Why did you get your first chickens?

[1 Happy Hen]

I once worked on a chicken farm and had seen how they were being cramped in cages, suffering and dying with sickness, being shot up with medicine, mistreated and abused by workers, and thought to myself "I buy this from stores? This is not right!" So for a while I didn't eat store bought chickens or eggs. The thought of eating that made me sick to my stomach. So about a year after moving to the country egg prices were rising (3 growing kids and a husband would eat about 4 dozen per week) and I thought why not cut out the middle man (store). I can do this. So after about 2 years so far things are great. We started with 18 chicks, hatched some eggs from them, bought a few more, hatched some more, and now we have about 75 hens and roos, and 5 ducks. I now eat humanely treated chickens and wonderful tasting eggs. My chickens are allowed to run free, eat and drink anytime they choose, and they will never be mistreated. My children have learned responsibility and compassion. Life is great for ALL of us. I love it.

 

[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.

 

[liz9910]

One day my late husband told me that he was going to build me a chicken coop and that someone he worked with was giving him 4 Rhode Island Reds. He said he knew it would make me happy.

 

[Going Quackers]

You know i'll be honest, i didn't want any. I started with ducks, even though my husband and kids wanted chickens, i dunno they just didn't appeal. So after i got the ducks well established and was on occasion buying chicken eggs, i thought this is silly...

So i dipped my toe in an bought 4(yes, just 4.. still 4 lol) they have surprised me, they are personable and fun, not what i expected at all. Actually, now those kids and husband complain they get treated better than they do

 

[KBG204]

My grandfather would always take my cousin and I to a farm. The farmer would always let us go in the coop and pick up the eggs for him. One year he gave us chicks, I don't think there was a happier child than me when I was holding those chicks. That is where it started for me. I have always had chickens since I was a kid. Along with every other farm animal possible. I am addicted to the farm life.

Lap dog? Pshh more like lap chicken!

 

[Hillschicks]

The little women and myself were at TSC and walked past the chicks... We stopped, she said aww how cute... On the way home we discussed why we could and couldnt have chickens... By the time we got home we decided for $3 apiece, why not give it a go... We unloaded our shopping bags, i handed her some money and off she went to get our first chicks... We still have 3 of the origional 6... We had to learn on the fly, and we succeeded thanks to the people here at BYC... Started last march, now we have 8 chickens, 5 ordered from meyer hatchery to arrive early april, and 7 incubating as we speak

 

[Apyl]

I moved from the Chicago burbs ( I always hated it) to the woods in Wisconsin. Before the move my plan was to become self suficiant or as close to as I could manage. I have always prefered country living, my DH grew up in corn country, my grandparents had dairy cows and every other farm animal you can think of. So naturally when we moved chickens were first on my list.

 

[bloonskiller911]

i think you will all like mine. my family always had chickens...they were just part of the scenery. after i moved out on my own, on a small farm i didn't think i had time for them with my horses, dogs, and cats with a full time job. then i got married and adopted my wonderful daughter who was 6.

so driving down the backroads to my wifes grandmother's home my daughter suddenly screams STOP!!!

i think there is a rooster

in that field. my wife and i both looked and to our surprise there was indeed a rooster in the field, middle of no where, nearest house over a mile away. She said " can we please get him?" and me thinking fast said, "sure if he is still there when we come home we'll get him." 4 hours later we drove home, no rooster to be seen and i silently thought, Thank God that worked. i thought it too soon!! Then she screamed again, There he is. how you going to catch him dad? good grief, how WAS i going to catch him, but being a good daddy and her having me wrapped around her finger i pulled over the car and got out, went walking towards him and thought, Run, please run now!!! no such luck. he sat there panting (pretty sure he must have had an animal get in his coop and scare him to death) i picked him up, walked to the car and place him between my feet for the drive home. and that is how Big Red came to the house. naturally he needed som lady friends to keep him company

so a week later i bought two rhode island red hens. that got my mom wanting fresh eggs, so she bought me chicks from mthealthy.com for my birthday (in february) raised them and then became a fanatic!!! last year i incubated and hatched over a hundred chicks for myself, neighbors, in-laws, and i have alreday started this year, 14 hatched for an uncle and an incubator set today with 36 eggs. we sell eggs to all of the neighbors and butchered roosters!!

best of all i put my anxiety behind, i can stand or sit in the middle of my chicken yard and watch them for hours. forgetting the worries of the day and just enjoying them!!!

hope you like my crazy why i got into chickens story.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

At about age 10 I went to my friends birthday party- they had chickens I was enthralled. They were the chickens who didn't go with 10 feet of a human, but I still loved them. On the way home from the party I asked my dad, "Daaaaaaaaaddy. Can I get chickens?" My dad stared at me for awhile then shrugged his shoulders and said, "do the research." Which was a yes. I found BYC, did all I could to prepare, and before Dad knew it, he was building a coop. 2 years later, I got my first chicks- 2 EEs, 2 BOs, 2 BA, 2 SLW, and 4 gold stars. I love them to death and they always come a runnin' to perch on me.

This spring I will be getting 3 more hens and a rooster...which of course will turn into hatching MORE chicks. . I love my chickens and I don't know what I would do without them.

 

[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!