*** OFFICIAL " How I got Started" THREAD!!!" Please Comment! ***

I was technically introduced to chickens when I was around 13. My friend had a hobby farm. I am now 24. It wasn't until the last few years I got into them my self. I met my fiance' and his dad had some chickens. He had ordered a batch of RIRs. One night there was a massacre out here...all but 3 of 12 roos free ranging were killed by coyotes. The next night 2 of the 3 were taken. So I felt bad for the long survivor. He is now known as Big Red. Thats him with me in my avatar. I started penning him up in a dog crate at night and after a few nights he would put himself to bed and wait for me to close the door. Thats when it all started. Now I have roughly 50-60 laying hens RIR, BR, SLW, California Whites, Turkens and some really old ladies I have not a clue what they are. I have roughly 30 other chickens that free range and go into dog kennels at night. Silkies, Marans, Mutts, Top Hats. Along with my 30 or so ducks mostly muscovys, my 30 or so guineas, 4 peacocks, 3 goats, 12 barn cats, and 3 dogs. Red started my entire hobby farm addiction. My birds really don't make me any money. I'm lucky if I break anywhere near even but I love it. I always tell my fiance' there are alot worse things I could be doing with my time and money. Sometimes are rough. This year has been bad. Bad hatch rates, animals getting hurt or sick, losing hours at work. But everyone here is fat sassy and spoiled. I take in unwanted birds and animals. I also differ from others with the fact that I keep all the "special needs" animals. I've got 2 roo's that lost their feet, a guinea with a limp cuz he got hit by a car, a mentally challenged chick and no I'm not kidding. I figure if they are still kickin around having a good time I will give a safe place to do it. I work in a factory making lenses for eyeglasses. Its pretty lame but it pays to feed all the mouths I have around here.
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My animals keep me sane. I could be having the worst day ever and one of them will do something to make me laugh and I forget all about it.

Sorry so long and so random...really no format...I'm bad at that
 
How old were you when you were first introduced to chickens?
I have a vague memory of an elderly woman we visited (could not have been either of my grandmothers) when I was very young, around 6 years old or so. There was a coop and run, a rooster, and about 8 hens and 10 or 15 chicks running around. I was allowed to go into the run and sit there to watch them.

The granny lady warned me she was going to have to kill a chicken and pluck it for dinner. I didn't have to watch if I didn't want to... but I did. Want to, I mean. I was curious. It didn't bother me that the chicken actually DID run around for a few seconds without its head, but I was totally freaked out by the head on the ground, with its beak opening and closing like it was still clucking. My father tried to explain the "after death" normal muscle actions. I guess he succeeded. My father would explain EVERYTHING without dumbing it down to a child's level, and I had learned to read when I was only 3, so I think I just took in the information.

The chicken dinner was REALLY good. With dumplings. I wanted a chick, but they wouldn't let me have one. I got a bunny, instead, a few weeks later.

Fast forward 50 years. I had relocated to this area as part of a promotion. The summers are horribly hot here for a life-long coastal kinda gal, so I got a kiddie pool and sat in it on hot days. I'd brought a 35 gallon "patio pond kit" from my last home, and the county Mosquito Vector unit stocked it with some mosquito fish. I had to move that pond kit from the front of the house to the back yard, and while it was dismantled, I put the mosquito fish and pond plants into the kiddie pool. After that, I just decided I wanted a real pond, so I built two gold-fish ponds with waterfalls (small ones). Stocked 'em with goldfish and Koi, and the mosquito fish multiplied.

Then I built raised garden beds. Started thinking I was tired of trying to figure out how to amend the lousy clay & rock soil and was also tired of buying bags and bags and bags of potting soil. Thought, huh, why not get some chickens for the best fertilizer in the world? I have yard space.. They would eat bugs, too! Mosquito fish and chickens, natural bug catchers.

So I built a coop during the summer of 2009 and bought 8 baby chicks that October. I have now built 3 coops, purchased some more, bought more chicks, and have now started incubating eggs to hatch more chicks.

• What do you do as a career
I work for the largest law enforcement agency in the state of California as a telecommunications systems analyst, supporting radio and telephone systems all over the state for that agency.

• What are your favourite things about chickens
They make me smile. And laugh. They relax me. (Incidentally, my blood pressure medication dosage has been reduced by my physician since I started keeping chickens.) I love to listen to them, talk to them, make sure they're safe, call them by names, take pictures of them, and just generally enjoy 'em. If I wasn't working for a living, I'd be sitting out with the chickens all the time.

• And anything you have to say really!!!
I believe I have, already. ;-)
 
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Hi Kevin!
My grandparents had a large farm, chickens, hogs, dairy cows. As my grandparents got older first to go: hogs, then the cows, my grandmother had chickens until the day she died..... I am 50 years old, I was a singler mother for 20 years. Just remarried almost 5 years ago. My husband has 5 acres (now it is OURS). I asked for a horse ~ NO, mini horse NO~ 2 goats ~ NO, cow, donkey ~ NO NO and no. Can I have chickens ~ i finally got a yes. I have 24, 2 roos that I was supposed to cull last weekend, but haven't yet. Four roos, 20 hens. Love them, they are funny to watch, and pretty. I no longer name them, I have my favorites, but I realize that sometimes to do the right thing for my flock is painful for me to do! Enjoy your chickens! Theresa
 
• How old were you when you were first introduced to chickens?
• What do you do as a career
• What are your favourite things about chickens
• And anything you have to say really!!!

August 25, 2008
Office Manager in Administration for public transit
That is too long to have to answer.

Ken and I went to a farm where they free range EVERYTHING: cows, donkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, pheasants, guineas, rabbits, chinchillas, you name it. Go ahead and close your eyes and picture two people who have never owned a chicken running over 10 acres of critters trying to catch ANY 6 we could. We would up with a BLRW roo, a silver spangled hamburg hen, buff orp hen, turken hen, 2 black sex link hens.

We got home, put them in the coop we had ready for them, looked at each other and said "Now what?" The internet search for information ensued and here I am 2 1/2 years later. With 50 chickens, 11 ducks, 2 goats, 2 horses, 2 dogs and a cat.
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Kevin D. :

• How old were you when you were first introduced to chickens?
• What do you do as a career
• What are your favourite things about chickens
• And anything you have to say really!!!

So GO FOR IT!!!

Kevin Danahy

I was first introduced to chickens just over a year ago when my husband decided that we "needed" chickens. We started with 5 and now have close to 100 counting all the chicks we have in brooders.

I am a 9-1-1 Dispatcher for the county I live in. Having the chickens is a great stress reliever from my job.

My chickens make me laugh. I have mainly Polish and Silkies and it cracks me up when their crests scare them and they go running around their pens.

I never thought I would like chickens as much as I do now. Actually, I think I like them more than my hubby does, and they were his idea to begin with!​
 

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