How'd you get your first chicken?

[buck-wild-chick]

TSC

 

[tattoozz]

My wife went to the feed store to see if they had any flea medication for our dog.

needless to say we didnt get flea meds

she brought my son and daughter with her

all 3 of them picked out 3 chicks each

so to my surprise in walks 9 chicks and my family

i didnt have a cage or anything for them

so i had to move my 2 love birds male/female to a smaller cage

and moved in the 9 chicks for 3 weeks

by then i had made a small pen outside for them

by that weekend the small pen was built...wife brought home a dozen more

they got barred rocks and road island reds and easter egg chicks(just 2)

now we have 73 here and waiting on a delivery of 25 from ideal tomorrow

YES these things are addictive indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

im having a blast with all we have so far

we have silkies bantams golden comets barred rocks RIR EE new hampshire reds games(2)(maybe more) 3 others ive no clue of just bought them this week

we have silkie mixes also red stars black stars and asst black/red star mixes also some with feathered feet some without

we have a silkie rooster game rooster new hampshire red rooster and unk rooster

new hampshire is the biggest rooster..bit too big for my golden comets right now...which is what i want to mate

gonna try to mate my white silkie rooster with my grey female silkie here(fingers crossed)

and cant wait to see what ideal sends me

hopefully not alot of roos in the asst i ordered

so thats how we got started

plus we have 4 cats 2 love birds 2 parakeets and a beagel mix dog

 

[thebritt]

I worked as a veterinary assistant. On a Saturday, when we were only open till noon, a man came in at 11:55 with a RIR under his arm. He said he was on a lunch break, driving, when he saw a dog running down the sidewalk with her in it's mouth! He said he didn't know if it was hurt, but he didn't want it and had to get back to work so bye. The vet on duty was never happy to see barnyard fowl on her shift. But she (we) examined her and she seemed none the worse for wear (must've been carried by a bird dog!). The hen just sat on the stool, saying, "Ohhh dear, ohhh dear". Well, our family had just purchased a 2-acre property/trailer in the country, soooo guess what? Henny Penny was our 1st of many (yes, they're addicting)! She put up with all of our stupid 1st-timer mistakes and lived with us for almost 11 years!

 

[LaSombra]

Well, I was in town with my dad and he wanted to stop at the feed store and see about grass seed. Well, I went in with him and saw the chicks

Needless to say, I was hooked. I got 6 of them, plus a heating lamp and food/water supplies. After I got home, I found a laundry basket to put them in and covered it with a blanket except one side, where the lamp hung over it...

The next day, the bulb burnt out on the heating lamp (yeah, that quick), so went back to the feed store to exchange it and took home two more chicks

I did lose one of those 8...

That was my older brood, 2 months ago. I moved them into a bird cage, which I found at the Goodwill about a week later... then when I had to move them out of that, I replaced them with another brood of 5 chicks to make an even dozen. Then someone I know gave me two more of the same age to make 7. Now I have 14.

I really have an urge to get some more EE pullets from the guys who sell us eggs, too. They have some the size of my older ones and I need to have more girls for the ones that turned out to be roosters, right?

 

[chicken_china_mom]

I got my first chicken about 7 years ago. I was still with my kids father then and we were living in a suburb of Chicago, and it wasn't legal to own chickens there, though I knew people that did, and one afternoon he comes walking in looking like he had just won the lottery. He comes to me with this little box and thrusts it at me and begs to open it. So I did, and to my surprise there was this precious, fluffy little black chick inside it with a look of complete bewilderment on it's face. I instantly fell in love with it, but I knew that if it was a rooster we wouldn't be able to keep it. Just my luck, it was. And he wasn't a nice one either. He liked to go right for our eyes, and nearly got us a few times. I reluctantly gave him to a man with a petting zoo because I couldn't find anyone else to take him and he was crowing so much that I was afraid my neighbors would call the police on us. But I knew then that one day I would move out to the country and when I did, I would get chickens again. Well, last year my kids, my mom and I moved out here to the country, and what do you know, two neighbors in town have chickens! I talked constantly with them and I knew that I wanted my chickens sooner rather than later, and I placed my order for chicks to Cackle Hatchery in March. My chicks arrived April 8th, all 30 of them, and I was hooked. I have since gotten chicks at TSC and from Ideal Hatchery, and I have eggs I got from someone on BYC in my new incubator (my b-day present to myself this year). In all I have around 40 birds, and I am by no means done yet. And did I mention that I also have 2 mallard ducks? I want more ducks too, just not more mallards. It's like a sickness for which there is no cure, and even if there was, I wouldn't want it! I love being a chicken mom!

 

[crait]

Quote:

@ chicken_china_mom:
Are you gonna buy back that rooster?

 

[KellyHM]

I decided I wanted a couple chickens for eggs since I use to have them growing up. A friend of DH's had 2 EE girls he wanted to get rid of, so I took them. Another friend had an extra roo, so I took him too...that got me digging my old Hovabator out of the attic from when I was a kid. Almost a year later I have about 100, as well as quail, pheasants, and turkeys.

 

[KellyHM]

crait - what does your signature line mean? I've been meaning to ask you that...I don't get it. I mean, I know what a vegan is, but plants cast shadows, so I really don't understand...sorry if I'm missing the point.

 

[fargosmom]

A friend of mine got into chickens last year, and for a while was sending me emails with pictures of her little fluffies as they grew. I mentioned that they looked like fun to my boyfriend/enabler, and he was in favor from the start. So I started lurking here and within a few weeks I'd worked up the nerve . . . so I drove about an hour to the only feed store that had chicks (it was January) and bought the last 4 they had, hoping they were all girls. And they were - phew! I'm so glad we took the plunge! Too bad our yard is too small - we won't be able to add any to our flock unless we move, and I don't think that will happen any time soon.

 

[Sissy]

TSC 6 Feathered leg Cochins now we are up to 40
plus 1 buff Orp. the other one we lost to a critter.
so our wish list is to get more Buffs. and a few white silkies..