Poll- how did your flock begin?

[kiwi-chick]

Some "kind" person dumped/threw a cockerel over our fence and drove away!

Purchased 4 hens for his harem and now have around 15 chickens of differing ages.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I had chickens growing up. But one year, when my kids were small, I wanted chicks but asked too late in the season. The feed store lady said she had adult birds I could buy. I bought 3 australops. Then later, when I got tired of waiting for chicks to become available, I hatched my own.

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

I bought 12 started pullets from my grandpa. But boy has God ever blessed my egg business... with this next batch if chicks arriving soon hopefully, I'll be ul to almost 100 chickens! Not including any birds that have died or old gals that have been given away!

 

[AtlanticCity]

Classic "chicken or the egg?" question

 

[NatJ]

The first chickens I ever had were bought as chicks by my Mom (I was a child at the time).

I have started over several times, each time by buying chicks. (Why start over? Because the chicken house became a sheep barn or a rabbit pen, or because I moved somewhere that chickens were not allowed.)

 

[Folly's place]

A neighbor had cute Belgian d'Uccles and Silkies, and gave us five or six birds to start our flock. That was almost thirty years ago, and we still have descendants of those first d'Uccles, along with many other chickens.
Mary

 

[Xouie]

The only birds I don’t hatch at home are Cornish cross, and only because there’s no source nearby. Oh, and BBW turkeys if we get them this year. Everybirdy else gets their start in the good old Brinsea bators.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

We ordered 16 chicks from cackle hatchery and were shipped 18. All 18 survived. Now the flock is a year old we sold one extra Roo and gave another to a friend. We lost 1 hen to a predator and we lost another to sour crop. Now we have 14 chickens and 31 eggs in the incubator that will go on lockdown Saturday night/Sunday morning.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

I had wanted birds for many years- Cockateils, ducks or chickens etc... Anything! Then lockdown came... We planned that after the summer holidays, we will get fertile eggs and incubate them. After we returned from a holiday abroad (end of August 2020) we had to quarantine; we were unable to get the eggs or incubator.... Or collect some chicks from online. We finally found a place with reservations... We reserved 2 white 24wks PoL silkies and after we were free from quarantine, (september 2020) we drove up there and collected first members of the flock!

them driving home with us in a nice box

Them as 1year olds happy here

 

[RooStar Chicken Gang]

Brother the flock began with two orange like Isa Browns/hylines then we got three more, now check this out. The three newer Isa Browns we got were actually brown not orange and all the Isa Browns came from a factory farm an industrial hell, they said they where free range, they lied. I peeked through the doorway an saw all the chooks in hell, I still got em because it was like resucing em.

They all free range on the farm, freedom for em. Then at some farmers market saw chooks for sale labelled "Australorp" however noticed some of these so called Australorps had brown on em, so asked lady what's that brown on ya Australorps. She says "oh there actually cross with new hamp shire" so she lied too by not openly disclosing they are cross, still got a few of em anyway.

Then got a Dutch breed of rooster called a Barnevelder from some woman. That's how the flock was made.