Introduced to chickens in 2000, age 20, when the ranch I worked part time at got some RIRs, BA and SLW chickens. The RIR rooster used to chase me across the pasture. I HATED that thing!
However, I was allowed to keep whatever eggs I found and used to marvel at the orangey yolks and increased flavor and enjoyed watching the hens peck around. Until the skinny red boy saw me and decided I was a threat to his hens! It was interesting observing their behavior though.
8 years later, my mother got me the Hobby Farms chicken book for Xmas and I got interested. So, after much cajoling and convincing of my husband, we ordered 2 BR and 2 dominique pullets from Meyer. I got a job downstate so we gave those hens to a neighbor when they were about 6 months old. Well, the following spring, I found out I was going to be laid off. So one weekend when I went back up north, I stopped at
TSC for some dog food and they had chicks on sale ... so of course I HAD to get some. Raised them in a rabbit hutch in my mother's kitchen.
Well, DH wasn't happy about me getting chickens spur the moment. But, one weekend when he was down visiting me, we went out to the barn where I kept my horse. The people there had 40-50 chickens. DH fell in love with their LF blue cochin rooster and offered to buy him. They didn't sell, but we did find a cochin rooster on CL a few months later. So, that rooster is DH's special chicken.
This last spring I got 6 cochins from a breeder and 3 Black stars, 3 EEs from
TSC. We sold a pair of the cochins since DH didn't want another rooster although all 3 EEs turned out to be cockerels, so we gave away 2. I'd like to raise a batch or two of chicks from our cochins next year.
I teach Spanish at a local middle school, glad that I finally have a job close to home, and I can't keep up with the fellow teachers' and custodians' voracious appetite for farm raised eggs.
DH and I have been getting into the homestead movement, I've been canning and dehydrating and we've gotten energy efficient appliances, etc...
I'm always amazed at how intelligent chickens are and how much personality they have. It's a hoot watching our young cockerel try to show off for the older hens who just look at him and say, "Yeah, right." They're so entertaining to watch. Our daughter has learned a lot by helping to take care of them. She even gets worms and grubs from the gardens to give them a treat.
It's also fun when people pull up to visit and sit in their car with the windows down, shouting "IS THE ROOSTER OUT?" before they get out of the car. Even though OUR roosters haven't attacked anyone yet, not like that RIR that would sneak up behinf me.
