What made you decide to get chickens?

[quercus21]

We raised 43 Cornish X Rock meat birds for the first time and have 9 New Hampshire Reds including one sweet rooster and 2 "bonus" birds that appear to be Easter Egger Roosters.

We actually couldn't remember how we came to the decision to get chickens and decided today that it might have been the ghosts of the previous owners of our house who had a poultry farm on the property years ago.

 

[Chicabee19]

My Naturopath told me "eggs are your food".

I was purchasing fresh eggs locally, then my source dried up!

Then I found out a good friend has chickens and didn't even tell me!

Then I found out her cousin owns "thecitychicken" Yahoo group...

The I somehow wandered over to BYC.

You can imagine where all the enabling led to from there.

 

[the1much]

cause a person that was SUPPOSE to be a friend,, dropped off a green leghorn to my kids, then spun his tires outta my driveway,,,,, and then it began hehe

 

[hatchaholic]

I want fresh eggs!!
And, they are just so darn cute!!

 

[Frizzledhen]

My grandson wanted to show chickens for 4-H. So I ordered some chickens for him. He then changed his mind and did something else. Granny was left with the little fluffy butts. Granny fell in love with them. End of story and the beginning of my addiction.

 

[SterlingAcres]

I hatched eggs all the time in high school for my 'Environmental Science' and 'Wildlife Management' classes, so when my SIL said she wanted chickens, I thought it'd be a good project for my 3 year old and me.
Once those suckers hatched, I fell in love again. I *had* to have chickens and then I found BYC... Low and behold, I have over 30 of my own now, with 2 dozen more in the bator.

Enablers!!!!!

 

[debilorrah]

Because fresh eggs in our part of the world are $5 a dozen! It was a no brainer if you ask me. We haven't had to buy eggs since we got them.

 

[crazyhen]

3years ago I was still treating this place as a summer place. One morning I heard the cackle song of a chicken under my kitchen window. When I went out there was the prettiest little red hen and behind her a nest under my hydrangia bush. Two very large brown eggs were in it and one was still warm. I said thank you and took them. Every morning for two months i got an egg. She made the most beautiful sounds. She was a stray. I feed her scratch feed and throughly enjoyed the interaction. I had to leave for awhile and when I got back she was nothing but feathers all over the yard. ???? possum or cyote. I missed her something terrible. The next year there was a banty hen and her babies over here. I watched them grow into 7 folks 7 roos. They tore up my roses strawberries etc. Not so happy about that. Well this season only one stray roo. He is a mix of something with a buttercup comb and red and black in color. He eyes me when I go into the yard and I have feed him several times now. I call him Barney.
It is obvious that I love the little cackles, crows and fresh eggs. So it is a natural for me to want some of my own. My grandmother use to keep Dominikers or barred rocks one. They use to use the names almost interchangable. jean

 

[lengel]

We have Lyme disease in our area that is just out of control. We started with guinea fowl but they were so loud and all but one was killed in the first seven months so we switched to chickens. They're not as effective as guinea fowl but their eggs are way better tasting.

 

[Mahonri]

I grew up with chickens.

I had a friend get some chickens and he loved the eggs that his 3 hens produced.

I realized that I'd probably never get back to the 7.75 acres that I own of my dad's original farm and so I thought, shucks, if I can't haven them there, then I'm gonna have them here. Spent some time on the Internet. Went to McMurray's Ordered the Rainbow Layers, built the coop... found BYC and the rest is history. We love the eggs and the hens are so much fun to watch.

If I had it to do over again, I would have ordered separate chicks, paid more and had more variety.

I have 7 Barred Rocks and while they are fun to watch, I would have been happy with 2. I wish I had a couple of Leghorns, Some GLRWs..., a Welsummer, a Copper Maran, a Salmon Faverole, and an honest to goodness Rumpless blue laying hen.