How Long Have You Been Raising Chickens? - OLD

[vebyrd36]

My first memory of raising chicks was when I was 3 years old. My Dad was culling deformed chicks one day and I ask him if I could have 3 babies that had 3 legs and one eye each. I had those babies until they died of old age @ 8 years old. So that would be 38 years for me. But I have lived on a farm/ranch all my life.

 

[dragonlair]

I got my first chickens while in High school as a class room project in 1971. I took a cockeral and a pullet home at 3 days old and raised them in my bedroom. I lived in the middle of Worcester, Ma. I used to take them out for walks with little leashes I made. They went to live with a friend when the cockeral, Fricasee, started to crow. The pullets name was Dumplin'.

Several years later I worked at a chicken hatchery, before I learned about their abuse. I took home several chicks of various breeds and raised them up for eggs. That was in 1977.

I still have my layers and some bantams. I have had ducks and pigeons also.

 

[Pinky]

I've had chickens for 7 years now. Next March will be 8 yrs.

 

[perchie.girl]

I started in 1995 in the city With four Easter eggers and a homemade coop. I knew there were neighbors around that had chickens but knew nothing about the laws of owning chickens in the city. I adopted a dog in 1999 and within four weeks he had killed all my chickens.

Next time I had chickens was in 2004 (dog long gone) after I had moved to my own land 18 acres. I kept chickens and Guineas for about three years till predators wiped them out completely.

Now I am starting over with Guineas only. No real plan just like em. After winter is over I want to get some Sumatras and Welsummers and some Auracanas.

So Chronologically I have had them about fifteen years. But ad all the years up of total chicken owner ship I have had them about five years including this one.

 

[1 hen and 1 roo]

My daughter had been begging my Husband to allow her to get chickens for several months. He would always tell her of a story from his childhood where a rooster attacked him every time he went into the hen house. He said he would never allow her to have chickens and he was never gonna have chickens. Well, one day on the way to get her from school, I asked him why he won't let her have chickens. I was raised on a farm and we always had chickens. He said if she would ask again he just might let her get some. It was the last day of school in May of 2010. I told her ask Daddy for chickens and he told her she could have some. We took her to the local feed store and she got 3 chicks to show at the local County Fair. She a rabbit at home and an empty rabbit coop (recently lost one of the rabbits) so she out the chicks in it. Of course, for the most part, we knew absolutely nothing about chicks. It is amazing those chicks survived. The rabbit did not survive the summer heat that year so we made the rabbit coops back to back and cut a hole to make the chickens have more space.
My daughter was so excited to show her chickens in the fair. She was only able to show one since they were the same breed. Well, quickly we discovered that what we were sold as "Americanas" were actually "Easter Eggers". Well, she wanted to show her chickens at other Poultry Shows so my husband began to search for show "Ameraucanas". We did a lot of research about the breed and found a breeder who raised show quality "Ameraucanas". Granny and Papa bought her 3 show quality Blue Wheaten "Ameraucanas" (2 pullets and 1 cockerel).
That is what started us raising chickens and taking chickens to poultry show.
Our flock has grown to:
Blue Andalusian (2 hens and 1 cockerel)
White Silkie (1 pullet and 7 baby chicks)
Blue Cochin (1 hen, 1 pullet, 1 cockerel, and 2 baby chicks)
Black Cochin (4 pullets, 2 cockerels and 2 baby chicks)
BBR Araucana (1 single tuffed pullet, 1 clean faced pullet, 1 clean faced cockerel, 1 Dbl tuffed cockerel and 2 not yet determined baby chicks)
Black Ameraucana (4 pullets, 2 black cockerels)
Blue Ameraucana (1 blue pullet)
Blue Wheaten Ameraucana ( 8 pullets, 2 hens, 1 cock
Splash Wheaten Ameraucana (1 pullet and 3 cockerels)
Wheaten Ameraucana (1 pullet and 2 cockerels)
Black Sumatra (5 pullets, 2 cockerels and 11 baby chicks)
Silver Phoenix (7 baby chicks)
I think is all of them.
Love, love, love chickens. Enjoy every minute watching and talking with them. Would love to have more but just can't afford the feed or the time and money to make more coops. Love taking them to shows as well.

 

[4 Love of Baby Chickens]

6 years.

And loving every minute of it!

I still have 3 original's from my first flock. Two EE hens that are 6 years old and a BR hen that is 5.

(I do not the VERY first two RSL hens I started out with. They got killed in the Raccoon Masacre back in '06 along with 9 others.

)

I have to this day.................

5 RIR's - (1 cockeral, 4 hens)
3 BR's - (3 hens)
3 EE's - (2 hens and 1 pullet)
1 BSL - (1 hen)
1 WR - (1 hen)
2 Japs - (2 cockerals)
1 Barnyard mix - (1 cockeral)

And I just bought 4 new chickens today.

1 RIR - pullet
1 Delaware - pullet
2 BSL - pullets

Gave the RIR to my neighbor as an early Christmas gift to replace the 1 pullet she lost to a hawk last week. Boy you should've seen her look of delight.

So all together I have 19 chickens of my own and have no intention of quitting the chicken game.

Just hoping with these new pullets will get my own chickens laying again.

 

[ziL]

I got chickens last year, but raised them when I was little too, so I totaled those years as one and said two years in the poll.

 

[ozark_chickies]

I was brought up around chickens, and have had them off and on since I was 5 years old. My first chickens were little game banties, a black roo and hen, and a little speckled hen, and a BO I named Henrietta.

 

[blackcats]

For years I've wanted chickens. I have waited patiently and educated myself. I finally mentioned to DH that we were going to get chickens. Now!

We love our 3 Red sex-links (Henny Penny, Daisy & Lola)

We've had them for about 3 months and my DH wondered why we waited so long.

 

[quesodano]

So I'm a real noob my girls are almost 13 weeks old. I started marking my keepers judging by weight gain today. I'll make egglaying ability the second criteria for core breeders. BYC is a great place in cyber-space!!

Lay large and propagate...