WHAT brought you to the Hobby, and what made you stay?

[kenya]

Yeah it makes it a little more fun trying to reach the ultimate goal of all your birds meeting the standard, plus they are prettier to look at.

[Poultryprincess]

Hubby & I have "always" enjoyed animals & being outside with nature.
We have been living together since the age of 15 & 16, the highlight was always camping & critters
The 35 aquariums in our rental apt made us want to open a Pet Shop...but we ended up changing directions.
3 retail stores in Toronto for 25 years, left us living with Major stress ALL the time.

While on vacation in Los Cabo & we met a couple that raised Chickens for food ~
I felt like I had figured out what my salvation was...I became Obsessed with having chickens.
After 10 YEARS of bugging, pleading & begging, hubby agreed to move to a small farm.
We closed the stores, sold the City house & moved into a beat up, old 1870 neglected farmhouse - YIPPEEEE!

The house was empty for more than 10 years before we bought it - mold & rot Everywhere.
We lived in a trailer during the GUT JOB renovation while I poured over the FREYs catalogue.
We built a 2 x 4 ft brooder pen & set it inside the unfinished house.
Wasn't long before the 50 White Rock chicks out grew the brooder.
Hubby built Another, then another...ALL of them lived "inside" our unfinished Farmhouse.
We had NEVER owned, seen or cared for a live chicken before - it was FASCINATING!!!
( HOURS were spent drinking coffee & watching them - chicks were allowed on our lap, our floor & anywhere else they wanted )

Hubby converted the garage to a beautiful "chicken coop" & the birds moved outside.
I spent hours in the chicken coop, sitting on a crate just "talking" to the birds - I never felt so alive!
We raised Meat birds for a few years, but our birds always ended up as Pets.
Egg Layers were the next step, then Muscovies, Runners, Geese, Guineas, rabbits & turkeys.
I'm obsessing now about having Goats but hubby isn't convinced "Yet".

It is SO traumatic for us City Folk to "put down" a critter, it's all so alien to us.
Hubby doesn't think he can kill a goat...& I don't know if I can either.
( When a bird must be put down, "I" have to hold it while hubby does the axe.
Like he said ~ we "both" have to suffer the consequences, especially when they are MY birds")

My hope is to move to a bigger place - with a barn, a pond & space for more critters.
5 years ago we started a tree removal business, so hubby wants to stay for awhile.
I have to hold myself in check...more critters means more work & the need for more $
There is NO $ in keeping "PET" critters - ha ha ha
The house may be shabby, with modest furniture & chicken on the lawn ~
BUT I have Never felt SO mellow ~ SO @ peace ~ & SO totally Happy.
It's where we were always meant to end up :love_smiley:

[Ontario Chick]

Time to revisit, we have some newbies on PTO since last spring, it would be nice to hear from some of them :)

[Microraptor]

mom's from siberia, super rural village and grew up on a farm with her mom and cows, chickens, pigs, ducks. fast forward a few decades and she moved to suburban canada and had me. every other year we flew back for a summer and spent time with the animals. in first grade she had the idea that maybe getting chickens here would be a good prompt for me to talk to grandma about a common topic. didnt really help because i was always a shy kid but i did love the birds, just 3 standard red sex links. last one died in middle school and only now we felt like round 2.
i've been into birds as long as i can remember and if it were up to me and endless property i'd also keep pigeons, partridge, quail, and peafowl...one day...

[Country Bumkin]

We were expropriated from our 2 acre semi-rural property a few years back. They gave us market value for our home. Boy, did we land on our feet: 25 acres of heaven with a pond, a brook, forest, can't see the road from the house. Need I go on? For Christmas that year, my husband gave me a chicken coop. I was hooked. When I started getting ready for spring and reading up, I soon realized that the small coop would never be predator proof. So we ordered an insulated shed, build a pest proof pad and an outdoor pan/cage and have never looked back.

I get SO much pleasure from my girls.

I don't know why the pictures are sideways and upside down??

[Killerbunny]

Very nice! Oh and microraptor I love your latest avatar!

[Happy]

I've been pondering this question all day as I was breaking my already broken back finishing broody/brooder pens and taking tarps down off the roofed pen to clean and put away for summer. I still haven't come up with an answer. I think it's a big combination of things for me.
-Grew up on a farm around animals (cows/cats/dogs/rodents/birds)
-Get comfort from having food in my back yard
-Genetics (maternal Grandfather was "pigeon crazy" /paternal family were farmers
-I have always wanted home to be an oasis...Where I would choose to spend my vacation time! Chickens make my home more enjoyable

I think the single biggest reason for me staying with this hobby is that I am surprised daily at the depth of personality that a chicken has if you look for it. That just tickles me for some reason!

[Microraptor]

QR_BBPOST Very nice! Oh and microraptor I love your latest avatar!

thank you! it's from a recent graphic i did :)

[Ontario Chick]

For Christmas that year, my husband gave me a chicken coop. I was hooked. When I started getting ready for spring and reading up, I soon realized that the small coop would never be predator proof. So we ordered an insulated shed, build a pest proof pad and an outdoor pan/cage and have never looked back.
I get SO much pleasure from my girls.

Nice coops, glad you had the foresight to realize the small one was just a "summer place"
:)