How did you find your way in the chicken world?

[Fancie]

I was just curious how you got your start in chickens? My start is a bit bizarre... I used to taxidermy chicks. I got my birds from breeder culls I would receive live. One day I received the smallest duckling and the smallest chick I have ever seen.... I went ahead and kept them and watched them grow. Ends up I got a silkie hen that was missing a toe and a east indie drake. Since then I have gotten him a mate, 2 mandarin ducks and 2 more silkie hens and a rooster. The silkies blessed me with two babies this year (many more but doggie accident) They are darling birds I would never think of giving up.

 

[buckeye lady]

OK, That was weird. I guess you could say you "Mummified "them instead.

We had chickens when I was a tot. I don't remember much except reaching my tiny hands under those fuzzy butts on cold mornings and grabbing those warm perfect eggs. I wanted to recapture that feeling. I now have 12 laying hens-3 BR, 7 Buckeyes, 1 Delaware, and 1 red sex link.
Any every morning I go outand reach my hand under those fuzzy butts and recapture my childhood for a brief but wonderful moment.

 

[Chicken Boo]

A friend of mine offered me her 4 hens. It had never occurred to me to keep chickens. She was getting a couple of horses and decided that something else had to go out of the parrots, great dane, cat, and chickens. I spent 2 to 3 weeks researching the keeping of chickens an decided to give it a try. I really expected my DH to say NO but he remained neutral. I enjoyed the 3 australorps and 1 barred rock so much that I ordered 5 chicks. I have since acquired 2 production reds and lost the barred rock to my stupidity with one of my dogs. 10 hens seems to be a good number.

 

[conroy]

A friend of mine mentioned he had gotten chickens. I mentioned it to my husband and I was expecting to get a "Oh my god are you kidding" but instead we got chickens. And the whole family is so into them. It's awesome so glad we did it.

 

[Nugget]

I grew up in the outer rim of suburbia with a real longing for the rural life. I took riding lessons for a short while but having my own piece of country life was not going to happen.

As chance would have it, a few years back my husband and I bought a home in a rural area zoned 'mixed use'. I'd always liked the idea of having a big fat goofy bird that laid eggs, and after reading a little about them and realizing I could have them and not end up sacrificing much of my free time we learned what we could, and got to work on a coop. We now have 2 goofy dogs, 1 marauding ferret and 8 big fat goofy hens that are everything I hoped they'd be.

 

[willowcol]

When I was growing up on our family farm (Grandparents 2aunts and 2 uncles and us all lived on the same gravel Rd sharing 300 acres in MD) my older cousin raised chickens. I had horses never really got into the chickens much. Well after moving from home in 1999 to NC I started missing my home and close family. So I started asking my husband for some chickens. Our yard here is only 1 1/2 acres so we could not have horses. Though it is still country with my house surrounded by cotton and soybean fields owned by a big farm. So finally in March for easter this year my husband got me 4 chicks. The rest is history (I want more and more and more). I am hoping that out of the eggs we get my children can maybe enter them in the fair, or do something with 4h. At least thats the reason I give my husband when I keep ordering eggs for us to hatch.

 

[digitS']

I grew up on a small farm. You can see a photo of me at about 7 years old with my banties on my BYC page. I had chickens of my own even younger than that. Of course, there were other chickens around the farm as well.

I no longer live on a farm but I'm busy with "agricultural" activities - farming and keeping livestock. Well, I have gardens and keep chickens

.

Steve

 

[Pumpkinpup]

My Great Uncle and Aunt looked after me when my Mom was at work and they had chickens. I can remember one particular little hen who would come and sit on a stump with you at the wood pile and wait patiently while you cracked pecans for her. There were many other wonderful birds from my childhood that I never forgot and as an adult I wanted my children to experience those kind of things. I grew up in a farm environment so to this day I still do things as much the old fashioned way as I possibly can and chickens are just a large part of that. It makes me feel good to be productive and to give my family healthy things to eat and a sense of acomplishment.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Originally mine were for pest control. I had heard that chickens would eat bugs a lot, and since we had a major tick infestation this year, I decided to get a few bantams to take care of them. Well, my 5 original banties turned into about 100, and then I got guineas for the bugs!! The chickens don't seem to like the ticks that much!!

 

[jacyjones]

We never considered chickens and then friends offered us their old chicken shed as we have a couple of acres. I took some persuading, bought a book and then we got our first 4 warrens. That was about 12 years ago and we have had varying numbers of chickens and ducks ever since.