How did you get started? And when? And how old were ya?

[Chicken Keith]

I'll start.

I began hatching eggs in the summer of 1976.... ...at age 11.

Anybody here even born (hatched?) that long ago?

I used a GQF incubator the size of a huge grapefruit...one of those you see in the ad for Boys Life magazines. I tried hatching muscovy duck eggs--could only fit 3 in there--...waited for 35 days with a zero percent hatch. Undeterred, I got bantam eggs and hatched two out of 5 eggs...it's a wonder that unreliable little plastic bator even hatched anything.

Then in 1980 I got my Turn-X from Marsh in California, solid state thermo, for $80, plus auto egg turner. Saved up my money for 6 months to buy that.

In 2007 (27 yrs later) I had my Turn-X overhauled completed and gutted and totally rebuilt. It works like a complete charm.

 

[3chimama]

Hello and welcome! The easiest way to tell you is that I am 42 years old and I have been around chickens since I was a toddler ;D

 

[hennyannie]

I was hatched that year! I had barnyard chickens as a kid. Got back into about 3 or 4 years ago. My kids wanted to raise chick. Our flock is now 33 strong plus 21 new chicks in brooder.

 

[MSDeb]

I was 21 when you started. I didn't get into chickens until this past summer. Dh wanted chickens but I was not really interested, I already had my hands full with six fresh and brackish aquariums. Undeterred he got an incubator and some eggs. The first batch (Marans) didn't hatch. Second batch (Marans) produced nine chicks. I admit I'm a sucker for babies. Then we find we've got eight roosters. Re-homed seven and got ten hens. Now I'm the primary care giver but love my girls. It is still a blast to go out and see how many eggs they've laid. This is a great forum, full of excellent advice and wonderful people.

 

[feather and mountain man]

I grew up with chickens and so when I got my own place I didn't even think about it. I just got the chickens. I remember always having chickens around as a kid.

 

[write2caroline]

First chicks came in college in biology class when the control group hatched. I got to keep em for a week till my mom told me to find homes for them - which I did, then she missed them, my farm friends harvested them for meat as they were all roos.

Got chickens years and years later.

Caroline

 

[Katy]

I'm 58 and don't remember a time not being around chickens. My folks always had them as did both sets of grandparents....... One of the first things I did when I got married 37+ years ago was start my own laying flock.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

I got my first chicks last year

and I am soon to be 32...

But Grandparents had chickens when I was little and it was my job when visiting the farm to collect the eggs. Also Dad and I raised pheasants for a few years when I was in high school/college age.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Since 1959. My dad would bring home 250 day old chicks and the rest was my responsibility. Water, feed, care, coop cleaning right up and beyond the day of cleaning them. My grandmother kept chickens and I have fond memories of that, as well.

 

[tinychicky]

i got my first chickens when i was nine, but i'd been around my neighbors chickens since they first got them when i was about four. i was hatched wayyyyy after 1976, though