How Did You Get Started With Chickens

[SunnyCalifornia]

Quote:
That's how we got started too, went to the feed store to buy dog vaccines and my daughter wouldn't leave the bins the chicks were in. We had the room so I let her pick out some. Now I don't want to live without chickens.

Sounds like me! Went to the feed store for dog food, and came out with 4 chicks, and two happy kids. Fortunately DH is as big a sucker as I am!!

 

[johny]

As I get older I like the idea of 100-mile diet more and more.
Only for me, it is like a 10-mile diet.
My meat comes from deer on my country property just 10 minutes from home.
Big garden supplies fruit and veggies all summer and fall with a lotof preserved products in winter.

So backyard chickens, that I started at age 49, last year was a natural extension of all that.

 

[eggsontoast]

The book, Farm City: Tales of an Urban Farmer, inspired me. I figured that if she could have a farm in her tiny rental backyard in Oakland, I could have a few chickens, too. And after tasting farm-fresh eggs for the first time just a year ago, I really wanted to have my own hens. It took me a while to convince my DH, and I 'm technically not suppsed to have them according to my homeowner's association...but we love those girls and are really enjoying them. I don't think I'll have any other pets BUT chickens once my other pets pass on...

 

[RhodeIslandRedFan]

In the fall of 2009 a hen appeared in our yard. We had no idea where she came from. She foraged in our yard (4 acres) during the day and slept in our pine trees at night. When the weather turned cold we felt sorry for her and bought her a small coop for shelter, and 2 hens the same age for company. We are hooked on the fresh eggs and crazy chicken antics. I just bought a bigger coop and have 4 chicks ordered (delivery date early April). The coop has lots of room for expansion.

 

[koakritters]

my first summer working at my job my boss surprised me with 24 rhode island red chicks. Ended up keeping 3 from them. 2 of those became really mean and couldn't be around kids so they went off to live on a farm with no kids, lol. the one i had left wandered all over the place and loved everyone, until someone's husky attacked her! She survived, barely, and the guy felt so bad he bought us a gift certificate to pick out 2 new chicks to keep her company. (she HATED the new ones, btw. ) That's when the frizzle and the crested came into the picture. The next summer the rhode island was killed by a cat :'( and we needed a replacement. Along came the golden comet- who is not a good replacement, she hates kids. Later that summer a different, really old rhode island hen wandered in and she has never left! Last year we thought, why not get a rooster and get some babies from these guys? ... They don't like sitting on their eggs... SO in came the cochin hen and silkie rooster(was suppose to be a hen... nope.) so hopefully this year we will have babies!!! O.O my crazy chicken life... that's 7 I have right now, if you lost count.

 

[cat1994]

When I was 12 all I really wanted was a horse. I had never even thought about having chickens, ducks, or anything like that. Then I got a phone call that changed my life lol. My gram called me up asking if I wanted two lil chicken eggs that were hatching right then. I didn’t really know what to do or say but I decided to head to her house and see these two lil eggs. I got there to find a card board box with a towel in it where the two lil eggs sat hatching and peeping under a desk lamp. According to my gram she had collected a dozen of eggs from my uncle’s chicken house and put them in the refrigerator. Then while she was making lunch she realized that peeping was coming from the frig, when she looked she found two eggs were hatching in the carton. I later learned that she had accidentally taken the eggs from a nest that was occupied by a broody hen; the hen was off the nest doing what broody hens do when they take a break, when my gram walked up and took two eggs out of the nest to finish off the dozen. So I asked my dad and he said I could take them home but that I shouldn’t expect them to make it as lil chicks are very fragile when hatching. So I brought the two eggs home and we put them in a cooler with paper towels in it and a desk lamp over it. Dad told me to leave them be and not touch them, so we left them alone in my room. When I came up for bed I found one wet lil yellow chick resting and a lil black chick almost out of its shell. I wanted to help it so badly but my dad would not let me so I just watched as the lil thing struggled free and rested along side his yellow friend, it was the 4th of July. I raised them like they were my children and they thought I was their mother hen. They would fallow me, roost on my shoulders, eat from my plate, and they even went camping with me a few times. The yellow chick grew up to be a beautiful lil white hen and the black chick a gorgeous barred roo, both where bantam size and mutts through and through, but I loved them to death. I named the roo Rocky and the hen Henny Poo. They grew up and unfortunately when I was 13 my Henny Poo was taken from me by a coon, who was just as quickly killed by my dad (I really hate coons), and Rocky died just last year in his sleep. But they were my first chickens, it is all b/c of them that I have my flock today not to mention many other animals.

 

[AngelaClassAct]

My husband suggested them when we moved to our house almost 3 years ago. I insisted NO, that I didn't want more mouths to feed, and I didn't want anything else to clean up after. I had a toddler and a dog at that point. Then we got a golden puppy. And...this year I decided to go ahead with having chickens. We got 12 day old chicks and then ended up getting 6 started pullets @ the feedstore. Once those chickens became a part of our family, I set out to handle the task, and they are my ladies.