Tell Me Your Story

[windnleavesfarm]

I am a young girl and have had chickens on my daddy's dairy farm since i was little this was the animal that i loved and was fasinated with. (even tho the rooster chased me and pecked me everyday). we have had rhode island reds ever since. we did change to a different breed (barred rocks) and they were the most nasty birds we ever had. if i went anywhere near those birds they would peck and attack me. (hens we still had are RR rooster) our RR Rooster lived as long as 8 years at least. now we are back to rhode islands reds. And now my sweet barnevelders who have a real soft spot in my heart. I sell eggs to make extra money and i recently saved it all up to build a chicken coop (8x12). I have 12rhode islands reds. Plan to get barnevelders(6) and rhode island reds (12)

So tell me your story? What breed? How did you get started? Are the chickens just for pleasure or do they have more of a purpose? How big is your coop? What would you like to try?

 

[windnleavesfarm]

My turkeys we got last year

 

[windnleavesfarm]

my ducks i got 2-3years ago

 

[windnleavesfarm]

Barnies<3

 

[MuckyPuppy]

Lovely birds, I especially like the Barnevelders.

We currently have 5 chickens. three cream legbars, one cockerel and two pullets, and two d'Anvers, both hens. They are our children's pets although it is mainly our youngest two (daughters) that spend time with them or as I like to call it - spoiling them rotten. I hope that lots of young people post on your thread and share stories with you about their birds!

 

[Chido]

This might be a bit long, I hope you guys don't mind XD.

I never thought about keeping chickens before until we got our first three chicks. We didn't even plan on getting chicks but alas, sometimes fate has different plans for you. I've been living with my sister and her family for about 8 years now. I moved in with her because I wanted to get a college and a MA degree from an American university, so it was much more affordable to live with her and help her with her kids than rending on my own. As far as I can remember, my sister has never been an animal person, so the girls had never had a pet before, and when I moved in with my dog, they were too young to really enjoy playing with an elderly, grumpy dog.

After my dog died of old age and illnesses that come along with that, we didn't have any more animals, until one rainy April morning 2 years ago. A neighbor was going through some weird times and decided to just let his chickens roam free outside. We live close to Los Angeles, so this isn't a rural area. however, people are allowed to have chickens so a lot of my neighbors have them. Well, with this guy letting his flock have free access to the street, we started to find dead chicks outside our home. It was a bit annoying but with we were used to it... until my brother in law (BiL) found two tiny chicks hiding in our front yard. He took them in, and a couple days later I saw another tiny chick running in our fenced backyard, peeping its little heart out. I caught her and we ended up with 3 chicks.

I had to learn how to keep them alive on the go, and i posted here and another forum for help. thee chicks were growing fast and healthy, and my BiL told me he'd like to get a rooster to keep them company and protect them from hawks. So I asked this awesome person I know if I could adopt one of her brahma cockerels, and 3 became 4 chickens.


then the neighbor moved away and left hiss chickens behind. Animal control managed to catch them all but 4 of them. One of the remaining 4 hens disappeared, and we managed to catch the other 3 grown hens.

So 4 became 7.

7 became 8 and eventually 9 because there was an older plymouth hen somebody dropped at the feed store. she was so grumpy like a grandma so i bought her and tried to get her healthy. My MiL saw a cute leghorn pullet in the store, and bought her.

the plymouth eventually died, but at least I gave her a year of being a happy free roaming hen in our backyard. My awesome rooster and the leghorn got a parasite and both died earlier this year despite 2 trips to the vet. I ended up with 8 hens now, because last year I got a brahma and a EE chicks, and they've been pretty healthy so far.

I'm currently trying to get another cockerel, but my friend who gave me my first one moved to another state, so I'm probably not getting another one from her if she can't come down to california this year. I've been checking the feed store just in case, but the few birds i've seen look rather sickly, so i'm not risking it. this cockerel will be the last chicken I get .

 

[Teery]

This might be a bit long, I hope you guys don't mind XD.

I never thought about keeping chickens before until we got our first three chicks. We didn't even plan on getting chicks but alas, sometimes fate has different plans for you. I've been living with my sister and her family for about 8 years now. I moved in with her because I wanted to get a college and a MA degree from an American university, so it was much more affordable to live with her and help her with her kids than rending on my own. As far as I can remember, my sister has never been an animal person, so the girls had never had a pet before, and when I moved in with my dog, they were too young to really enjoy playing with an elderly, grumpy dog.

After my dog died of old age and illnesses that come along with that, we didn't have any more animals, until one rainy April morning 2 years ago. A neighbor was going through some weird times and decided to just let his chickens roam free outside. We live close to Los Angeles, so this isn't a rural area. however, people are allowed to have chickens so a lot of my neighbors have them. Well, with this guy letting his flock have free access to the street, we started to find dead chicks outside our home. It was a bit annoying but with we were used to it... until my brother in law (BiL) found two tiny chicks hiding in our front yard. He took them in, and a couple days later I saw another tiny chick running in our fenced backyard, peeping its little heart out. I caught her and we ended up with 3 chicks.

I had to learn how to keep them alive on the go, and i posted here and another forum for help. thee chicks were growing fast and healthy, and my BiL told me he'd like to get a rooster to keep them company and protect them from hawks. So I asked this awesome person I know if I could adopt one of her brahma cockerels, and 3 became 4 chickens.


then the neighbor moved away and left hiss chickens behind. Animal control managed to catch them all but 4 of them. One of the remaining 4 hens disappeared, and we managed to catch the other 3 grown hens.

So 4 became 7.

7 became 8 and eventually 9 because there was an older plymouth hen somebody dropped at the feed store. she was so grumpy like a grandma so i bought her and tried to get her healthy. My MiL saw a cute leghorn pullet in the store, and bought her.

the plymouth eventually died, but at least I gave her a year of being a happy free roaming hen in our backyard. My awesome rooster and the leghorn got a parasite and both died earlier this year despite 2 trips to the vet. I ended up with 8 hens now, because last year I got a brahma and a EE chicks, and they've been pretty healthy so far.

I'm currently trying to get another cockerel, but my friend who gave me my first one moved to another state, so I'm probably not getting another one from her if she can't come down to california this year. I've been checking the feed store just in case, but the few birds i've seen look rather sickly, so i'm not risking it. this cockerel will be the last chicken I get .

If you go on Craig's list (inland Empire farm & Garden) there is a breeder called chickens galore. They are located in Norco which is around 30 miles east from you. (10 to the 15 or 60 to the 15)
I haven't personally been there but a couple of my neighbors have and both highly recommended them. They have a phone number on there page so call and see what they have. They do vaccinate all there chicks and they have been around awhile from what I understand...