Answering Johns Question

I meant to do it before now John...and intended on putting it at the end of the post I made earlier today. Then I didnt, so here I am again. ;)

John asked how I came to have chickens, want chickens, be involved with chickens.

I started to think back, and I can't really say at what point it struck me, but I do know I didnt even know where to find chicks, much less buy them. I had no idea there were hatcheries you could buy from. The Market Bulletin and other online Farm related ads were not known to me. Someone on a message board said I could call up the local feed store and ask about it, so I did. I called up Swints in Jonesboro. He gets in layer chicks, turkey chicks, ducklings, sometimes even rabbits. He gets them in starting about the end of January. So I visited Mr. Swint and his wife about this time seven years ago and bought five day old Buff Orpington chicks from them. Not before doing a lot of reading and research on how to care for them though. I didnt want to kill them right off the bat! I brought them home and loved them so much I went back a couple of months later and got 5 Speckled Sussex chicks. I lived in a neighborhood, but the neighbors never knew a thing since I had no rooster to make noise. The babies didnt go out for about three or four months anyway, not til around the end of May.

At this point I knew nothing of Poultry shows. Even if I had, I just had hatchery layers anyway. In most shows you are going to see a lot of mostly unusual breeds, not just standard layer breeds. I was content with what I had...til the next Spring rolled around. By this time I was in pretty deep and loved my girls like anyone would love a dog or a cat. The next Spring I bought 5 Black Austrolorps and 5 Barred Rock chicks. Once again, all girls (pullets). The year old girls were now out in the yard in their own house I built myself with a run attached to it. I didnt like them to be out in the yard roaming unless I was home, so that was what the run was for. I have pictures I have posted way back somewhere in my old journal archive that I can pull up, or John you can go a huntin' over there. I have pictures and the story over there somewhere.

We were looking for a house, to move to the country. We knew what we wanted, and wouldnt settle for anything less. This was to be our last house purchased until we retired...hopefully in Florida one day. Right before we moved I bought five Americauna chicks...and told Ian we had to be moving soon. ;)

The rest as they say...is history. On my first journal I ever wrote I had a detailed account of this much and on forward from there...it locked down on me and I was never able to get into it again, so I started a new journal. Then of course, AOL decided to kick us to the curb, so here I am now...but the journal link to the right in the sidebar that reads The New Chicken Chronicles is all the entries before we moved to Blogspot.

Oh, yeah, lol, I totally got carried away. I will tell you why I got my own chickens. There was a house not too far from my parents that had a sign out front that read Fresh Eggs For Sale. I had never had the pleasure of experiencing real eggs. I bought some and WOW, was I impressed. Store eggs taste like cardboard. If I cant have fresh eggs, I wont eat eggs at all. Not worth the time or the money. After experiencing the rich orangy (not pale yellow) yolks of real eggs, I had to have my own. So, I got chicks, and raised my own. This one little thing, eating fresh eggs, turned my whole life into what it is today. Isn't that a hoot? :)