Reasons why I keep chickens. Wow, I feel a very lengthy post coming on. Firstly, I would like to say that I have loved to reach each and everyone’s thoughts here. Seems we are all on the same page, smiling. Jonny Anvil, what a wonderful recount of your family history, that was beautiful and loved to read it. Thank you.
I think I have responded to a post some long time ago, somewhere else, about why I love to keep chickens, but will retype my thoughts and I am sure there are even more reasons, as I reflect upon the life amongst the birds.
I have been around chickens off and on for my entire life. I need to think back on the experiences here. I do know the first experience with chickens is very, very vague and not really a good one. It would have been probably around the years of 13-15 years old. I imagine this, because at the age of 16, our family made a very big move from the Burnaby area of the Lower Mainland of B.C. to the Sunshine Coast, a peninsula off the coast of B.C. It was not before that age of 13, because I would have taken more interest, smiling. I do recall our Mother keeping some chickens, ask me what colour they were, no clue. But I do have a very vivid recollection of going into that chicken coop and getting lice on my body. That is the ONLY recollection of chickens from that period of my life. So I imagine it was very short. This was a most hideous memory, and I wonder, knowing what I know now, why there were so many lice. I am sorry, still do not understand that thing. My Mother was a gardener, had gardens that would make the Queen of England kneel down to. We had acreage and that acreage was forest and cleared, gardened land. I do not recall any eggs, I do not recall chickens ever free ranging. Only that I got covered in lice one time. This makes me think she had them for a very short period of time.
Mentioned this may be a long post, bear with me, got things to say, smiling again. So time marched on. I grew up, had my first child. The child became older and my Mother again got chickens. These chickens I remember well, they were lovely. It must have been common to have a breed called the Golden Comet, cause this is what she had and my ex-Mother-in-Law too. My oldest gal was the chicken gal. She is the one on whose farm we reside. She would always be holding some of those beauties, and always wore her red chicken boots into the coop yard, she loved her red chicken gumboots and would always put them on when she went to visit the birds. This is where my experience with chickens really began. Can’t say at that time I had a love for them, but found them interesting and my Mamma would always give me the extra eggs to take to sell to my friends. She did not ask for money, she let me have what I sold. Being a single mother, she knew that I did not have very much money.
So on we go, fast forward about 20 years. A new Husband, the man that would move heaven and earth for me. A new home, in a town, far away from the Sunshine Coast. I thought it would be nice to have a few chickens again. And he built me a chicken palace and I got a few brown chickens. They gave us eggs. At that time, my oldest Grandson was three. We had a banty hen that loved him to pieces and would follow him around our property. He was thrilled with the little girl that loved him so. The chickens free ranged. We lived on five acres with a very deep ravine bordering the southern part of the property. Lots of bush that was on the top of the ravine, hid many wild creatures I am sure. One day, early afternoon I was outside with the Grandson. The chickens were free ranging. The Grandson was near me, as he should have been, and I watched a coyote come out of the bushy area and grab one of the hens. Off to the wild blue yonder with that bird that canine went. Oh my yorka. Oh my Grandson, he was not that much taller than this hen, well, in my eye he wasn’t. I had pictures of turning my back and a coyote coming and taking him in his mouth and running off. I gave those chickens pretty quickly to a friend that had birds. I was scared. And I had such a vivid imagination, could never take a chance that my Grandson might be carried off to that wild blue yonder.
Time marched on again. Still thinking it would be nice to have chickens again one day. My Sister and her clan of Husband and 6 children moved into a residence on our property. Now that girl is mirror me. She cleared land and built a most beautiful chicken coop. She got chickens, Sexsal links. She got Muscovy ducks. She got Indian runner ducks. She got Rouen ducks. She had, to me, a mountain of different species of birds and I became very intrigued with these birds. I began to enjoy them in a different light, now that I had someone to share doing cool things with birds with. We raised babies of these species, some incubated, many naturally with the mothers. And it was fun. A mixed up flock of chickens, ducks and then I got turkeys, loved to watch the turkeys in particular.
I was beginning to love chickens and other species of the fowl world. We would sit and watch, spending wonderful times together, watching these birds and doing things. The chickens brought us both beautiful times of quiet, beauty and caregiving. I began to think that I would really like to get some different kinds of chickens and thought of some that I thought were neat. I began to read about different breeds and chose to get some cochins, buff orpingtons and some barred Plymouth rocks. These were obtained as chicks and I really loved these birds. We also had some Easter egg birds, one Aracauna, which laid the most beautiful blue egg and I thought she looked like an owl. She was a thing of beauty. She was rumpless and very lovely. We also had one Rhode Island red, from a friend, she was neat. My intrigue with the purebreds was increasing. And that began the passion that I now have.
We moved some time after that, sold off all the birds, and only kept a few, which moved with us. We left the ducks and turkeys behind, and only took chickens with us.
I think my chickens became an obsession, which started out only as a small interest.
My chickens bring me pleasure. I love to sit and watch them and can spend an enormous amount of time not really doing anything, but sitting on a seat of some sort, or even the earth itself, watching. I love how they are always busy. I love how they are in the moment, they have no stress, other than worrying what is above in the sky, they only worry about danger and their immediate needs of food and drink. They are smart. They know what when the light is waning, that they cannot see that well, and go to their safe home. I love how the chickens never cease to enjoy to be let outside from the confines of their inside coop. I love how they will coming running as fast as they can when they see something in my hand, with the hope that it might be a nice tidbit. Bread is certainly a very special treat that they get now and then. I love that they respect me. That I don’t have a rooster that I have to careful to watch. I love that they do not see me as a predator. They do not like to be picked up. That is natural and I respect that. I love that the two breeds that I choose to breed are docile and I do not consider them flighty nor skitzy, that pleases me.
I love that I can have fresh eggs for our family and others. I love that I never cease hearing how wonderful these eggs are, and that they taste so different. I love that I have come to a point where I can serve one of my homegrown cockerels of these breeds to company. That I have learned how to cook a tender heritage bird, I love that I know what has gone into the making of this fine meat and that, for the most part, others love the taste.
I love what the output from my birds can do for my vegetable gardens. I love how the contents of the cleaning of coops can enhance the soil, make clay soil into soil that is soft and wonderful to the touch. I love that I know my vegetable plants are nourished so strongly, and that good nourishment carries forth to the human body and soul. This pleases me.
It pleases me that human kind will look at my birds and be pleased with what they see. That brings me great pleasure, to know that others enjoy to look at the birds and watch them too.
I love that my birds all will meld with the animals here, be that dog and horse, cats too. They do not have an outstanding fear of the dogs. Respect for the dogs, yes, but they pay no mind when the dogs are wandering amongst them. Always careful though, sometimes things can happen. I do not trust the dogs here 100%, but for the most part, do not have a fear of damage to be done to any birds. Even small chicks that free range with the mammas do not have to have a horror of a dog chase them. I love this. I love that chickens, horses and dogs and cats too, can live in harmony. I do not trust the cats with very young chicks. Not for a moment. And the cats do not have access to any chicks that are that young anyways.
I love that the roosters look after the hens in the yards. The roosters watch the sky. I can tell if there is something above, be that a plane, raven, or any other kind of bird, by watching and listening to the rooster. I love that the hens and even little ones obey the call of the rooster. These boys do a job that is to me, one of the most important parts of a chicken yard, and that is looking after the girls, in all ways. They are premium and the most important part of the chicken yard, as far as I am concerned.
I love to spend lots of time making things as nice as I can for my prized possessions. They are worth their weight in gold to me, for so many reasons, as with us all, important. I believe they should have conditions that are nice too, thus is so. This is a most wonderful topic and has allowed me to reflect on some things about what I love about chickens and how my life has evolved to become very chicken oriented. Have an awesome day, CynthiaM.
mwa ha ha 
