Angie
Just wondering--what got you started into raising chickens?
- Thread starter GA Peach in VA
- Start date
Angie
- Mar 25, 2009
- 1,299
- 15
- 171
My folks talked about it for years. Talked. That's it.
So this year a friend got 4, and she and I were talking about them, and she introduced me to a friend of hers who had lots of chickens and was going to order more, and in a half-hour period I decided I was getting chickens.
I'm not an impulse buyer. No I'm not.
So this year a friend got 4, and she and I were talking about them, and she introduced me to a friend of hers who had lots of chickens and was going to order more, and in a half-hour period I decided I was getting chickens.
I'm not an impulse buyer. No I'm not.
A friend of mine bought too many chicks (she lives in the city where she can only have 3 hens, and bought 11 chicks...duh!) Anyway, I ended up with 5 from her ( 2 roos). Then someone else that bought chickens for his backyard decided he didn't like them eating EVERYTHING, so I got my 2 EE's from him. Then it all just escalated from there! Between selling a pair of bantams, buying new chicks this year, and hatching in my incubator, I have 19 chickens now (with BIG incubator plans for next year). Oh, and I am raising 2 wild ducklings for release (their mom and sibs got hit by a car)...because if I have chickens I "MUST" know how to raise ducks...right??
LOL!!!
LOL!!!
I've always wanted chickens. I just like the looks of them. And the thought of 'free' organic eggs.
I had a lot of chicken decor in my kitchen and then people started giving it to me right and left until I was overrun with it! I realized I didn't really like the chicken decor so much - what I wanted were real chickens!
I didn't live in a place where chickens would be practical but I did think I could manage 3 behind the garage. Then we moved to a much more rural area 9 years ago and I knew I could eventually get chickens. So I started reading up on chickens about 9 years ago.
We rented 3 different places while we looked for a place to buy and all while looking, a big question was did the house come with a coop? Naturally we bought a place that did not, but I still have loads of room for chickens.
Which will be arriving around 6:30 tomorrow morning!
(The chicken decor has been boxed in the garage for many years now.)
I had a lot of chicken decor in my kitchen and then people started giving it to me right and left until I was overrun with it! I realized I didn't really like the chicken decor so much - what I wanted were real chickens!
I didn't live in a place where chickens would be practical but I did think I could manage 3 behind the garage. Then we moved to a much more rural area 9 years ago and I knew I could eventually get chickens. So I started reading up on chickens about 9 years ago.
We rented 3 different places while we looked for a place to buy and all while looking, a big question was did the house come with a coop? Naturally we bought a place that did not, but I still have loads of room for chickens.
Which will be arriving around 6:30 tomorrow morning!
(The chicken decor has been boxed in the garage for many years now.)
We always had them when I was a kid.
My DH and I married almost 15 years ago and with our combined kids, we wanted to give them something to care for and to be excited about going out to get the eggs. We've had chickens since. Always around six or seven hens. It's only been recently though that my stock has expanded to 22 chickens. I've started hatching them now and we've built new runs. I'm excited about breeding them and not necessarily profiting, but offsetting the cost of keeping them.
My DH and I married almost 15 years ago and with our combined kids, we wanted to give them something to care for and to be excited about going out to get the eggs. We've had chickens since. Always around six or seven hens. It's only been recently though that my stock has expanded to 22 chickens. I've started hatching them now and we've built new runs. I'm excited about breeding them and not necessarily profiting, but offsetting the cost of keeping them.
I saw a news article in a local paper years ago about a local auction house that specializes in chickens. There was a nice write up about how one teen was helping her college fund by raising chickens. I thought that was a cool idea since I have 3 girls we'll be sending to college before we know it.
Anyway, by the time I researched it and realized that tuition from chickens was highly unlikely... all the other good points about keeping chickens kind of outwieghed the costs. For my birthday that year, DH and I went to the auction and checked it out. OMG! I never realized how big a full grown rooster can be! That put the idea back on hold. By August of that year, we decided to go ahead and get just hens. I ended up with 3 banty roos and a surprise BR roo with 7 hens. It all kind of evolved from there.
It's still evolving. After finally getting my first BO and falling in love with her- I love them all, but she is by far my fave- my next chicken project will probably be Bantam Orpingtons.
Anyway, by the time I researched it and realized that tuition from chickens was highly unlikely... all the other good points about keeping chickens kind of outwieghed the costs. For my birthday that year, DH and I went to the auction and checked it out. OMG! I never realized how big a full grown rooster can be! That put the idea back on hold. By August of that year, we decided to go ahead and get just hens. I ended up with 3 banty roos and a surprise BR roo with 7 hens. It all kind of evolved from there.
It's still evolving. After finally getting my first BO and falling in love with her- I love them all, but she is by far my fave- my next chicken project will probably be Bantam Orpingtons.
My husband grew up in Iowa raising broilers along with a few hens for eggs. He bought the place we currently live in (Michigan) and it has 6 + acres. I asked him before we were even dating what he was going to do with 6+ acres...he was a bachelor
.
Since we've had one child and he's 7 yrs old and we don't have 'close' neighbor/friends, we thought we give him something to work with. We have talked about it for a couple years and this year it happened. Some guys from our church didn't have work, so my husband had them build the chicken coop for us...the rest is history.
Since we've had one child and he's 7 yrs old and we don't have 'close' neighbor/friends, we thought we give him something to work with. We have talked about it for a couple years and this year it happened. Some guys from our church didn't have work, so my husband had them build the chicken coop for us...the rest is history.
I grew up with chickens and since we have land, I figured we might as well grow our own eggs!
I teach spinning and other fiber arts and went to teach some home-schooled kids last October. They had chickens and I thought that it was so neat to have a few chickens. So I spent the winter with chicken books from the library reading up on it. I vascillated back and forth but Mother Earth News had an article on homesteading in the Mar/April edition and once again, there were chickens, a sign to get some.
So I built a coop for three chickens, that's all I wanted. While getting the neighbors' permission I found out that one neighbor already had six ordered to be raised to thermoregulation age and the others wanted to know when I would be selling eggs. I looked around for some older pullets but found none. Then I looked into the feasibility of raising them from chickhood because they were so cute at our tractor store. I bought the brooder stuff, set up a cardboard box in my studio and went back to get some chicks. The man there said to buy twice as many as I want because some would die so I bought five. (Remember, I want three.) Meanwhile, my neighbor has lost the number of his chick raiser and hasn't heard from her and is a week overdue for his babies so he goes and buys six because I had enough room in my brooder for his also.
A week later, my neighbor got the call to come get his birds; she had found him, five of his six lived to seven weeks. This brings us to a total of 16 chickens. This was back in May and as of today we still have 16 chickens and I have to build a new coop because after raising them I'm not about to eat them. I am looking for a couple of new homes.
Mary
So I built a coop for three chickens, that's all I wanted. While getting the neighbors' permission I found out that one neighbor already had six ordered to be raised to thermoregulation age and the others wanted to know when I would be selling eggs. I looked around for some older pullets but found none. Then I looked into the feasibility of raising them from chickhood because they were so cute at our tractor store. I bought the brooder stuff, set up a cardboard box in my studio and went back to get some chicks. The man there said to buy twice as many as I want because some would die so I bought five. (Remember, I want three.) Meanwhile, my neighbor has lost the number of his chick raiser and hasn't heard from her and is a week overdue for his babies so he goes and buys six because I had enough room in my brooder for his also.
A week later, my neighbor got the call to come get his birds; she had found him, five of his six lived to seven weeks. This brings us to a total of 16 chickens. This was back in May and as of today we still have 16 chickens and I have to build a new coop because after raising them I'm not about to eat them. I am looking for a couple of new homes.
Mary
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