WHY DO YOU HAVE CHICKENS?????

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

Greetings everyone,
For most of you, chickens is a hobby and a passion. so I want to know what interested you in chickens.

 

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

I am mainly in it for eggs

 

[Webechickens]

Hello. It was always a dream of mine to have chickens. Chicken TV is a main reason, along with having meat and eggs. Loving it!

 

[Percheron chick]

I started with chickens to control the grasshoppers that were decimating my garden and flower beds. I put it off for years because of the coyotes but got to the point where bug sprays were ineffective and my harvest was suffering.

 

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

I started with chickens to control the grasshoppers that were decimating my garden and flower beds. I put it off for years because of the coyotes but got to the point where bug sprays were ineffective and my harvest was suffering.

that has to suck... our garden keeps getting over run by grass

 

[Chickenloving]

I got them for pets. They are like the best pets for kids. The eggs are good too.

 

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

They are the best pets.. well most breeds are some are mean... mainly bantam roosters

 

[Shanty]

Hmmm, you asked and here's my blast of wisdom:

Chickens: Why Do We Do What We Do? (lame title, I know, I know)

Why do we raise chickens? Paint? Write lyrics? Or poetry? Why do we have this compunction to have hobbies? The answer is not that simple, nor is it the same for everyone, but one writer, Thomas Moore, has given me some insights I’d like to share with you. If you don’t want to take this philosophical journey, and this IS a philosophical journey, abort this mission now.

I consider myself a spiritual man. I’m attuned to life around me, to nature, and I am a nurturer. While in the army I was a medic and a counselor. I nurtured soldiers who were often in deep crisis. Or I tended to their medical needs. I spent thirty years nurturing community college students as an English teacher and taught at the Air Defense School where I instructed U.S. Army instructors and civilians how to accomplish the same goal. I’d bet that you, too, are a nurturer. Most folks who cultivate living creatures are. That’s one of the main reasons we breed chickens and other poultry. We have this innate need to care deeply for something.

Occupation
Another, more important, reason is that we simply enjoy keeping chickens. It gives us great joy to view their beauty and to care for them daily. It also gives some of us pleasure to do the mundane chores associated with the care of one, or one-hundred, chickens. We are like children as we peer into the incubator to check on that pet project. Did the splash Marans hatch yet? That doesn’t mean that we don’t get tired of the chores–just that somehow we get rejuvenated (by peering into that incubator, maybe) and look forward to another day of these very same chores.

The minute the chores become a burden, however, most people abandon the hobby quickly and seek other ways to spend their idle time. Yes, but idle time scares a few people. WHAT can I do? I’m bored! I don’t want to be alone! Hmmmm, sound familiar? That’s another reason we humans have hobbies. I offer as ample evidence the number of folks who jump into chicken breeding and then abandon the endeavor just as quickly. They can’t stand the chores. They aren’t motivated enough by the rewards. Of course, some think they will make oodles of money with those newly imported Swedish Flower Hens. Doesn’t happen and they retreat to some other poultry breeding attempt―ah, yes, breeding peafowl, mayhaps, or turkeys.

We frequent forums to communicate with other folks who share our passion for chickens. Why? Forums offer, in the words of William Deresiewicz, “a culture of connectivity.” He opines that we need Twitter and Facebook because their use validates us as individuals. “This is how we become real to ourselves―by being seen by others.” And so we chicken folks meet on forums to discuss and debate issues related to our hobby. The forums also provide a venue for occasional rants or raves. Deresiewicz also provides an important basis for our deep, human need for validity on forums or Facebook or Twitter. We become real in a world that tends to alienate those with a fondness for chickens or birds of any kind. I remember being the “weird kid who likes pigeons” while a junior high and high school student. Thank goodness that cultivating chickens provides a way to become validated in a world that often leaves us feeling that we are invalid. Then he makes a startling revelation:

“So we live exclusively in relation to others, and what disappears from our lives is solitude. Technology is taking away our privacy and our concentration, but it is also taking away our ability to be alone.”



Communication
Ah, yes, our hobbies allow us to escape solitude. We are human after all, and social creatures of the first order. And we are scared of being alone! So raising chickens allows us access to a forum community, or a technological community, that validates our existence beyond what social media provides. We have a place where we belong. Ask yourself this, how many times have you LEFT a forum when you felt like you did NOT belong? Or where you were ignored? Where you or your ideas did NOT matter? I thought so. Now you understand.

On the other hand, where can we find solitude that helps us re-energize? I find it in my chicken pens while sitting in a chair. No, it’s NOT absolute quiet, but I am talking about solitude here, not quietude. My chickens provide a place for me to find a refuge from the daily grind or daily cares.

OK, time to get to the meat of this discourse. About time, indeed. Yes, we are nurturers. We enjoy our chickens (and even the chores). We need to keep busy. We hate solitude―alone-ness. Some love the “fame”—I’d say NEED the fame for a few--and the connectedness we feel on social media or forums. I’m sure there are other reasons as well, but Thomas Moore, the modern man―not the older guy from Henry the VIII’s era, has written a book that intimates an even more enlightened view of why we have hobbies. In The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life Moore makes one point clear:

All lessons in enchantment begin with nature: with animals that exhibit “pure soul,” as Robert Sardello once remarked; with day and night, season and tide–natural rhythms; with our own instincts and sensations, our own nature, part of and reflective of the natural world around us. It’s easy to speak philosophically and abstractly about being part of nature, but the important thing is to live that realization, to make local nature a concrete element in daily life.

Connection
Of course, he’s speaking of the larger aspect of nature. The rising sun, setting sun, clouds, storms, trees, flowers, gardens, grand landscapes, etc., but I’ll offer this. He’s also talking about that genetics project in one of your chicken pens. That happens to be one of our most intimate forms of “local nature.” Chickens offer us a way to become re-enchanted with life. That seems to translate to being content with ourselves and often makes us a better friend and companion to those around us: our immediate family, our local friends, our colleagues at work, and our forum buddies. One thing is certain. We DO live in a world that desperately needs re-enchantment. Nurturing chickens helps in that re-enchantment.

One final thought. We eat food daily to feed our physical bodies, we attend religious institutions to take care of our spiritual needs, and we raise chickens, and any other hobbies or passions we might cultivate, because they provide a means for feeding our souls on a daily basis. Without the nurturing of our souls, we fail to thrive. Our lives are really quite empty. That’s why we do what we do.

Note: Thomas Moore was a monk in a Catholic religious order for twelve years. His degrees are in theology, musicology, and philosophy. He’s currently a respected psychotherapist, lecturer, and author of The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life, Care of the Soul, The Planets Within, The Soul’s Religion, and other titles.

The Old Chicken Man in Texas

 

[Bethel3330]

We got them for eggs and meat, but they're sort of pets too, so we had to get a separate meat flock. Lol

 

[GOLDENSEABRIGHT]

when I was about 10, I wanted to open up my own egg store, but now I want to start a hatchery