why did you get into chickens?

[ml]

Was caring for my horses one cold feb morning. Early chores of dumping ice out of water buckets in feb. Was suprized to see a black rooster and his 6 hens . The rooster was calling to the hens to eat the ice pieces. From that day on every time pulled out a hose the rooster would show up with hens. Seems some one had dropped them off in the woods and they had managed all winter till we hit a dry spell of no rain/snowfall for a month.

Since they moved in started to buy them things like water bowls and sunflower seed hearts for feed. They left me eggs in the horses stalls. After searching on info for their care found the poultry forum.

To this day still adore roos that take care of the hens.

ML

 

[chickenranchwife]

Growing up on a ranch when I was a kid my folks had chickens, and so did my mom's mom. I live on a ranch now with lots and lots of room.

A couple of years ago my hubby told me no way we were getting any chickens. I wanted them to help keep the snakes away. My friend had brought some up and he still said no. A year later some of our friends were getting ready to move and their daughter had 5 RIR and 2 ducks. They asked my hubby if we would want them. He talked it over with me and we went and picked them up one Sunday after church. Then my friend gave me more chickens, and lost some so had to replace them and bought some pullets. Got addicted!

This past spring I knew I needed more chickens as some of the ones I had were getting old, and I had an egg customer list a mile long and couldn't keep up, so I orderd 50 chicks from local runnings, when I got there I couldn't help but get 2 more and a duckling. A few weeks later I went back and seen they had some different one's in that I had thought about, so I bought a couple more and a couple more ducklings. Toward the end of spring I went in one last time and picked up 12 production reds and 12 black sex links.

Now I have 15 silkie eggs in bator, hopefully they hatch as this is my first time hatching. Something I never thought I'd do.

MY eggs are going out as fast as I bring them in now, and it's a little extra money.

 

[hoosierhen]

I got into chickens for several reasons:

I found out how inhumanely eggs are produced for the general market- and started to buy only free-range eggs (then I found out that that on an egg carton isn't a guarantee of humane treatment)

I read a book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver about her family and how they did this project to try and buy only local foods, and they raised chickens and turkeys.

My daughter, Grace, also known as "Gracie Chickie", here on BYC, REALLY wanted chickens. We have 5 acres so why not!!

I had planned to build a coop and wait until spring to get our chicks, but with much begging fron Gracie Chickie, I ended up ordering 8 female chicks from Meyer Hatchery, plus I got 5 RIR chicks from a local farm.

I believe out of the 13, only 1 roo in the bunch. I love to sit in shed where I have built them a makeshift henhouse and watch them. They are about 8 weeks old now, and very cute. My grown daughter visited last weekend and we built a small outdoor run for nice weather days. (This will be the bachelor pad when we get our big run built.)

My husband is an "inner city kid" who grew up in Buffalo, NY. He acts like he doesn't care about the chickens- but he manages to show all his friends who visit the coop and chickens!

The person I got the RIRs from told me about this site. I am very thankful for all of the cumulative knowledge of the people here at BYC. I hope we make it through the winter ok.

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

My maternal GF raised chickens, and I would go to the barn and stay all day when I went to visit. When I was 16 he died, and after the funeral I went to the barn, that's just where I felt closest to him. My uncle was the only one who knew where to find me.

Anyways this spring my neighbor let her hen hatch some chicks and my son would sit for a long time and watch them, so I talked dh into getting a few for the kids. I got them mostly for the eggs. The "few for the kids" is growing, and after seeing how much store bought eggs are, I am glad I got them.

 

[horsewishr]

ml, I love your story.

I got the chickens because my best friend had them, and I always got a kick out of seeing them strut around her property.

I have to admit, I liked to watch them from a distance, but I had a bit of a phobia about them, too (poop and germ-related). But when I read here about designing an easy-to-clean coop (with no surfaces to poop on!), I knew it was time to take the plunge.

 

[jenichick]

I met DH and he had horses, I wanted out of my "snootie patootie" neighborhood with all it's rules ang regs. I wanted to get back to "my roots". We began looking for land and a house for the horses, and I told DH that wherever we move I'm going to get some chickens. I thought maybe 5 or 6, well I've got 17 in the run, 22 in the brooder, and 15 eggs in the bator.

It's like therapy, because in the last two years I've had 3 grandchildren pass away, I think I'm somehow helping ease "empty nest" syndrome and the loss I've felt. Keeps me sane.....

 

[6chix]

A chicken wandered into my yoard last year in the middle of the winter. She was missing lots of feathers and it was very cold out. Started by feed i
ng her some bread and she was pretty skittish but hung around for a few days but then was gone. Turns out it was my neighbors chickens and he had stopped caring for them because he was getting divorced and the chickens were his ex-wives. We ended up rescuing 1 rooster and 2 chickens from that flock, but we never did see Stewey again. Picked up 6 more chickens this spring and the fever was started.

 

[Wildsky]

I wanted to reply to this yesterday, there were too many posts to read through, and today even more - I haven't read everyone's replies yet.

I found an ad on Craigslist someone looking for a good home for three hens, suddenly it dawned on me how neat it would be to have pets with benefits....
That deal fell through, the lady found someone who lived closer to her, and I decided my landlord at the time would NOT have been very thrilled.
That got me thinking and soon dreaming of chickens.

We finally moved, and now have three acres of land, so chickens were the FIRST on my list. The chickens arrived just two weeks after we did, so we were a little rushed and totally lost at times, but they're doing fine, and I'm expecting eggs from them in about a month or two..
I was then given four bantams, and we just got our second egg from one of those hens yesterday.

 

[Omeletta]

A friends daughter (then, she was 10

) had an egg business, and we enjoyed being out on their farm. I especially enjoyed just watching the birds. Well, I was reading a "get back to your roots" kinda book, and it said to contact your municipality about the possibility of getting chickens. So that's what i did. They said I could have 3, with neighbours permission. I got permission, and sent my letter of request to the town council to vote on, and it passed.

We have had a blast with our chickens! We started with 2 mille fleur banties, and added a white silkie hen to the mix. The white silkie went broody (she was always broody) so we put 6 fertilized eggs from said friend at top of page under her. They all hatched out! It was wonderfull! Candling the eggs, the anticipation and the joy of having the babies around, it was all really neat. When we figured out we had four roosters amongst the lot, we got rid of those (so sad to see them go, they were beautiful) and are left with 2 pullets.

I lost my silkie hen, and so we are left with the 2 mille fleurs (my husband calls them aliens, they don't lay, and are over 7 months old ) and the 2 pullets we hatched, which are going back to same said friend! Anyday now, right, Lynn!?

Anyways, that's our story! We also really enjoyed building our coop and yard for them. They also come in the house on occasion!

Tanya

 

[NewGuineaChooks]

This is fun, reading all the chicken stories.

Chickens have been a family thing. I learned to love and raise them from my mother. Who learned from her mother, who learned from her mother; my "Granny". The fun thing is that I can remember all the various flocks over the years, even my great-grandmother's. I still tend to call all Araucanas&Ameraucanas&EE chickens "Araucanas" Because the name was passed down over the generations, from long before they had made an official APA standard breed. Mis-calling our EE an 'Araucana' is a tribute to my Granny and my chicken heritage.

My life both as a kid, and now as an adult, has been a bit chaotic, with multiple moves, and over 50 houses I've lived in so far....Chickens are a sign of life being stable....When things are settled enough, you can get chickens!

And I currently have 8 chickens (all mutts)....Life is great at the moment!