Official BYC Poll: How Long Have You Been Raising Chickens?

[Don 27]

when I was a kid My dad had chickens on his farm. I enjoyed watching them. We would harvest the corn and the chickens would be right near the field line foraging . After I bought my own farm I had a lot of work getting the land ready and cleared .. And I thought maybe chickens would be cool to have foraging in the fields while I'm cleaning them up. Pulse we'd get eggs. So I ended up just getting a couple different breeds from a hatchery. Once the chickens were established and fully grown. they weren't like the ones my dad had, his would fly up in the rafters of my barn to roost at night and were very alert. I started losing my birds to predators so I realized that if I wanted to continue getting fresh eggs id better build a predator proof setup with a run so the hawks don't get them.

so then I started looking for a more resilient breed like the ones we use to have on the farm I remember that the only food we provided for our birds was spill over from the gran augers and food scraps. ended up getting some sorta game fowl breed that went feral in a old barn . They have been doing really well hatching out there own chicks and they have only needed food during the winter.

Heres two of the hens.

Here s the layers I gave the layers some treats in their food so they would come over for the picture.

 

[ValerieJ]

when I was a kid My dad had chickens on his farm. I enjoyed watching them. We would harvest the corn and the chickens would be right near the field line foraging . After I bought my own farm I had a lot of work getting the land ready and cleared .. And I thought maybe chickens would be cool to have foraging in the fields while I'm cleaning them up. Pulse we'd get eggs. So I ended up just getting a couple different breeds from a hatchery. Once the chickens were established and fully grown. they weren't like the ones my dad had, his would fly up in the rafters of my barn to roost at night and were very alert. I started losing my birds to predators so I realized that if I wanted to continue getting fresh eggs id better build a predator proof setup with a run so the hawks don't get them.

so then I started looking for a more resilient breed like the ones we use to have on the farm I remember that the only food we provided for our birds was spill over from the gran augers and food scraps. ended up getting some sorta game fowl breed that went feral in a old barn . They have been doing really well hatching out there own chicks and they have only needed food during the winter.View attachment 2013185 Heres two of the hens.
View attachment 2013186 Here s the layers I gave the layers some treats in their food so they would come over for the picture.

Have you read any of @Shadrach's articles? He could give you some tips about free ranging chickens.

 

[DHC4570]

View attachment 2009564​

How many of our peeps are really new to raising chickens and how many are old-timers?

In addition to answering the poll, please reply with some fun details, like:

What got you interested in raising chickens?
Did you ever "take a break" and not have chickens?
What breeds did you start with, how many, and do you have any pictures to share?

Initially it was just all about self-sufficiency. I then figured I would probably sell eggs to at least cover the cost of feed. I have been able to successfully do that through most of the last six years. I initially bought 11 chicks however I adopted other people's hens a couple of times throughout the years to keep the flock up. I've also had my dogs wipe out about 24 hens between two different attacks. Don't ask me how they're still alive cuz I wanted to shoot them both. My wife an kids talked me out of it. Just last spring I picked up another 20 fresh chicks. All-in-all I have probably had 60-70 hens over the years. I've never been without laying hens even if I was down to only three or four after the attacks.

I've had Rhode Island Reds, red stars, white leggers, various breeds of barred rocks, a few black copper Marans, australorps, buff orpingtons, white speckled Sussex, and a few other one-off exotic breeds just just for added variety. I know I'm missing a couple of breeds in there but I've been down with the flu for a couple of days and my brain is a little fuzzy.

The pictures are from right after I finished the coop and run the spring/summer of 2014. My girls were about three or four months old at that point.

 

[oldhen2345]

We have been raising chickens for about a year now. We started with meat chickens..which were totally boring. They didn’t do much, didn’t have personalities, didn’t live long...but that was the whole goal, so not their fault. Then we moved to the layers...and that’s been much more fun! I have noticed tha5 the ones we’ve raised from chicks are sooo much more loving, will perch on my arm for a long time...but, the many we’ve bought as pull are coming around, it just takes longer. My husband seems to favOr chickens on our farm...he thinks they require the least maintenance..they go to bed on time..don’t make a fuss, never cause trouble...don’t cost much money, don’t require tons of daily work like my goats and other livestock....But, I like the chickens because they give back, they are have to see me...they are not real skittish, and the6 are very pretty with the beautiful feathering! I never knew how addicted I am to feathers!!we have BO, blue O, silver lace O, NHR, RIR, black sex link, Isa browns, EE...I’m forgetting a few breeds...View attachment 2011414View attachment 2011415View attachment 2011416View attachment 2011417View attachment 2011418View attachment 2011419View attachment 2011420

Love your chicken pics. Don't worry about being addicted to the pretty feathers. I keep a bin to keep a few feathers from each chicken. It is sort of a memory bin. Eventually I will figure out a craft and use them or maybe make a pillow. Sometimes I just go look at my feathers and remember the chickens.

 

[BDutch]

Where shall I start. The day I remember that my parents had bantam chickens? I was only 4 and didn’t take care of them. So I don’t think that counts.

Later there where birds. I got 2
parakeets for my birthday, but after a few weeks I didn't take care of them anymore and my mother was pinched. Luckily she liked it. There were also canaries. A whole aviary. And every spring I took care of the chicks with my mother. But a contagious disease came and suddenly they all died.

After the birds there were chickens again. My mothers chickens. From the age of 16, we had brown hybrids and lots of brown eggs. My mother got them from her brother who had a hatchery. The hens always disappeared in the soup after a few years and then new ones arrived. Until my mother moved to a small house with a tiny garden.

I moved out of my mothers house a long time before that. I lived in flats, and houses with a tiny garden. One day my daughter wanted a pet. She was about as old as I was when I got the parakeets. And I couldn't refuse her not to be able to take any animals at all. There was just a tiny garden and I didn't want animals in the house. Therefore my doughter chose 2 dwarf rabbits. And of course I had to take care of the animals after a few weeks. Then finally came a house with a large garden. The rabbits escaped from the run a few times. And then we had young semi-wild rabbits. One bunny was allowed to stay. After a few months we found out it was a male rabbit (I don't know the English name, google says rattle, but a toy boy would even be more accurate I suppose) .
So again we had young rabbits. The rabbit hutch and the run became crappy. Then I thought.” If the rabbits are no longer there I want to chickens.”
I bought a new larger hutch for the rabbits: A chicken coop. Intended for bantam chickens. And after the last rabbit had blown its breath, I finally bought my first chickens. Little ones. Dutch bantams. Because even for large bantam chickens the loft was still small. This was in 2014.

This first year I had my own chickens I started with 6 weeks old chicks. Had some trouble with death chicks and the seller sold me some cockerels. But despite the difficulties I really got to love my tiny chickens. So much more interaction as with the rabbits.

In January/February I finally I had 3 pullets laying small white eggs and a cockerel was making too much noise early in the morning. In spring was my first chicken math. I needed to expand the coop for more chickens and made a walkin run to give my flock enough space.

All my girls got broody and the cockerel was rehomed. I kept the 3 pullets of this hatch. My Black Pearl (2 black) and one pyle. The cockerels where rehomed. In 2018 I bought eggs to let 2 of my girls hatch some chicks. Only 3 hatched. And the cockerel could stay until he was getting too loud too. This spring I had 2 broodies. They hatched 4 cockerels and just one pullet. I sold one mama chicken with 2 chicks and gave 2 away (cockerels) . I only kept the one pullet.
So no chicken math last year. But it's better this way. Now they have enough room to be happy chickens.

Guess how many chickens I have now.

 

[ValerieJ]

Where shall I start. The day I remember that my parents had bantam chickens? I was only 4 and didn’t take care of them. So I don’t think that counts.

Later there where birds. I got 2
parakeets for my birthday, but after a few weeks I didn't take care of them anymore and my mother was pinched. Luckily she liked it. There were also canaries. A whole aviary. And every spring I took care of the chicks with my mother. But a contagious disease came and suddenly they all died.

After the birds there were chickens again. My mothers chickens. From the age of 16, we had brown hybrids and lots of brown eggs. My mother got them from her brother who had a hatchery. The hens always disappeared in the soup after a few years and then new ones arrived. Until my mother moved to a small house with a tiny garden.

I moved out of my mothers house a long time before that. I lived in flats, and houses with a tiny garden. One day my daughter wanted a pet. She was about as old as I was when I got the parakeets. And I couldn't refuse her not to be able to take any animals at all. There was just a tiny garden and I didn't want animals in the house. Therefore my doughter chose 2 dwarf rabbits. And of course I had to take care of the animals after a few weeks. Then finally came a house with a large garden. The rabbits escaped from the run a few times. And then we had young semi-wild rabbits. One bunny was allowed to stay. After a few months we found out it was a male rabbit (I don't know the English name, google says rattle, but a toy boy would even be more accurate I suppose) .
So again we had young rabbits. The rabbit hutch and the run became crappy. Then I thought.” If the rabbits are no longer there I want to chickens.”
I bought a new larger hutch for the rabbits: A chicken coop. Intended for bantam chickens. And after the last rabbit had blown its breath, I finally bought my first chickens. Little ones. Dutch bantams. Because even for large bantam chickens the loft was still small. This was in 2014.

This first year I had my own chickens I started with 6 weeks old chicks. Had some trouble with death chicks and the seller sold me some cockerels. But despite the difficulties I really got to love my tiny chickens. So much more interaction as with the rabbits.

In January/February I finally I had 3 pullets laying small white eggs and a cockerel was making too much noise early in the morning. In spring was my first chicken math. I needed to expand the coop for more chickens and made a walkin run to give my flock enough space.

All my girls got broody and the cockerel was rehomed. I kept the 3 pullets of this hatch. My Black Pearl (2 black) and one pyle. The cockerels where rehomed. In 2018 I bought eggs to let 2 of my girls hatch some chicks. Only 3 hatched. And the cockerel could stay until he was getting too loud too. This spring I had 2 broodies. They hatched 4 cockerels and just one pullet. I sold one mama chicken with 2 chicks and gave 2 away (cockerels) . I only kept the one pullet.
So no chicken math last year. But it's better this way. Now they have enough room to be happy chickens.

Guess how many chickens I have now.View attachment 2013597

Those look like happy healthy chickens!!!

 

[Talithahorse]

View attachment 2009564​

How many of our peeps are really new to raising chickens and how many are old-timers?

In addition to answering the poll, please reply with some fun details, like:

What got you interested in raising chickens?
Did you ever "take a break" and not have chickens?
What breeds did you start with, how many, and do you have any pictures to share?

I got into raising chickens because we were the only family in my son's Montessori school that lived in the country and they needed somewhere for those silkie babies to go once they started to stink up the classroom. Good thing we lived in the country because we had 3 Roosters in the bunch.

First breed was Silkies, followed by Barred Rocks (which incidentally Rocks and Silkies are still my favorites after trying many many breeds.

I have never stopped with the chickens but it as waxed and waned, getting up to as many as about 40 chickens and as low as about 8. Currently at 13 as life has been pretty busy lately.

 

[BDutch]

Those look like happy healthy chickens!!!

They are. Everyone with there own character. I did loose some chicks on diseases, a regrettable escape and two to rats coming into the coop. But I never lost a chicken older then 10 weeks.

My 2 oldest are over 5 years now, still bossy. Picking the best bits out of the chicken mix before the others get their turn. Still looking healthy. Last year I had quit a few eggs from my oldies too. But they start laying later each year. And stop earlier in autumn.

 

[Love my chickens 25]

Another original

 

[Waves]

Im loving your stories, guys