When did you start with chickens?

[thechickenchick]

I grew up with cousins that lived on a farm. I loved to visit them as I was just a city girl! The chickens were my favorite and I always thought that I would have my own some day. Well last feb at the age of 38 my DH said ,"Lets go pick out some chickens"!!! First it was 10, so I bought 12, then I spotted 3 at the feed store, then I ordered 12 from MPC. That was last year, now I have 5 in the brooder and 22 in the incubator!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Momma_Cluck]

Last April!
Our Sister in Law called and asked if it was ok to give a "Mixed Box-'O Chicks" to our daughter for her 14th Birthday so she could join 4-H.

We ended-up with 3 black Silkies, 3 White Silkies, 3 OE bantams, 2 Golden Sebrights and a Mille Fluer D'uccle!

They then gave us 10 more (5 each Barred Rocks and Partridge Rocks) in June that were already 6 weeks old.

Then I bought 2 each of Red Production, California Whites, Buff Rocks, Black Australorps, Turkens, Silver Wyandottes and 3 Aracaunas (EE's) in September....

And I STILL want MORE!!

HELP!! Is there a "chicken-addicts-anonymous" around here???

 

[Master S.M.C]

We got chickens when we moved out into the rural farm areas, I was 13

 

[pamperedpoultry]

My Neighbor has always had chickens. I used to go down there when I was little and make her take me to see the chickens. She always let me pick out one to be "mine". I've had chickens before now but it was a rooster here and there free ranging. I really got into chickens around May of 08 I told my husband I was goin to get a pair of bantams just as pets and that was it.. Well I did a cute lil pair of mottled cochins, then a pair of Japanese BTW's then a pair of Barred Rock bantams and They all had babies. Then I got a pair Quad of OEGB Spangles then some Brown reds and self blues and then more and more and more.. ha ha ya get the point so now I'm up to around 70, But I wouldnt have but about that if I hadn't bought incubators... CHICKENs= Bad addiction for me...

 

[addiedunn]

Like MMTillman, I too never laid eyes on a chicken until I was an adult. In my late 20's my sister and her husband got some and I remember thinking they were nuts. Now I'm 46, got my first ones last July and can't think for the life of me why i thought my sister was nuts.
About the birthmark....my Mom has one on her hip that as kids we were fascinated with. Although we thought it looked more like Daisy Duck.

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

Sprinkling and turning the eggs was one of my first jobs on my great grandparents adjoining farm.

I miss those days.

 

[NoelTate]

My family had chickens when I was born. Some of my earliest memories are playing with a really tame red hen that would let me hold her and of mom sending me with a basket to bring in the eggs. Little did she know she was creating a monster! lol The family soon stopped keeping chickens, but I got my own flock in 8th grade and have had chickens on and off ever since then up until my current flock of 16.

 

[BeccaOH]

My grandfather kept around 2000 laying hens on our family farm back in the 1950s. He'd deliver eggs door-to-door, and some people still remember him. He gave up the business in the 60s, and by the time I came along the hen house was a tractor shed. I brought chickens back to the farm just this past November. It is my first experience with chickens, but I do feel like I'm carrying on Grandpa's legacy.

 

[Buster]

When I was very small, I would visit my grandpa's farm and he had chickens. I got older and remember my uncle having chickens and I used to watch them for hours. Then I lived with a different uncle when I was 18 who had chickens. Then in August of '07 my 3 yo son caught a rooster at a kids' rodeo. We kept him until we moved into our own house December of the same year. My wife's cousin gave us 10 chickens to start our own flock and we converted a woodshed into a coop and it's been off and running ever since.

 

[Bama chick]

I got my chickens when my brother moved from the country to the city and could not keep them. At first I did not want them. Now I can't imagine life without them.