Why did you get your first chickens?

[Smccau3]

I feel like there must be some good stories out there.

Growing up I had a goat, and after the goat died I always wanted more animals. A couple months ago, we had some chickens come visit us. They lived down the street and kept showing up in our yard. They had such great personalities and were so much fun, we started thinking about it. We did a lot of research and one day went out and got our 4 chicks. Almost a year later, we are in love with our babies and I can't wait to get more!

 

[kandrews]

My mom and counseler thought it would be a good idea due to my depression and it has helped a lot!

 

[hannahgiselle]

a friend of my mom's had been raising chickens for about a year, and after visiting her and doing some research of our own, we decided to get some of our own. our reasons were that store bought eggs are produced by chickens that are horribly mistreated, and thousands upon thousands of male chicks are slaughtered without any chance at life. the sheer wastefulness and disregard for the sanctity of life disgusted us. another reason we chose to get our own chickens is that fresh laid eggs are much more nutritious than store bought eggs. so eventually we bought the materials to build our own coop, and ordered 4 chicks.

today, our girls are 8 months old. we love them to death. we never thought we'd become so attached to our chickens. they all have so much personality. they make us laugh and smile every day. they are especially precious to me because I suffer from severe depression and anxiety. spending time around them has helped me feel a lot better. whenever I'm around my chickens I feel much calmer and it allows me to take my mind off my troubles. they've helped me get through some really tough times.




and just for fun, here's a picture of my Silkie-Polish cross and I. she's our alpha hen, even though she's the tiniest! she's very sassy and loves hearing herself talk. We have three other hens as well. An Australorp, Matilda (she's my favorite.), a Cochin, Vera, and an Easter Egger, Edith. They're all my babies.

 

[stephensc7146]

When I was 15 or 16, my friends parents decided to get chickens. I wen't to her house one day and seen them. I had never seen a chicken in person in my life until that point! I asked her dad if they were mean, and he told me to get in the pen and catch one. Soo, I entered the pen and he closed the gate behind me. I had no idea how to catch a chicken.. and at the time, I was still halfway afraid of them! I ran circles around that pen for atleast a half hour (her dad cracking up the whole time) and as I was starting to give up, her dad entered, reached down, and picked one right up, and laughed some more as I pouted about it. He put the chicken down, and showed me easier ways to catch a chicken, other than running behind them and trying to catch them while yelling 'come here, stupid bird!!!!'
I finally got ahold of one and was instantly in love! I never wanted to put the hen down!
I asked my mom if I could get chickens, and she told me if the landlord was okay with it then it was fine, but I had to ask him myself. a while later when I finally seen him I asked and he was like 'yeah! sure! chickens are cool, man!' (he's a bit hippie-ish lol)
After I got the ok, and a couple years later..(last year in march, 2 weeks before my 21st birthday) seen it was chick days at Tractor supply, for some reason mom had changed her mind about allowing me to have chickens... My boyfriend at the time had chickens, and I was always coming home and talking to mom about how cool they were. One day he gave me money for a kitchen scale that I had been eyeballing for weeks. I took a quarter of culinary classes and took a bread class and fell in love. all the recipes in my book required a scale and I really enjoy making bread. I asked him if he wanted me to pay him back the money or surprise him, and he said surprise. I remembered him saying that he was thinking about buying more chickens because he wanted more eggs. I talked mom into letting me buy some chicks for him and brooding them until they were ready to go outside for him to take them home. After just one day, mom seemed to fall in love with the chicks too!!

I would always catch her in my room watching them and talking to them. The next day we were at TS picking out chicks of my own My aunt moved in and ended up needing the shed I was working on making into a coop so I ended up giving all of my new babies away. This year my aunt moved in with one of her friends, and my mom moved in with my grandma after gram had surgery for a pace maker. She paid off the trailer we have been living in for 10 years and left it to me and my brother. Now that the shed is available again and only needs perches and nesting boxes, I ordered my new chicks on January 30th, and they arrived yesterday morning! My mom (now living in town close to the post office) agreed to pick them up and bring them to me when they called saying they arrived.

It's a pretty mixed up crazy story, but i'm happy that I have them, and I'm keeping them for good!

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Well, when i was younger by street set up a community chicken run, the chickens came from and old mate of everyone on the street, he died and left his chickens to no one, there where over 40 of them so what could we do with them? Start a community chicken run!! that's what! I was young at the time but i remember another of our neighbor used to look after them, he was old so it gave him something nice to do. He used to sell the eggs to people who didn't live on the street ( people who live on the street got benefits for helping make roosts, buildings etc ). He used to make quite a bit of money form it and every month the street got together and we had a great barbeque which the money from the chickens went to sausages and other food and drinks for the party.
After a couple of years it lost it's glee and The man who looked after it all started paying the pokies with the chicken money, we decided to let him keep the money because we didn't really need the street party's as much and it was good for him to have a little extra money. After another year or so he got ill and never had time to feed the girls, the chickens number slowly decreased form about 60 at one time down to about 40, then things got worse and Mr Fox arrived, the girls were not getting locked up at night, they where hungry and looked terrible so the Numbers decreased down to 10 ( we sold a few off though ). Those last ten where scraggely, manggy survivors and went to a lovely farm with constant roam space for there efforts in Fox evasion.lol.
When we had the chicken community several times i asked dad if we could have our own 3 or 4 little chickens but he said that i could just look after the community ones if i wanted chickens ( they where just over the hedge from our land ). But i always catch to take 3 or 4 of my favorite chickens from the community chcikens and take them into our land and put them in a little cage and "look after them" for the day then i would take them back to the main flock. It was great fun. So the bug had already hatched from inside me.
After about a year of being completely chicken less, my dad came up with the idea of getting chickens to sell the eggs and get me a bit of extra money. So we rebuilt the old roost, cleaned it out, put nesting in, roosts, everything really. Then someone we knew needed to get rid of 2 rescue chickens, they where my first two chickens ever which I had no idea would lead me to here.
I have moved and shaped my flock, even moved coop now i have 19 hens 3 pullets 1 chick, 1 rooster and 2 ducks. I am so hooked it is hard to believe how much I love chickens.
Thanks for listening, CluckCluckLuke!

 

[trapper john]

I quit drinking been sober for six months! Woke up one morning told my wife I'm gonna raise chickens!!! Here I am today one week later a proud member of backyard chickens..

 

[chickenkeeper12]

Well for me it all started with my neighbor. He got 20 EE chicks back around 2007. He had those for less than a year because he free ranged and got killed by a coyote, raccoon, and my dog once. After that he didn't get any until the summer of 2012 and so I was like I love them and I need something to do( I'm 14). Since he has a lot of animals and when he goes away I feed them I decided to start saving up. When the time came to start I did not have as much money as I thought so I asked my grandpa if he could be an investor. So he said yes and gave me $800 dollars. I got everything done and still didn't have my order yet so he gave me two for the time being( 2 weeks until I get them). So I had those for a week and a half and then I have them back. I cleaned it all up and it was ready for the newbies. I ordered a BR, SS, RIR, and LB. I got a BR, AU, BO, and AMER. they were all around 4-5 weeks old. I had got chicken fever in a weeks so two weeks later it was my birthday so I got two Rhode Island Red which were around 12 weeks old. They were hard to get together but eventually they were fine. After another 3 weeks I got another one from my cousins. In total that's seven. A couple months later I came across a silkie breeder and got 4 silkies. They were straight run and I got 3 hens 1 roo. After around another 2 months I got a houdan and she is perfect with them. So in total I have 11 and are looking to expand my flock by 5-6. So that's my story. Sorry if its a little confusing.

 

[Cknldy]

I saw the chick days sign at tsc. Started hinting to dh that i would like some chickens. I've always wanted a farm full of animals. What to start with? Dh wanted a goat but they need bigger shelter and $$$ for lots of fencing. A horse was given to us but alas, $$$$ for fencing again and conflicting ideas on caring for horses. Best choice for starting with farm animals is...CHICKENS! Dh finally gave in and told me to go get some chicks if that's what I want He didn't know we had to keep them in brooder in house for almost 2 months or how much I would dote on them like I did with my kids. Now I look at hatchery catalogs, planning which breeds I want and dh says 'Just make a coop for me so you'll pay that much attention to me!' Lol

 

[Chic_girl]

My first chicken.... Hmmm....

Well, I had raised several batches of ducks for 4-H, but I never had chickens before that. My duck experience accounts to about 10 years of raising Runners, Khakis, East Indies, blue Swedish and Pekins, but my chicken knowledge has only be gained within the last three years! I always wanted some chickens, but my parents always said no. While visiting a friends farm, my friend showed me all 50 broilers she was raising, and the single free mystery chick that had been given to them by the hatchery. The mystery chick was tiny and bantam sized, while the broilers were huge and ready for market. My parents were not pleased when I drove home with a tiny chick in my car...

This chick's breed was still a mystery to me, and to solve a mystery, you need a great detective. So, his name became Sherlock, and he eventually showed me his breed- A Silver-Spangled Hamburg cockerel. A few weeks later, my same friend gave me a guinea fowl keet, and Sherlock met his new best friend, Kevin the guinea. I admit, both of these birds were not people friendly- Sherlock was known for spurring people, and Kevin wasn't above chasing small children. But, even with their tendancy to attack, I was hooked on chickens. The following spring, I ordered my first Polish and bantam Brahmas, and my flock has only continued to grow.

Eventually, Sherlock and Kevin were caught by a predator, which made me sad, but my dad- the most spurred- has since never liked my roosters, even the harmless ones.

They were a goofy pair, and I loved seeing them wander the yard, with Kevin making dinosaur noises, and Sherlock crowing his little heart out.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It's more of a 'how' for me than a 'why'.

When I was little, I had always wanted chickens. I'm not sure where I picked up on how awesome they were, as I had never seen one in real life before. But any time I asked my parents, the answer was a big N-O.

See, my dad had had them when he was a kid, but they were left to run loose wherever they pleased and many of them were picked off by predators. I think that my dad probably thought they would be kept in the same way and that it would not be a good idea, as I always become attached to my animals and would be devastated to lose any of them.

In the spring of 2005, when my sister went with a friend to a family farm for a stay, she brought home chicks against my parent's orders. Here were the adorable little birds that I had always wanted, but they were my sister's and by golly she was not going to share.

We went to TSC to get the supplies for chicks, where, lo and behold, we found that there were chicks being sold there! Mom bought more, which were meant to be mine and my brother's. But my sister was going to take care of the chickens, by golly, and so she named most of the new chicks as well, and she claimed them as her own.

Soon the birds moved outside, and as is typical of my sister with her pets, she got bored with them and began to ignore them. So the chickens that were hers, by golly, were left in an uncleaned coop, only fed or cleaned out when my mom or I did it. As months passed, I took on more and more of the chicken chores, all the while researching their needs and expanding my knowledge on everything chicken. We soon built a bigger coop to better suit their needs and fixed many of our old mistakes (like feeding them solely on scratch grains) with the information I had gathered.

At first, my sister still tried to lay claim to those original birds. But now, as the flock has grown and for the most part she has had very little contact with the hennies in years, my sister doesn't even bother saying anything about 'her chickens' anymore. There are no doubts who the chickens belong to now.