How Did You Get Started?

[dakinsmimi]

Would love to hear how some of you got started in chickens!

I got started when my grandkids OTHER grandparents got them 2 colored Easter chicks! The kids live about a 6 to 7 hour drive away and of course have no place to keep chickens, so guess who got the baby chicks. That was the start of it all and I wouldn't change a thing. I still have "Joe Louis" who got his name from MY father because he decided it was great fun to attack me when I went out to feed them. I even have a "Joe Jr." now. The other one was "The Thing" because we felt sure he was a rooster but he looked like a hen until he was about 6 months old. The Thing had to leave my place - he turned out to be even more aggressive than Joe Louis! Joe is actually a very nervous chicken now that he is out with the other chickens. He's basically a "chicken" at heart. Now I have Japanese Bantys, Cochins, Silkies and have just added Polish. They're all different and all soooo funny!

Tell me how you got started -------

 

[ann]

I got started a few years ago with your run of the meal barnyard chickens.The hens would go broody during the spring,the coyotes or whatever would come during the fall.They would free-range all day.I would go egg hunting everynight,who knows where they would lay,LOL.This year I decided enough was enough and pen my chickens up and get an incubator to hatch out some eggs.My husband gets these wooden crates and 2x4`s at work so I have made little pens for them.I have bought some chicks at orschelns during chick days and got some at a local swap-meet.I have besides the barnyard variety are Cochins(banty),D`Uccles(millie and porcelain),Seabrights,4 silkies(which I think are 3 roos and 1 hen,not sure),4 Cuckoo marans,White rocks,2 RIR Roos(my daughters claim),6Cuckoo maran/Buff orphington mix (I think are all roos),1 polish.I do have 2 pairs of guienas .I have right now in the bator buff cochins eggs and duck eggs and guiena eggs.I would love to have every color of cochin,Right now I just have buff,black,mottled,red,golden lace,I so loved the feather-feet chickens

 

[Poison Ivy]

Santa bought my daughter her first chicken, Her name is Henrietta and she is about 8 years old now I believe. You know you can't have just one so I've had up to 45 at one time. Just sold 90% of my flock to make room for the new girls and some different breeds.

 

[okiechick57]

My hubby bought me my first chickens for my 48th birthday...........I asked for them........came from Los Angeles..... and now on a farm..............just wanted chickens......got me hooked.now have 14 and want more more more.......

 

[theOEGBman]

I was raised with poultry my whole life. When I was 5, my grandparents got me my first pair of chickens, Old English Game Bantams. They were supposed to be pure BBreds, but one of their chicks came out Black! Over the years I've had hundreds of chickens, including the last BBred OEGB cockeral my grandpa hatched before he died. I now have just over 100, and Im downsizing. I got my first duck when the neighbor asked me if I was the "animal lover". I replied yes and brought home Uncle Quackers. After he died, we got more ducks and we always had psycho geese! I grew up with poultry, so I couldnt imagine my life without my birds!

 

[FamilyOfChickens]

We've always had lots of animals, and my uncle who lives up the road has had chickens for a long time. So last year when he ordered 25 gold sex links, we went and chose 5. And it's snowballed to 25 total right now. (No, 24, actually.) Still wanting more, more, and more!

 

[eggcetra_farms]

Well, last year I was thinking about my grandma a lot who passed away in 2000. She grew up on a farm and her favorite thing was the chickens. She could go on and on talking about those chickens. So then, the idea of keeping chickens just wouldn't get out of my head. I thought long and hard about it before I brought up the idea to my husband (who never wanted pets). Boy did he think I was crazy! First off, we live in the city. We are also renters and he didn't think it would be a good idea. He also knew NOTHING about keeping chickens (like thinking you needed a rooster for eggs LOL). Well, after buying a book on raising backyard chickens (Keep Chickens, I think it's called) and showing it to him he finally gave in. "We can get one," he said. I told him it would die of loneliness. "Fine then two" I told him three is really more of a "flock" (knowing I was pushing it here) and he gave in to that. Well, now we have a total of 7 chickens right now and my husband and I wish we could have a whole chicken farm. My husband loves the chickens probably as much as I do, which is surprising considering how hard it was to get him to say yes. Chickens are soooooo addictive! I just love them!

Jessica Blanks

Oh yeah, it was September of 2006 when we got our first babies.

 

[Agilityscots]

I'm still very new to chickens and just got my first chicks in July, and it's funny someone posted this topic because I keep wondering...HOW on earth did I end up doing this chicken thing?

I think it started this spring when my husband found a lone female Canada goose sitting on eggs in the middle of his parking lot, without a male. Being the sweet guy he is, DH was very worried for her and wanted to buy her some food. I went to TSC and talked to the clerk, who helped me pick out waterfowl pellets for DH's goose, and she just happened to mention keeping chickens. I did a little online reading, got a few books, and here I am. I spend my evenings and weekends prowling chicken message boards, looking up books on keeping chickens at our local library and tinkering with our coop design. I am afraid I'm going to start clucking very soon. I grew up in the city with only dogs and cats as pets, so this is quite an adventure for me. But I'm loving every minute of it, and I am already realizing that five chickens is not nearly enough!

 

[sara]

I had chickens when I was younger, i got started again, because my son decided when he was 4 years old that he wanted to be a chicken farmer. He's lost a lot of the interest in it now, but I remembered how much I love them. So we are up to like 22 laying hens, 12 chicks, 7 ducks, this week we will be adding a Pekin duckling, 7 hatchery choice pullets(and possiblly some packing peanuts) oh and 1 1/2 dozen eggs for the incubator...somebody stop me...

 

[kcfuerst]

I was doing research on pesticide alternatives because it seemed like no matter what chemicals or beneficial bugs I used, the insects were winning the war over my garden and yard.

Somewhere along the way, I ran across several articles and websites that told how beneficial chickens were for pest control with the added benefit of the world's best fertilizer and the super bonus of cute little gifts every day in the way of eggs.

It took a year of planning for which kinds of chickens to get which would best suit my purpose, and to make plans for the perfect hen house which would best serve them and be aesthetically pleasing to my neighborhood standards. Just as the hen house was being completed in February my cute little chicks arrived and I sure do wish I had done this many years ago instead of waiting until I was old. I love them!

Here's some pics to share with you.....

View from my kitchen window --

The run attached to hen house --

My grandboys enjoying playing with the chickens --