Official BYC Poll: Why Do You Have Chickens - Select All That Apply

[gingit]

I love the primal feeling of growing my own food. Sustainability. But we raise free range/organic chicken as a business. We sell chickens, ducks & eggs. Any of our customers can see them running in their yards, pet our goat and feed warms we grow to our chickens. I was a vegetarian years ago. Now I am no longer, but still beleive we should treat the animals we raise humanely and with respect to them, nature and god.

 

[mrsbrcant]

I have a mixed flock of bantams and when I look out my window at them its like an aquarium of tropical fish. They are pretty and fun to watch. Actually they are much better than fish but along with everything else I like about them, they are really pretty. My daughter also uses them for her 4H project.

 

[brownysfp]

We also sell free range eggs for eating, for hatching, chicks and excess roosters. A local restaurant has the eggs in-season; a local corner shop has just started selling them too, which is good as the restaurant has closed for the winter. Over here they're classed as "en libre parcours" which means the hen has more than 10 sq yds of living space.

 

[jsabean]

Basically a lot of the above why i have them... My family has had them a long time (on and off). One point we got rid of them but of course we've got them again (and many I might add). Though personally, my specialty is my rocks (buff)... they don't seem to lay much lol but they're pretty birds

 

[fowlsessed]

Interesting pets that I can easily breed and sell, coupled with entertainment and bug control. Yup.

 

[abbylane35]

I love to watch the chickens wandering about the yard. I like watching their personalities as they make their rounds. I don't like when they take all of the mulch out of the flowerbed, but the do a great job eating those young weeds popping out of the flowerbed mulch!

 

[maggiec1951]

My Dad raised chickens, guines and quail so was around them until I left for college. Talked my DH into getting some to raise for eggs. They have truly become pets and are terrific for relaxation. I usually spend at least a couple of hours each day with them; just sitting and having them sit on my lap. One of my Brahmas - Blondie - is a cuddler.

Her favorite place to sit is on my left shoulder with her head in my hair. Sometimes I swear she purrs - in chicken of course.

DH has become a convert, too and enjoys time watching them just be chickens and laughing at me when all five decide they need to be in my lap at once.

They are only about 4 months old, so no eggs yet, but we are looking forward to the first ones.

 

[Ronald72067]

I started out with 2 roosters, the reason is I had a neighbor that tick me off now he has to listen to my roosters..

Few days later I dropped in 6 hens and another rooster (he is a billy joe bad butt) today I got 5 more hens

I have a lot of time on my hands a they give me something to do.

10 years ago My mom and dad in law raised commercial chickens 4 houses of them I helped them out some

and I just like chickens also if you have dogs and cat you have to watch over them with chickens you can leave

for a day or two and they will be fine as long as they have food and water..

 

[mrheinz77]

My other reason is to promote heritage breeds and to help distribute them to others, but also breed them to the Standard, proposed Standard.

 

[Darklingstorm]

I originally got my chickens for eggs and bug control. Then I decided that I would also raise them for meat and fertilizer for my garden. But the biggest bonus that I didn't even think of was for education. I hadn't realized that so many people now a days have no clue what a "real" chicken is, what the differences in eggs are and the list goes on. But the biggest student I've had is my 3-year-old son. He has learned to care, feed and how to treat our chickens. He has learned to count to 12 without missing numbers, as we go out and collect eggs and put them in cartons. Next year we are going to get an incubator and he (we) will get the joy of learning about hatching.