Your very first chickens?

[Cocolo]

I recently looked at some old pictures of our farm and it got me thinking - what were your very first experiences with chickens, or if you remember, what were your first chickens like? ^^

We had chickens when I was a kid, but I only remember singing to the chicks in the brooder. After years of no animals, we got chickens again four years ago - and the OG chickens are still around! They're the only chickens with names, since the flock quickly grew and kind of melted together. Sadly, I lost the pictures of just them, but I'd love to hear you guys experiences!

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

My first flock was a few Columbian Wyandottes and one Golden-Laced Wyandotte that we bought when they were all adults. Three of the Columbian Wyandottes were roosters, and two of them were over-breeding the hens and had to be re-homed due to that. They were good roosters apart from the over-breeding, and would only wing-dance at us as a warning－I don't remember them fighting each other much, either, despite us having too many roosters for our amount of hens (we all had that time when we were stupid at chicken-keeping, right?).

 

[-Chanticleer-]

My first chicken interactions were with my grandpa. He had a huge flock (seemed huge as a child). I remember him having white chickens and a colorful rooster and some ducks I remember some grey and white ones. He’d use to use his flock for eggs and meat. I use to get excited for the fresh eggs and baby chicks when they hatched. He did have brown layers but my memory isn’t too great as this was 21/22 years ago. He made the best chicken burritos. He wore dentures and would tell me be careful the chickens stole my teeth and they will try to steal yours . I now have my first flock of 8 chickens and I wish he were still here so we could share this hobby together.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

The chickens I got after the original flock diminished were two Buff Orpington hens. We allowed them to free-range wherever they decided to go, although they always stayed no further than to the neighbor's pasture. They lived to both be over one year old, and they constantly were going broody, not realizing that we had no rooster! But one day they strayed too far, and in the morning we could not find them. I found a pile of Buff Orpington feathers near the pasture, and discovered one of the chickens dead not too far away. The other was still missing, but presumed dead as well. Looking back on the camera on our house, we saw a stray Black Lab had came into our yard and attacked.

 

[fluffycrow]

My very first chickens were a small flock of one australorp, one leghorn, two ISA brown, a blue Haze, and a mix breed cockerel. The foundation of the coop had already been built by my great-grandfather

 

[Theorrin]

my first chickens were an established flock i inherited with the house lol. i was 11 and the rooster was big (imo cause i was small) and mean as the day is long. i remeber the roo was a barred rock and the hens were barred rocks and Rhode island reds and i think somewhere around maybe 10 ish of them. been some time since then though lol

 

[Party_Chicken]

My sister had been begging my parents for years to get chickens and she went to very extreme lengths to beg. However in her class they hatched chicks and my parents decided to let her bring 6 home. The second I saw those little peepers I fell in love. As younger children tend to do they stopped taking care of them so I took over that role. Four of the chicks turned out to be cockerels (I’m not purchasing straight run again). I have grown my small flock to 13 with a wonderful little cockerel and sweet hens/pullets!

 

[TwoCrows]

My first introduction to chickens happened at a very young age. I grew up with my brother and cousins, living with my grandparents, they kept Leghorn chickens for meat and eggs. It was mine and my cousin Ayla's job to collect eggs every morning. We would have to be very quiet, sneaking from tree to tree, sides of buildings, in order to escape the rooster! It was a game to us as we giggled, held our breaths and whispered quietly. The rooster hated us little kids and he would relentlessly chase us out of the coop with what he thought was ill gotten eggs! He seemed huge to us tiny folk, 6 ft tall in our minds! Thankfully neither one of us got hurt.

Anyway, this definitely kicked off my love of poultry and added to my already developed "bird" obsession. I've been head over heels for birds of all kinds all my life.

 

[RisingPhoenixFarms]

My grandparents had a farm when i was a kid and we lived 'in town' in a very rural area so many of my friends had chickens too.

I finally got chickens of my own a few years ago. Being a newbie and not knowing better i bought them from Tractor supply. I bought what was supposed to be 2 black copper maran pullets and 2 silver leghorn pullets. The guy at the store knew probably less than i did. 1 little BCM died within a few days. The 2 Leghorns ended up being cockerels whom i'd have let stay except they attacked me, the dog, the cat and eventually severely injured my rabbit to the point i had to put him down. So they went in the soup pot and boy were they delicious. The last remaining BCM is still with me and just went broody for the first time ever a couple months ago. I have since added to my flock but no rooster so she sat on some duck eggs for me. She was religious about it and did a great job until it came hatch time and she killed the first one and kicked a 2nd out of the nest box after it had already pipped. So i took them inside and finished them in my incubator.

 

[CoopBoots]

My parents went big on Y2K preparation, so they started us on chickens and rabbits. I was pretty young at the time and had endless time to spend with the new baby chicks, so ended up getting a weird allergic reaction to the brooder wood I was always leaning against to cuddle them in my hands. My mom thought I was going to develop bronchial issues from all the dust, as well! Thankfully she let me do my thing and I raised a bunch of very sweet Buff Orpingtons. Well, sweet to me

This is Big Jake.

He was a pretty big jerk to everyone but me. He'd play chase with me, let me swing him on the swings, and snuggle up in my shirt. He hated my dad/all men and the hens did not like him, so he almost got made into soup. My parents couldn't bring themselves to butcher him themselves and tried to recruit my grandad, who staunchly refused to kill my "baby." I miss them both very much.

Jake died at around 8 years old when I was away for college. Not sure I've ever cried so hard for an animal. I see little bits of him in my current flock and continue to have a special love of roosters, even the jerks who don't love me back