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

[jarcoo0153]

My grandpa bought me and my sister two colored chicks for easter when I was five yrs old, now I am 21! They ended up being 2 rooster a white rock and a RIR which we named Big Red and Freddy. We had to give them to some people we go to church with, because we are in the city. My sophmore year of High School, I talked my grand pa into letting me keep chickens at his house eventhough we weren't suppose to have them in the city, I ordered three hens, athey sent 3 hens and 10 roosters. A dog got all but 2 roosters and 1 hen, we ate the roosters, and I picked up three Naked Necks the following year. For my 20th birthday, I bought me 4 acres with NOTHING on it but 3 foot tall grass. I built me 2 large coops from cotton trailers, and I have 55 chickens, 5 ducks, and three guineas, that I haul water too in five gal buckets! I recently took out a loan so I can drill a well, put up a fence and build a 24X30 building. I am going to community college, and I graduate in December! I work in retail at Hobby Lobby part time, and sell produce at the farmer's market, and do other side jobs. My hobbies include Gardening , woodworking, and breeding poultry. I live a very busy life, but I love it!!
Jared

 

[michickenwrangler]

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.

 

[Kevin D.]

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Thanks for Posting!!!

Quote:
Thnaks for posting!

 

[darkmatter]

• How old were you when you were first introduced to chickens?
All my young life, I remember getting spurred in the chest by Grandma's Rooster about age 9 or so.

• What do you do as a career
Nuclear Technician

• What are your favourite things about chickens
Eggs, Meat, Fertilizer, Bug Patrol, Garden cleanup, Amusement.

• And anything you have to say really!!!
My Chickens are not pets and my management system is a lazy man's work, DLM, clean out only once a year, Fruit trees in the Run, minimize food costs, Connected to the Garden in the Fall for them to do the tilling and cleanup, not me.

 

[Kevin D.]

 

[Kevin D.]

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HEHE!!! thanks for posting! I like the way you labled everything!

 

[MandyH]

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!!!

My grandmother had chickens her whole life and she always had some at her house when I was little. I remember harrassing her bantam hen that was sitting on eggs and then I remember running for my life. What happened in between is a little blurry. Anyway I loved gathering the eggs and feeding them. And I remember not so fondly the rooster that always tried to spur the back of your legs if you even looked at him wrong. Anyway when I got married we had ticks in the yard and we got 3 roosters, Cocky, Doodle and Doo (LOL) for tick control. From there it just mushroomed into me having my own little hatchery specializing in rare breeds. I supply chicks to all the local co-ops and feed stores in the Spring. I am a licensed nurse but stay at home with my child right now.

 

[Kevin D.]

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WOW!!! Thats awsome! It's so nice to see how people got started, and were they are at now too! Kepp it up!

 

[Ema]

while born in Windsor, I was raised in Spain with my grandmother, she had a chicken farm and a rabbit farm all free range. We had the chickens until I was 12. after that I came back to live with my dad and it wasn't until this past June that I finally decided to get chickens of my own, while I wanted to know more about chickens last year and started reading up more info. and I placed my order for 21 chicks in may.

I live on a farm in Northern Ontario and I am a stay at home mom. I don't feed my chickens anything I wouldn't eat...well correction I wouldn't eat their layer feed and uhm I am not big on worms and dandelion greens (which I have tried on a salad just found them too bitter) I like the way my chickens run to me when they see me and if I bawk back at them they will fly up to the closest roost to look at me. I like their enthusiasm when I give them a peanut but really dislike it when they are overly enthusiastic and peck my finger so hard it bleeds. I like they way they squat when I got pick them up and they way they like to climb the straw bales when I put them down, as if they are trying to help me undo the bale. lol...

when I pour in their water they like to stick their heads inside the waterer, which to me I sure wouldn't like but they think its a game cause they take turns doing it and as soon as the lid is replaced they walk away.

my favorite thing about my chickens is that all the hard work I do, or all the money I spend on their feed/treats is repaid by the yummiest eggs I have ever eaten and hours upon hours of entertainment.

 

[FarmerJamie]

• How old were you when you were first introduced to chickens?
My grandparents had a small dairy farm, I remember when I was very young, my Grandma hatching 4 eggs on the warm stove top and I watched for hours as they emerged. DW and I waited until the kids were all old enough to help in a meaningful way, like moving fencing, cleaning the coop, helping with freezer camp, etc.
• What do you do as a career
IT Project Manager
• What are your favourite things about chickens
The fresh eggs and meat, the pure amusement value of my girls interacting with the family and our dogs.
• And anything you have to say really!!!
I think I agree in a way with Dark Matter, my chickens have a utility function first and foremost. They are well fed, protected, and cared for, and live fairly good lives, but the coop and maintenance I do is way down on my list. I may sit down and hand feed them at times because I get a huge kick out of watching them interact. I was devastated when coyotes wiped out this year's additions in early May, more because I realized I was a bit TOO lazy in my setup and I was then out a couple hundred dollars.