tell us how you got into chicken raising

[sweetshoplady]

I thought it would be fun to have a few chickens. I now have 1 hen, 9 pullets, 2 cockerels. I hope to one day move to Texas and hope with all my heart that I can get my contraband chickens successfully across the border when that time comes. For summer vacation, yes, they'll have to stay home (maybe at my aunts). But for a permanent move, it just wouldn't be the same to have to get all new chickens and rehome these lovely ladies.

 

[wynedot55]

we had chickens off an on since i was 7.then 1 winter day after i had semi retired.i was thinking bout chickens.an starting serching the net an found BYC.an looking at the hatcheries online.so i got some chicks at TSC.an started buliding them a coop.been hooked ever since.

 

[TMNTCkins]

When my brother moved into his house the previous owners left 7 hens (great layers). Well he then had to move and we did not want him to leave them so we built a coop and brought them home. Then we decided to get some chicks so now we have 16 5 wk old chicks and they are so much fun. We also found two RIR for free in the paper so we went from 7 to 26 and love it. I never new that Chickens were so great like dogs. Chickens are now my 5 yr. old sons fav. animal.

 

[RayP]

My daughter in Law works with a guy that brings in brown, blue, white, and pink eggs. I thought it would be great to have a few chickens with colored eggs, so I found out I can keep chickens but no roosters (I live in a city), the guy said he would give me some of his chickens but he has never came through, the more I thought about it the more it sounded like fun, the only chickens I have ever seen were the ones my Grandfather had and he lost all of those to foxes and gave up on raising chickens after that, I was at the feed store buying advantage for my dogs and they had chicks but only for a short time, so my DW went back and bought me 5 RIR, at the same time my oldest son bought me 2 EE but kept them for a couple weeks until he could not stand them in his apartment anymore and then brought them over, I have a coop that they say can hold 13 but that seems so crowded that I think I will stay with 7 for now.

 

[DaveMN]

had guineas for bug control in gardens and yard and to learn from. side benefit was eggs that were great for cooking. so when the last one died my wife said no more guineas they are too noisy. so chickens it is and with the variety of colors, shapes and sizes I can live without peafowl for a while.

 

[farm_mom]

I grew up with chickens, ducks and rabbits. As soon as my husband and I moved to a place large enough I started working on him to get chickens. We're big into self sufficiency, so chickens and gardening came first. Now we have ducks and turkeys as well. When I started, it was strange for someone in my generation to be raising animals, at least around here. Now, there are many young people into raising poultry and farm animals. It always makes me smile!

 

[gumpsgirl]

I was raised with a lot of animals, but never owned chickens up until now. I have found memories of going to my great-grandpa's house and getting to go into his coop and collect eggs. I even brought several home at different time and put them by the wood burning stove in a shoebox lined with wash clothes to see if I could get one to hatch! Now that I'm older, I realize why they didn't!

When my DH and I got married, he was really kind of anti-animal, so to speak. He was not raised with anything but a dog, and was very skeptical about having anything else. After almost 15 years of marriage, he has gone animal crazy!!! I don't know what happened, but my kids and I love it!

Two weeks before Easter, my DH and I were in TSC and they had just gotten in a bunch of chicks. To my surprise, my DH came over with me to look at them and even bent down to pick one up! I was shocked!

We left and over the next week I worked on getting his consent to get some for the kids for Easter. He never really gave me full consent, but just made comments here and there like, "Oh, maybe we might get some" or, "it might be a good thing". So, I just went and got some! I have been hooked since!

I just ordered my first bator yesterday, so he really doesn't have a clue what has hit him yet!

 

[SpottedCrow]

I think Natalie and I are the only two people in our town that have chickens...except for the farmer where Tom and Jerry came from...and Slifer and Obelisk.

My DS's third grade class hatched chicks as the Science project. All the kids got to take some home for a weekend... Mike took Tom, an EE pullet and Jerry, a Leghorn cockerel. I thought they were really cute and interesting...especially how Jerry would look all over and check things out...he was the first one out of the box too...When we brought them back, I asked what would happen if Jerry was a boy and went back to the farm...The teacher said that she didn't know, but I sorta had it figured out...

That first night that we had them, they just wouldn't shut up...

so I picked them up and they fell asleep in a chicken pile on my shoulder...that was IT!! I was hooked! I couldn't let them go back to the farm especially since I KNEW Jerry was a boy...

and I've loved them ever since...

"Chickens...not just for Shake'n'Bake any more"

 

[BayCityBabe]

My DH and I are not country-raised. Neither of us had pets, growing up. I grew up in town, although in a semi-rural environment. I was envious of the 4-H kids. My DH was raised in the inner city. He likes to joke that the closest things they had to pets were the big rats that hung out in the basement of their building(!)
We are raising our kids just outside of town, so they can have dogs and room to roam and a small boat on the water. We garden and have gotten into it more and more. My interest in chickens was ignited by two interests: The first, an interest in healthy, "non-corporate" food. The second is more frivilous, and what ultimately "sealed the deal" on this chicken hobby. I got a book on 'potage jardinier' - a fancy french way of terming a semi-formal walled or gated garden. I liked the photos of the arrangements of vegetables and flowers, with paths and hedges. I LOVED the photos of how one gardener incorporated a coop and some bantams into her little landscape. So, I started lurking on this site & reading everything I could. Then I made a plan: My plan is much more in line with those of you who have posted "how to make a cheap coop," than it is like the amazing photos from my "dream garden" book. I turned an old shed into a coop and made a run from donated fence. In time, I might have a little chicken sign, made by my kid, but that is as fancy as we'll get.

 

[Theda's Mom]

It all started because I'm fond of raspberries. So too are Japanese beetles. I'm not fond of pesticides, and picking the stupid bugs off didn't seem to be getting me anywhere, and I read up on guineas. They seemed simple enough. The neighbor said "What?! Guineas and not Chickens?!!" That was a year ago. We now have nine guineas, four chickens, and five chicks on their way. I fell in love: not with the guineas (how they manage to reproduce as a species is beyond me .. they're no einsteins). It was the chickens that stole my heart. I cannot imagine living now without them.

Oh yes, and the DH. Somehow he had convinced himself that he hated chickens and that all chickens were mean. That's changed too. Our little flock lives in the taj mahal of coops. They have a wonderful fully screened (and roofed) run for the days we're not home. They even have a boardwalk, stairs, and front porch.

We've been smitten.