spouses and Chickens

[stacym]

Hi all! I know that some of you on the Forum have mentioned that spouses have been a little less than crazy about chickens.
My husband was not too crazy about our chickens. He has tolerated them but has been know to complain about them not laying yet (too young) and feed consumption.
So needless to say I was a bit nervous when I had to go to help out my parents for 3 days. This left my DH to take care of all the chicken care.

I showed him everything I do. (He watched with a bored look) I wrote everything down. (He barely glanced at it) When I called to see how he was doing with the chickens. ( Barely mentioned them)
So I figure that all my birds have been either eaten or he's been letting them free range all over my yard. (bad, they would wipe out my garden)
So, I get home and first he tells me,"I haven't fed or watered them since you left."

Then he laughs(just kidding) and tells me how he thinks they are the most fascinating pets ever! It's nice to be able to talk with him about the chickens and their "personalities". Better yet he actually knows which ones I'm talking about! I just wanted to share the conversion of my DH.

 

[chickiebaby]

That is totally sweet.

 

[Crazy_Chicken_Lady]

My husband knows that he doesn't dare come between a BYC momma and her chickens LOL

 

[Morgaine]

The most my husband has admitted to liking the chickens to me in coversation went like this :

Me: Chickens are so much fun and really are like pets!

Him: They are smarter than I thought they would be. Haven't drowned in the rain yet.

I still hold out hope that he is hiding his true feelings and once he gets past his macho manly thing will admit his love of chickens and then talk chicken with me. A girl can dream.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

My husband tolerates them, but thinks I have “way too many.” I ended up printing out my PayPal receipts from April through the end of August to show him my “profits” from my egg sales…and he was actually impressed. And that was just with my Muscovies because the rest of my flock is too young to lay, yet. The battle I’m now facing is that I need about 10 mini coops or another BIG coop to separate all of my breeds to be able to sell purebred eggs next spring. So now I need to save up $1000 or so to even make a dent on that & it’s getting harder & harder with feed prices the way they are to justify having 40+ birds. But I’m hoping after I get some of my extra cockerels sold and my flock down to a more manageable size, that things will even out. I found someone on Craigslist with about 50 free bunny cages but they are on the other side of the mountains, so it would probably cost me a few hundred in gas to go over & get them…so we’ll see…I know it’s going to take some major convincing or comprising to get my hubby to allow me to keep my birds. He said something yesterday about me needing to sell all but three breeds & to just “focus on those” types!

 

[schmism]

i (as the hubby) wanted them, but the wife (schmije) wasnt so thrilled with the idea. well then a neighbor thrust upon us a couple of freebee's so we kinda had to take them. that was a 1.5 years ago.

Now they are HER chickens

I do my daily chicken duties, feed, water, collect eggs, make modifications to the coupe as necessary...

 

[onebuggirl]

So I have always wanted chickens. When we got married my husband knew as soon as we got a house we were getting chickens. I would talk about them so excited and he'd grunt "someday" Well I got my Eglu one day. He thought it looked neat. Then the next day I went out and got 3 barred rock before he changed his mind. At first he'd look at them and keep walking. He'd say they were pretty smart and then he started taking more time looking at them. Now he enjoys feeding the girls by hand and I will catch him standing in the kitchen window watching them. Or if I can't find him I look outside and he'll be sitting near the run feeding and talking to the chickens. Awww. I am so glad we have pet chickens...plus he is loving the eggs.

 

[matchbxgurl]

Quote:
Haha thats what happens when u get married! whatever she likes, is HERS!!

As far as my chickens, at first my HUB was like, OK! but only like, 4 chickens.. I came home one day ( i already had 4) ... wiht 9 chicks and he kinda growled, but when they got older and stuck around the yard and ate all the weeds, he thinks i should get more now LOL>.

The new rule is: I can have as many chickens as I want as long as I dont get any more birds ( as in parrots LOL)

 

[Henrietta23]

I knew mine had come around the day I caught him in the backyard tightening a hinge on the pen gate. He was squatting and a hen was sitting on his leg supervising. The clincher was that he was talking to her!

 

[coffeemama]

That's great! My dh used to be uninterested in my chickens. As the years went by, he liked them more and more. Now he dreams of moving to more property so we can build a nice coop, just like I do!