like chickens? Looking for a good mate? Troll BYC until you find a local chicken lady!) Demographic and Target audience mostly, and all that. Also I don’t think mainland Europe, especially more rural areas like yours, were hit as hard by the Backyard Keeping Chicken Boom/Trend.
When it comes to breeding & showing a lot more men seem to be involved, like my GGF, who bred & showed Australorps. I've noticed the anomaly on BYC too but have no explanation for it unless it's more women have chickens as pets & more men see them as livestock? 
