How Did You Get Started With Chickens

[AKsmama]

My husband had chickens as a kid and has asked for some every year since we have lived here (which means he asked repeatedly for 10 years). I always said no simply because we have tons of predators and I don't want to become the local chicken buffet. For some reason I relented last summer and we got our first chicks. Now the whole family just adores them and I can't imagine not keeping them. We are hoping a few will go broody so we can hatch out our own. . . we'll see!

 

[MarieNC]

When we moved to our house in the country a year ago, my husband wanted chickens and I was against it. We went to the feed store for something else and he talked me into getting 6 two day old fuzzy butts. It didn't take me long to become momma bird and the 6 girls are my pets now. Can't imagine life without them.

 

[DawnM]

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.

 

[chickenaddictntn]

Had chickens my whole life.

 

[6chickens in St. Charles]

Ours were a mistake. I worked 12 hour night shifts and DH wasn't really paying attention when we took our boys to an annual Rare Breeds Conservancy show at Garfield Farm Museum in Maple Park, Illinois, it's our annual day in the country together. We can't make it every year, but really look forward to it when we can, just to show the kids what life is like outside our box of modernity. We gave each kid a $5 bill and two $1's to buy lunch, explaining carefully how to make change and be polite with purchasing their hot dog and soda... Each kid bought a chick from a 4H kid while we weren't looking (also bought a soda). I think they forgot lunch.

DH said, "lets let them keep the chicks. They won't last long, like the goldfish and pet mouse and last years' hamster. By the time the chicks are gone, those puppies next door will be long gone and we won't have to talk about it for another year". I think I was pretty much asleep on my feet. I went and bought a tiny chick myself and named her Rosie. Rosie Buttons.

We chalk it up to bad parenting gone good for a change.

Check our BYC page. We are pretty good chicken keepers now. The internet has fast forwarded us on chicken keeping. Our local library has a lot about it, too. Martha Stewart's website and chicken shows helped. One of our neighbors was a pheasant hunter and provided the first coop and run (from his puppy whelping box). One of my coworkers at the university hospital where I worked was an infectious disease doctor and researcher for NIH, so I got a LOT of diseases and hygeine information. I am the chickens' primary caregiver, with joy. Who knew?

We called our city code enforcement officer, who surprisingly approved our chickens. One of our boys will recite things like city code word for word, including the punctuation. Well, so can our code enforcement officer. Our City of St. Charles code does not allow "farm animals or any wild animals EXCEPT FOR BIRDS AND FISH". Go figure. Once the chicks were surviving our care and actually thriving, we figured the city wouldn't let us keep them, and we could be free of pets for a while longer........... but the code enforcement officer said, "Isnt that funny? St. Charles has a loooong history of keeping chickens in backyards. You have neighbors with chickens, you just didn't know it."

We love our chickens.

 

[babyrnlc]

Mine is kind of unique.

July of 2010 I was diagnosed with colon cancer, at 38. I had surgery and at first they thought they got it all, but then found out it was in my lymph nodes. So I would need chemo and radiation. Our house was very old, with some recently found mold issues. We felt it was safer for me to live in my parents house. They have a very large house that has a 600 sq ft guest house. They were having trouble keeping up with the bills on their own anyway. So they moved into the guest house and my family moved into their house. I have 6 children still at home (3 adopted, 2 from Russia in April of 2010). The idea was we could help with the bills and my mother could help with the children. It has been a great blessing.

I started researching healthy food, organic etc, because of the cancer and I have always sort of wanted chickens, so has my mother. We found out it was legal in the city and so started planning our coop. My mother and I built it. It has been a few weeks now and we are loving it! (maybe a month.)

I am doing great and really have not had many symptoms (I get tired and have tummy issues the Friday after my chemo), but other than that I am good. I had Chemo Monday and that afternoon we expanded our coop and then painted it the next day, and then the next day I taught a class and then worked on the coop some more. I only have 8 more treatments and all tests since the surgeries have shown it is not anywhere else.

I am so happy we got into chickens though. Yesterday I was exhausted (probably from the long week!)and I got my little br chick (2 months old) and she just cuddled on my lap, it was great. It was so warm outside that my mom and I went out and watched the children play while the chickens walked around the yard. It was so nice!

Here are some of my children and my nephews playing outside. You can see two of the girls under the diving board. It was a great day!

 

[3dogs]

When I moved to my first country place 20 years ago, I bought some ducklings because I had previous experience with a few in a previous suburban back yard - not to mention ducks are funny! After a few years, I added geese. Along the way, I realized I was allergic to duck eggs and still had to buy chicken eggs at the store. I had this idea that chickens were prissy little things that would get sick and die if you looked at them wrong. Anyway, I finally ordered a few buff orpington day old chicks through the local feedstore, and all my old ideas about chickens changed!

Now I am on the other side of the country, and ordered goslings and chicken hatching eggs after settling in to my new place. My BBS orpingtons started laying earlier this month, and my first goose egg was laid today!

 

[Cindy in PA]

I read an article about raising chickens in the Jan 1993 Organic Gardening Magazine and asked DH if he would build a coop so I could get some. I figured my sons (4 & 6 at the time) would love it. I started out with a dozen Barred Rocks & the rest is history. That article told me absolutely everything I needed to know to raise chickens. I had 2 years without chickens when the kids were busy in high school, but I never plan to be without them again. My coop is still going strong almost 18 years later.

 

[cesstable]

I've always loved chickens. I hatched some as a child for a school science project and have loved them ever since. As a child I remember going into the hen house with my grandmother to collect the eggs. So about 20 years ago we moved into a rural area where there was a large number (50+) of wild old english chickens roaming the neighborhood. Many of them stayed in my yard and they were laying eggs everywhere. I set up roosting boxes and the wild chickens began coming to my nesting boxes and laying their eggs. After that I was hooked.

 

[Kim_NC]

A friend at work gave me a hatch of chicks about 20 yrs ago. It was all downhill from there.