why did you start keeping chickens

[handyman]

My boss raised chickens and would bring his extra eggs for us at work. Loved the taste of the eggs so I took the plunge and got my own. Never regreted getting them. Five Red Stars two Cornish Rocks and three game birds later and we don't have to buy eggs now.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I knew they boosted the chicken with something but I thought it was only hormones. Wow, That's it I am raising our own dinner table birds too... Once I figure out how to go from "oh your so cute" to "You're going to be Sunday dinner".

Step one, get all the same breed in a way that they all look identical. That way you cant get attached to just one because they are all the same. At least I hope that works...

 

[mamabigbird]

Years ago. my husband and I moved out of the city and back to the land. No electricity plumbing or water. Everything had to be done by hand. A family member had 3 old hens that he wanted to rehome and so we got them. I enjoyed watching those girls and caring for them.
In spite of the fact that we were the fourth people to own them (age unknown) they laid eggs every day for a few more years.
Eventually we returned to the city and 4 years ago we moved back out to my sister and BILs' country property to live in their rental cabin.
This time we have all the amenities. ( Thank God). Well. I got to remembering how much I enjoyed those chickens and together we cobbled together an old storage building into a fine albeit rough coop and started looking for a few hens.
Now we have 21 chickens, and still love their antics and their eggs. They all have names and I allow old hens to live out their days in happy retirement.

 

[Rural Chic]

Step one, get all the same breed in a way that they all look identical. That way you cant get attached to just one because they are all the same. At least I hope that works...

The first 6 I got, since we were just starting out, we picked because they were cute, not because of the breed. The 4 new baby chicks (girls) I ordered online from Ideal Poultry, 2 are Barred Rock and the other 2 I think are Rhode Island Red. They tossed in 10 baby boys of i have no idea what but they sure are cute. I am sure the cute will wear off when they start waking me and the entire neighborhood up real early in the morning.

 

[kizanne]

We have a garden were we try to grow some of our food. We wanted to get more away from commercial food and the feed who knows what is in it. We also know how they are treated so... we decided to get some chickens for eggs. Waited for TSC chick days. Wanted some astralorps. Went on Sat. they were sold out. Supposed to get some in Thursday. Went in Thurs. evening sold out again. Went to the flea market and an old farmer had way too many chicks in a tub I talked him into way too many chicks for $17 that I had on me. a few weeks later hubby was out at Ace and was supposed to get me some astralorps, he comes home with barred rocks and a speckled sussex.

We enjoyed the eggs so much we tried meat birds. Well now my hubby will never go back to store chicken, he likes the DP better than the CX. We live in a nice neighborhood in a little out of the middle of town. 1 acre and I have 40+ chickens right now. I am cycling through roosters to get a quiet big one for breeding. Just set our first set of our eggs in the incubator. Fertility if good and growth looks pretty good. Did hatch out one before in a hatch of shipped eggs.

 

[Rural Chic]

To bad i only have a REALLY small yard but it is big enough for what I need, at least for now. The one side of my house is in the shade most of the time and if i have to i can build a good sized coop there and raise some meat birds, Mom will just have to learn to deal with the noise or get up earlier...

I think she will be ok with it once she has a home grown chicken and no more store bought. I don't know if we will ever get to breeding our own unless i can convince the neighbors to ignore the rooster...

We don't have allot of room for a garden but what i do have i'm trying to grow something in... I have been trying to get the soil right and now that i have rabbits and chickens i should be able to grow some really big plants instead of the tiny ones i have had the last couple of years.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

The main reason we started raising chickens was because of our Autistic daughter. The main food that she ate was chicken. When we found out that her blood had a ton of arsenic in it we did some research. We found that the poultry industry uses arsenic to beef up their chickens for larger birds. We have posted a lot of the research in our autism page on our web site.

http://www.snowypinesridge.com/autism/

Oh my, she must love them. All animals are true bliss for anyone that loves them, and tries to keep them safe and healthy

 

[BrendaJ]

I have always liked chickens plus wanted fresh eggs not to mention i was researching how our food is raised, kept & slaughtered. Pretty eye opening. I feel very sorry for all the animals - its heartbreaking.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

To bad i only have a REALLY small yard but it is big enough for what I need, at least for now. The one side of my house is in the shade most of the time and if i have to i can build a good sized coop there and raise some meat birds, Mom will just have to learn to deal with the noise or get up earlier...

I think she will be OK with it once she has a home grown chicken and no more store bought. I don't know if we will ever get to breeding our own unless i can convince the neighbors to ignore the rooster...

We don't have allot of room for a garden but what i do have I'm trying to grow something in... I have been trying to get the soil right and now that i have rabbits and chickens i should be able to grow some really big plants instead of the tiny ones i have had the last couple of years.

GO for it! start small, just grow maybe 2 Roma plants. you can do this!
Chickens are easy. start with ferment as a supplement and just add on when you have a few days ahead.
f its older birds mix with their feed

 

[Rural Chic]

GO for it! start small, just grow maybe 2 Roma plants. you can do this!
Chickens are easy. start with ferment as a supplement and just add on when you have a few days ahead.
f its older birds mix with their feed

Thanks for the support. Now that fall is here we plan to fertilize the one bed we have and maybe build a second on the side by the bedrooms... There is concrete about 6 inches under the soil so i have to be careful how I plant here. I'm thinking of raised beds like steps, planting up since i seem to have more up space than outward space. This way the water can filter down to the lower levels before going out.