what got you started on raising chickens

I went to visit my husband's cousin who had a small flock and loved her chickens, two years later after reading a lot of books about raising chickens I found BYC and a lot of you convinced me that ordering the chicks before we had a coop built was ok. And you were all right. We ordered the chicks then there was no way to put off building the coop. It turned out great and now the whole family even my husband loves having chickens.

 

I worked with a woman that got them for the organic eggs and meat, as she battled an aggressive breast cancer. She fell in love with them and couldn't eat them. Eventually her husband said they had to go (Their backyard was extremely small) She gave them to me because she knew I wouldn't eat them. That was about 6 years ago.

Imp

 

My father always had a few chickens(mutts) around the horse stables and when a hen would hatch out little ones I consideed it my job to care for them. I enjoyed watching them grow and produce more and more chickens. I would sell a few to people that worked with my Dad and he supported my habit / hobby of raising chickens. When I grew up and moved away from the farm I was not able to have chickens for many years. Now I have a house and some land of my own and chickens are my hobby / habit again. I love hatching, raising them, eating eggs and using the manure in my garden. It all just feels right!

 

Ken started it and has been enabling me ever since.

 

I got into chicken when a stray duckling appeared on my property! We went to get him a buddy and brought home some chickens too!
There is more to it then that, I have posted the story before about my ill father wanting me to get ducks, and geese. I don't know how I would even begin to search for the story!
Glad we did get the chickens, this place wouldn't be the same with out them!

 

Two decades back and more, we had a small acreage in north Missouri, and we also had two primary-school-aged daughters who begged for chickens to keep. We had twelve acres and a shed, so we agreed, and added two BO hens and a rooster to our "farm." The chicken tribe increased with hens hiding eggs and hatching young. Our daughters even wanted broilers, loving the little yellow chicks that arrived, but learning to hate the growing up rowdies and the day of processing. Blink, and move ahead many years to now, when much older, once again we have a small acreage and a disabled son who needs activity and jobs to do. Another son built us a small coop, we placed it in a 20 x 20 chain link fence that was supposed to be a dog yard (dogs had other ideas about that!), found three BO hens locally on Craigslist, and off we went. Three turned to 5 turned to 9 turned to....20 with the addition of five little Silkies, all found locally. Many seem more like rescues than peak quality laying hens, but all are thriving here on Quiet Pond, AKA The Chicken Rescue Ranch. DH, our son, I myself, the grands...all of us enjoy the hens and their antics, trials, and eggs ~G

 

My parents almost always had them when I was a kid so I grew up with it just feeling normal to go and collect eggs and have them wandering around the backyard. On my own now, I live in a city where I wasn't aware of anyone keeping them so thought it was illegal. Last summer I read the book, "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan, and reading about the nutrition in free-range eggs compared to store-bought, I thought it such a pity that I didn't have a choice. I decided to check out the city ordinances just to make sure and found that lo and behold, we ARE allowed to keep them here. Just because no one does, doesn't mean we can't! So I immediately obtained a coop and some chicks and as of two days after Christmas, we are now getting eggs!

 

Gathering the eggs was my favorite thing to do when I visited my grandparent's farm as a kid.

As soon as we moved to a property that allowed chickens, I got some feedstore chicks at my first opportunity!

 

When my husband and I first moved in together he was going through the paper and saw some for sale or free whatever it was, the house we were in was on 22 acres with a huge barn I said lets go get them so we did (not recommended however since I should have known more) I learned in a big hurry how to take care of them that was over 15 years ago and I have had them pretty much ever since