why do you keep chickens?

[FlyingNunFarm]

Like other posts I've read it started out as a way to get eggs. Then they turned into pets. Now the eggs are a bonus. Chicken math got me my first year and I keep adding to the flock. Now I don't even eat much chicken! I can't look at it the same way. Love my goofy birds!

 

[BantyChooks]

Eggs, pets, and am starting to breed to the SOP as show birds. Meat later.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

We are an egg/pet family here, I'm limited in flock size by regulation, so eggs come first and non productive birds are cycled out and replaced

 

[ChickNanny13]

Pets with Benefits

 

[GC-Raptor]

I got them for yummy fresh eggs and meat when their egg production slows, from happy healthy hens that have a roomy pen and recently get to free range a couple of hours before sunset, weather permitting. I hand raised them from day 2 and are friendly.
They are a sex-links bird, so egg production will slow after the second molt for March/April hatch. I plan on butchering before second molt around 28 months.
While in my care, I will give them a good life till they are in my freezer.
I plan on getting replacements next spring. GC

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Im not opposed to eating my birds (have in past), just not doing so now.

 

[Frostette]

Interested to see who keeps chickens for what. Mine are pets. Can't wait to see what everybody says!

 

[Frostette]

As long as I keep less than a dozen (I have 5 now) they aren't much trouble or expense. I let them free range (on my 1 acre )only in the evening and love to watch their excitement . They love to hang out with me while weeding my numerous flower beds and shrub lines, anxious for worms! Their curiosity is endless.

 

[kanina]

My grandmother raised them and while I was annoyed with the process when we started, I really enjoyed the fresh eggs.

My grandma broke her pelvis and couldn't care of them anymore, and she didn't have the heart to process them because they were young so she sent 4 of them home with me (live 150 miles away now). I set up the coop in my new backyard and was instantly addicted. I had four (EE, Black Maran, Olive Egger, and a OE Roo) and enjoyed them, but would get maybe one egg a day from the Maran only. I was frustrated and grandma was going on a whole year recovered and able to get back to things again. She wanted chicks and I was ready to send hers back and start my own. I bought 10 chicks (5 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Light Brahmas, 2 Easter Eggers and 1 Australorp) at Rural King in February that looked about a week old thinking I would raise the Orpingtons and the EEs, the other two for grams and then another 7 from Craigslist (5 Ameraucanas and 2 Marans) with us splitting the Ameraucanas and her taking the Marans. So all of a sudden I have 17 chicks in a brooder and 4 chickens outside . Grandma took back her big kids and I put the babies in the coop.

Well her neighbor called zoning to complain about the chickens, we've been feuding with them for a good decade. She lives in a county where you can have up to 6 chickens on a city lot, but have to have 5 acres to have chickens in the county . Needless to say, she had to get rid of the hens and I didn't have room for all 17 chicks to grow to full size while they fought the ordinances (finally passed, but they have to have a permit ) so my husband and I sold several, keeping the Marans, an Orpington, and the Australorp for grandma and 3 Ameraucanas and an Orpington for ourselves.

Well I got tired of waiting for eggs, I'm anticipating August for them to start laying, but really they should lay any day now, so I bought two "British Tailed Araucanas" that are really just an Araucana Polish cross which give us 10-12 eggs a week. Well I started falling in love with Wyandottes, which is what I originally wanted to raise, and bought two hens last weekend (one silver laced, one golden laced) and they're still adjusting. I thought I was done and then last night I went to our "local" homesteading store to check out what they had going on and ended up walking out with two Faverolles but I would have gladly gotten the Partridge Cochins they had too.

In a nutshell, I started out just wanting to raise them for eggs. Now its turned into an obsession and they're both producers and pets.

 

[Oceanpizza]

Pets, eggs, and when they stop laying, possibly meat. My ducks are egg production and most definitely pets.