Official BYC Poll: Why Do You Have Chickens?

[WallyG74]

What you aren't waitlisted for more yet? Get a move on!

Also I do not know my actual chicken count but I think conventional chicken math says I have 5. I'm impressed you have 18!

I’m not real sure about conventional chicken math but I have 6 hens and I have 8 more babies coming June 29!

 

[3KillerBs]

Eggs, meat, pest control, fertilizer, and sustainability.

Plus enjoyment. I have a ridiculous fondness for the sound of a rooster with a pleasant crow.

 

[FortCluck]

You and me Cluck.. Showed dogs for 35 years ... Enough nonesense

I don’t think I could breed purebreds. I’m fascinated with doing crosses.

Here’s a cross I just did. Polish Deathlayer

 

[BDutch]

Eggs, other and a kind of pets (but not really).

I like organic eggs from chickens that have a happy life and and enjoy it when my chickens scratch and stroll around in the garden. Also ...chicks are so cute.

 

[NanaKat]

I checked everything except pest control...but they do love the mice pinkies in the barn.

Other because I enjoy conserving a dual purpose Heritage breed. Mine are Columbian Wyandotte. Meat and eggs from these are wonderful and the hens lay thru the winter supplying my extended family with plenty.
Two point of lay pullets and one of three breed pens.


Fertilizer for my fenced garden..no birds allowed inside. Composted clean outs from the hen house and brooder room as well as the cattle manure and hay makes a wonderful mulch for the raised vegetable beds and flower beds.

Exhibition...on the list because showing was to begin this year, but shows were canceled due to Covid 19. Maybe later.

Resale... Not to supplement an income, but to expand the number of people who enjoy the Columbian Wyandotte. Selling hatching eggs and day old chicks gives buyers a good start.

I have hatched over 400 chicks so far this year. Strictly selecting chicks for future breeders as the chicks grow out means those not selected will go into neighbors' layer flocks or freezer.

 

[nashua]

I just love my hens. They greet me loudly and run to me and they are fascinating to watch. They are very interactive and communicative, smart and real characters. After being around them my. mood is always improved.

 

[Turner_Family_Flock]

Pets, eggs, and sustainability.
We all know that this year has been rough. And my family? My family is always paranoid. Politics are a big reason, but I won't get into that. That's my dad's thing.

We decided to get chickens because we think supply chains are going to be severely damaged thanks to covid.
Which is already sort of true? Meat prices are going up. But our family needs protein if all goes down. And what's a great mobile source of protien?
(I know you're going to say a cow or a goat, but our backyard isn't that big, and I don't think our city would be very happy with us having a cow)
Eggs!
Most of our reason for getting chickens is a mobile self-sustainable food source. 5 chickens should supply enough eggs to feed our whole family at their peak years.
If we really end up needing to? We can put our chickens into the back of our car and hit the road with them. And they're perfectly capable animals- if everything goes poorly, they can eat grass and bugs and worms instead of feed in the absolute worst of situations.

I know when people think of an apocalypse, they think of zombies and guns.
My family thinks of chickens and mountains and farming.

Whatever happens, I'm happy we have them. They make us happy.

 

[jsr5]

Eggs and meat and grudgingly at first. Than I fell in love with chickens oh and I discovered my Nashsty Hobbitses Feather footed Bantams. And its all been building coops and runs etc for the ever increasing flocks of egg birds and my pet bantams.

 

[cracrzy4chicks]

My adventure started with a friend ordering chicks and asked if I wanted to get some also. I figured.....what the heck I’ll give them a try, that was the beginning of my serious case of Morehens disease . I just love beautiful my beautiful birds. They are my therapy when I’ve had a rotten day at work. I talk to the girls and they talk back with their own little clucks and coos and other funny little noises they make. I replenish my flock by hatching my girls eggs. They provide roosters for the freezer in the fall and new layers. I sell eggs to help pay for their feed.

 

[VirginiaLowe]

Eggs, fertiliser, what-names-to-give-them (when the kids were little forty years ago), entertainment, what-will-i- find-hidden-in-the-ivy? occasional poetry inspiration (see below - sorry i tried to put the file as an attachment but i couldn't).


The Morning after the Death
Virginia Lowe


As I feed

The two remaining chooks

Heavy cloud

Covers half the sky

Beneath it the sun rises

Painting the underneath cloud

Bright yellow grey



She was faithful

In her way

Laid day by day

As she should

Stood patiently

In her position

At the bottom of the pecking order

But companionable too

The youngest

And the flightiest

But a good little chook

Beautiful

Her whiteness

Part of the black/brown/white pattern

Her eggs part of the pattern, too



She'd always limped

Perhaps she carried

The root of her problem

With her always

Perhaps she faithfully

Laid her eggs

Past a tumour

But didn't seem

To be in pain



Soon afterwards

The lowering clouds

Have covered the sky

The early morning

Resounds with the sound

Of thunder

Summer storm

Marks her passing



Marks too the act

Of deliberate killing

I have never killed before

Larger than an insect or arachnid

Never a backbone

And never a flighty companion

Of half a year or more



She it was

Who refused to be caught

When taken

On a Gastronome's Tour

Of Mamma's back garden

She it was

Who caused John to wedge

In the space between

Garage and fence

One hand holding

A chook aloft

Chook back in the chook run

But would John

Be forced to stand

Sideways outside

Forever?



We tried

To treat her

With Dettol and Derris Dust

Her scratched side

Bleeding

Smelt of chicken flesh

As an uncooked carcass

On the bench

Awaiting the oven

Horrific in the living



She took so long

To trust enough

To eat from an outstretched palm

Perhaps she was right

In the end

It was that palm that took her

To an early death

But also

We hope

To a release from pain



Bianca

1996

[published in Poetry without Borders, Trowbridge 2016]