What do you do with your chickens?

[cntrychick2]

Are you into showing them? Do you have them for eggs and meat? Are they family pets?

Personally, I am in it for all of the above! I love going out to my coop and collecting fresh eggs. I have not harvested any birds for meat although thats what my husband would like to do, lol! Honestly, one of these days I might raise some meat only birds just because of the health value... commercial birds are rather disgusting, lol! All of my chickies are family pets, my little girl loves handling them and that keeps them nice and friendly. I would absolutely love to show my birds someday, but it will take a little while for me since I am fairly new at this!

 

[Cat Water]

Mine are just pets. They just turned into egg layers. Even the silkies lay an egg a day for me! I guess that is thier way of saying "thank you for loving me my entire life."

 

[cntrychick2]

Silkies are very pretty birds, I love the little tuft of feather on their heads!

 

[Cat Water]

They are cute, aren't they?

 

[lvchicken]

I sell eggs, so I would say for eggs and pets. I would have to brag that my chickens are more loved than my dogs! lol!

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Except for the silkies part, I'm the same way. But my original plan was go get good fertilizer without having to buy and lug those bags from the garden stores. The soil here is .... impossible.... and I was tired of buying soil and amendments and fertilizer just to grow a few tomatoes, cucumbers and watermelons.

Plus, the chickens are wonderful bug catchers.

The eggs are truly a bonus. I have enough chickens to sell some of the eggs, but if they never laid another egg, I'd still keep every one of them.

Now, what do I "do" with them? I feed them, house them, name them, love them, talk to them, spend time with them, brag about 'em, take pictures of 'em, and take care of 'em when they're sick (as best as I can).

 

[Illia]

Eggs, meat, pets, showing, preservation, and simply my enjoyment of poultry!

I love spending some time to just watch the flock out in the pasture, or converse with a friendly Polish hen, or marvel at the beauty of a certain rooster, or something along those lines. . . .

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
Eggs, experience, pets, and not showing (for bio-security reasons), but working to get my flock to the SOP, so I guess you can say that's preservation.

 

[Marylizbet]

Partly, for our "self-sufficient living" we already have an orchard, and bees. But also, cause I really like chickens. (If they are nice, which I'm making mine be : ) It's a good practice of economic calculations and stuff, trying to save as much money, and spend the least. They are pets, but when the time comes to make them food, we'll be savoring it.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I mostly keep hens for the manure.