Name The " Top Five Reasons You Have Chickens " Thread

[Red Barn Farms]

Here are our top five reasons we have chickens.

1. Fresh Eggs) So we'll always have the freshest free-range eggs on hand and know where they came from! We just love to cook and share some of our own recipes with a local restaurant.

2. Fertilizer) We grow fruits and veggies on our farm which we sell in the summer. We now have a constant supply of the best fertilizer in the compost bin. Our gardens grew exceptionally well this year!

3. Pets) We just love having 'unique' pets'? We've found chickens to be a wonderful new experience.

4. Sales) Selling enough eggs and baby chicks to at least pay the chicken feed bill.

5. Landscaping) They have helped us keep the weeds down and bugs away! SO yes we put the chickens to work and give the Gardener & Exterminator (ourselves) a day off!


OK, now it's your turn! I hope a lot of people get involved in this. It would be interesting reading all the reasons people have for keeping chickens.

 

[DianaMallory]

1fresh eggs.
2 something to keep me busy
3can't resist baby chicks!
4 President Obama said we need to go back to do things like gardens and stuff like that. I had a garden, so I got chickens.
5 when I thought about getting chickens again I found this web site and was checking out all the coops and educating myself in the learning center and I became hooked on this web site so I had to follow through with getting the chickens! Love the Peeps here!

 

[Y N dottes]

1 eggs: we almost never buy store eggs anymore

2: experience: We wanted to know what it was like to own chickens

3: during the summer my mom gives us kids projects she wants us to get done (example: cleaning out garage, planting garden, etc.) and since i knew she wanted chickens also, i convinced her that my project should be building a coop, something i would find fun, lol.

4: pets: though we didnt really need more pets i said id take care of them, and so far its been fun

5: Our cousins got chickens about 5 months before we did, and i think that is what convinced us to go ahead w/ it

 

[Peaches Lee]

1. Eggs--the practical excuse for really just wanting chickens LOL!

2. Tick/bug control.

3. An agricultural voyage in a completely different species that I've ever worked with.

4. Um, I just really wanted chickens.

5. Just had to have them. When I first started looking at chickens I really paid attention to the "friendly" non-aggressive ones, and tried to stay away from those that could be mean, so temperant was my first concern. Now, I could care less if the breed is known for aggression (towards humans), I'm fascinated with the different breeds and will not let that stop me from purchasing a certain breed.

 

[KayTee]

1. Free range eggs - knowing that they're really free range, and not just labelled as such in the supermarket.
2. Weed and pest control in the garden (never had such clean borders!)
3. My sister - she's been keeping chickens for several years and keeps telling me how good it is.
4. The novelty factor - how much more fun is it to watch chickens than to watch tv?!!!!
5. I can't say it enough - fun fun fun!!! I love having my girls and watching them interact with each other, search for food in the garden, and follow me around in the hope of an occasional treat! I dug the kitchen garden over yesterday - it was much harder than usual, as I had to keep stopping to let the girls pick out the insects I was digging up!! For garden 'helpers' they don't half hinder you in your work!

I love my girls to bits - can't imagine life without them now!

 

[kuntrygirl]

1. Hobby - gives me something to do.
2. Fresh eggs
3. Maintain grass in area
4. A conversation piece
5. Meat (Extra Roosters)

 

[TimBaumann]

1. I'm nuts about animals
2. To keep me busy
3. Eggs
4. Make a little money from chicks or eggs
5. Chicken remind me of dinosaurs a lot

 

[BoereMeisie]

1. Accidental! I started chicken keeping when I rescued 2 chicks from my workplace (I work at a pre-school which is on a farm with loads of chickens!) Raising those two got me hooked!
2. Obviously fresh eggs
3. They are amusing, and very very smart! I love coming home from work and watching them
4. Future source of income - hopefully! Soon I will be a local supplier of laying hens complete with a coop!
5. Sense of accomplishment! Chicken keeping has become a hobby which gives me a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction

To sum it up: I love my chickens! My "white chicks" Molly, Lucy and Kimmy and my RIR pair Captain Morgan and Kayla <3