tell us how you got into chicken raising

[OrchardLnFarms]

When I was little I was deathly allergic to chicks so I never had any plans to raise chickens. Well this Easter this little country store I frequent had chicks. Both of my kids were in love and I couldn't say no so we brought two home. A couple weeks later the local feed store had chicks so my husband brought home 4 more. And now tomorrow I'm going back to the feed store to get more . I'm addicted now and don't want to stop!

 

[SpottedCrow]

I'm allergic to everything with fur, so these critters are my pets too...
I've shoved my face into feathers, and scooped poop and rubbed the wax off new feathers and only once did I have a problem with my asthma acting up...didn't help that I was sick anyways...

 

[Beekissed]

My grandma always had chickens and we had them as I was growing up. They have always fascinated me and I find it soothing to watch them. As soon as I could find a place to have them, I had to have some. When I was little, we would lift up the hens tails and watch the eggs come out!!!

I was raised on a homestead...you know...no other form of entertainment but work and animals! No electricity or running water there......well, ...er, anyway, we sure liked watching it!

I also love, love, love the good, golden eggs!

 

[lilcountry]

My boyfriend and I were on a short vacation in the mountains, and we went to a local open market, it was Easter weekend, and a man was selling baby chicks and rabbits. We went over just to look and I said "Awww they are cute" and he replied " Pick some out if you want some" HAHAH I only picked 4, sadly one died, then I got a few more and a few more and I have 11, waiting on 3 more and hopefully I will stop myself for a while!!!!

 

[Dixiedoodle]

I have dreamed of having farm animals for yrs.. One reason or the other kept us from actually getting them..But this is the yr..I am soooo egg-cited!

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

When I was younger I wanted horses but they were too much and all that. Then my dad got me onto chickens when we went to the feed store and he always said "maybe next spring", well he never got me any. I was walking the dog one day and he tore off and went after a broody hen and killed her, all that I could grab was one chick, the others disappeared. I stuck him in my coat pocket and brought him home and told mom the whole story so she felt sorry for it. We kept him a secret for a while, he lived in my closet for a while until my brother tattled on me. Dad found out and actually liked him, but said we wont get anymore, just him. Well, my 13th b-day was coming up and I knew the feed store was having a end of the season sale. My uncle was in on it with me, no one else knew about it. He bought me 13 chicks, there was 1 meat chick, 2 RIR, 2 buff orps, 2 barred rocks, 2 austrolorps, and 2 easter eggers, and 2 'sexlinks' which turned out to be delewares. I snuck them inside and put them in chicken littles cage. Mom came home and heard the peeping and was shocked that I would do something like that with no one knowing. Dad got home and was suprised, but liked the idea of hens. We sold some mean ones and kept others, then got a cochinxsilkie hen for christmas. She went broody and hatched out chicks in spring and I got Zoya and her sister. By then we also had some silkies and some other mutts that we got from friends. We had a dog attack that left me with 1 EE, chicken little, zoya, and some others. Chicken little had a heart attack and we got more layers and bantams then ducks.
We showed at the local fair and did pretty good so went to a big show on the coast. We didnt do that well, but I came home with a partrige wyandotte bantam rooster. I loved him and searched for ages for hens, then got some and didnt like them that well. Before we got the hens we placed an order for Mckinney and got some good birds, I liked rocks then and had lots but they werent for me. I ended up having LF wyandottes but liked the bantams more because they are more colorful. We got whites, then duns, then silver laced, and now dun laced and barred. I ended up making chicken lovers out of my whole family all because of the first pocket chicken.

 

[raindrop]

My family moved onto 8 acres the summer I turned 7. Chickens were in residence, and we just hit it off!

 

[My Little Sister's Farm]

A professor gave me 5 layers and then my mom got 5 more pullets at the feed store for free. I would say the rest is history - a very addictive history.

I started my REELs a few years ago with commercial egg layers and have been working on my hybrids ever since.

 

[Chickenaddict]

My chicken adventure started about 2 years ago. We moved out of the city and out to the country 3 years ago on an acre of land. While out driving around the neighborhood we saw a house that had chickens running around the yard and my hubby says to me look how neat we need to get some. I ordered a catalog from Mcmurrays and we checked out all the different birds they had to offer. Me being the man around the house so to speak told him i didn't need any more work around here and that i wasnt ready to raise baby chicks. Needless to say he ordered them anyway. Neither of us had a clue on how to raise them or even where to buy the feed. On a saturday he informed me that the chicks were due to arrive early the next week. I about had a fit!!! So off i went to find the feed store and get everything i was gonna need for these babies. Early monday morning i get a call from the PO hearing the cheeping in the background i was 2 steps out the door before i even hung up the phone (chicken mama instincts kicked in immediately). I picked them up from the PO and sped home at about 90 mph worrying about them getting chilled. Boy was that a noisy ride home. The PO is about 25 minutes from my house. Once i got them home i was checking them all out only to find one doa and another one on the way out. The other chicks began running around the office and crawling up my pant leg. Their cage was already set up with a heat lamp on but they preferred to be in my pants i guess LOL! after a few weeks out of 52 chicks we had 27 left. They kept dropping like flies and i spent many restless nights trying to nurse them back to health. I managed to save a few. It was the WORST experience i ever had. I made daily calls to the hatchery to tell them the chicks kept dying despite doing everything i should have been to keep them comfortable. They refunded half the money. Turns out the chicks developed pnemonia from shipping and a few suffocated because of the way they had them in the shoe sized box with a divider in it. I was highly disappointed and kept blaming myself thinking it was something i did. I got over it eventually but was always hesitant to wake up in the morning and look in their cage in fear i would find another dead baby. The survivors grew up very quick and before we knew it we were out of room in the brooder. We sold alot of them and kept a choice few banties and 2 standards. Out of those i let them raise their own chicks this year and now it is out of control. There is 10 out in my garage and 8 out in the coop and another 4 seramas in my house and im always looking for more :|. I spend all my free time just hanging out with them and now my hubby feels neglected saying all i ever wanna do is hang out with the chickens. Well i say "if you would have listened to me and not got the chicks in the first place it wouldn't of gotten out of control! His intentions were to only keep a few laying hens for pets as well as eggs and give the rest to a family member who has a farm in wisconsin which the chickens would have ended up being killed by his dog, barn cat, or some other wild animal. I put the brakes on that too. It consumes me now, I don't want to go out of town because i worry about whos gonna take care of the chickens and i sure cant trust the hubby to do it . He throws a fit just having to change their waterers once in a blue moon. If i go out it is a must i return before dark so i can tuck them all in. Its crazy but i love it

 

[lilshadow]

I was raised on a farm in Rankin, TN that my grandparents had. My chore was to feed the chickens. I loved that farm. It was nestled down in a holler surrounded by mountains. I told my DH about my life growing up on the farm, and that all I wanted is to be a farmer. He just laughed, until we moved after he retired, out to the country. I said "5 hens that's all, just enough for eggs". He agreed. So I came home with 18 hens and 1 rooster. He had already built a coop for me. Well, then it all started. I wanted to try hatching eggs (got that idea from BYC) thought it would be really exciting to do that, and from that point on....well, needless to say I have 77 chickens with 14 of those being roosters. I still have the fever, because there are so many more breeds out there that I want, and I still have the hatching fever.