[Porffor]

Just wondered what your earliest chicken memory is? And what influenced you to keep chickens.


My sister and I grew up in different households (as she was adopted by my aunt) and both grew up in London in flats with a balcony.
She was majorly surprised today when I said I'd got a couple of chickens and had been busy building a coup and run. Then she surprised me further by saying she had planned to get some (she thinks 2 is too little) and have an arc style run she can dot around her garden.

So it got me thinking.. what had influenced it.  :?:  

My story is that, I travelled to France as a child with my mum, she was on a break from Chemo and took me out of school for 6 months to go travelling with friends of friends and stops here and there. A great time, but as I was only 8 I wasn't feeling the fun of meeting new people all the time.. so she left me on a farm with some friends and their kids.. not something i'd do personally (in that i'm a foster carer and am aware not all parents are good parents), but I had a great time! It changed my outlook on life totally. A city kid through and through I experienced horses, cattle, fishing for the cats (like they couldn't do it themselves), chickens and their chicks - which hatched while i was there) and so many other things I can't tell you them all! lol

So.. without a doubt this has stuck in my mind and I remember fondly collecting eggs and sitting in the run with the chicks. not to mention my first ever ride on a horse.. a heavy horse - bareback at that!

My sister - well i'm not 100% sure on her reasons, even my hubby was surprised when i got off the phone earlier! lol I shall ask her next time we speak.

[richyrich7]

No idea to be honest, but my 1st memory's of hens = my mad uncle used to keep a shed full of banties.

but I have always wanted to be different, so keeping hens is one way that I don't have to rely on supermarkets etc.

[jammy]

My first memory of chickens is as a little girl.  My grandad kept chickens at the top of his garden (and pigs) and I used to trapse up there in my wellies and feed them everytime I stayed with them.  
As I got older I got into horse riding and used to spend every spare minute at the stables.  They had a huge hay barn and I remember my friend and I playing in there and always coming across nests full of eggs or even better, a few little chicks recently hatched (of course, very bad to play in hay barns but since when do kids listen!)  

[Porffor]

Rich maybe your mad uncle was just different. Always good not to rely on supermarkets.

Jammy - that's a sweet memory I expect, and the climbing in haybarns.. we only had a small haystore in our yard before we moved and was forever telling my eldest to get down off the top of bales of hay/straw! she's not very brave normally but she never saw any danger in it.

[poultrygeist]

Probably camping holiday in Yorkshire. I remember them free ranging round the campsite. Would have been about 13 I guess.

Like yourself, not many chickens in London.  :?

Rob

[Porffor]

a fellow londoner eh!
Some area's of Yorkshire are stunning. We lived in Manchester for 5 years (moved with work) and did a fair bit of driving around.

[babe]

mine is at my grannies when i was a toddler, 1st to the bunnies, then past the rapberries to collect the eggs.

[Bodger]

I remember hatching out of this egg and realising that I was allergic to feathers :oops:  :oops:  :oops:

Actually we moved to a new village where my dear old mum still lives when I was eight years old and a few days after moving in, one of the locals presented my brother and I with a bantam each. There was a brown one and a black one called Peggy and Ginny.  Things seem to have snow balled some what.

[poultrygeist]

a fellow londoner eh!
Some area's of Yorkshire are stunning. We lived in Manchester for 5 years (moved with work) and did a fair bit of driving around.

Well I call it London. Born in teddington. Grew up in Hanworth. Worked in Hounslow/Isleworth.

Fell in love with the dales as a teenager.

Rob

[Jellyhead]

So, I was born in Walthamstow, then lived in Essex, where, we used to get fresh eggs once a week from Penny, who was married to a much older man who we never saw. He worked the land and she kept chickens. I didnt realise until now what an influence that had on me. I then lived in S.E. London for many years and just had cats but I have always been an animal lover and remember Penny also having goats whose kids used to suckle my fingers (luverly). I was only ever allowed 1 guinea pig when I was growing up as my mum (who came from Barnsley mentioned cos of earlier posts) would never hurt an animal but was scared of em. I think its really important that kids grow up with animals for loads of reasons Thats why I have so many, thats my story and I'm sticking to it    

[blulagoo]

You all have such nice memories! Mine is being 5 years old and my nan taught me how to pluck and gut a chicken, and how to skin and gut a rabbit. I still remember how to do it now (no I'm not in my dotage yet!) but don't think I could do it. Have always had pets (cats / dogs / rabbits / birds) and have always wanted to keep chickens. Have now got them and my children love them.

[Vember]

Going to Grandmas searching for the eggs, finding the eggs and talking to the chickens

Then when a bit older I'd read stories (from the read with mother book from the libary) to any hens sitting on eggies.

Oh yeah and the smell of the corn, I loved putting my hands in the corn bin and then smelling a handful, don't smell the same now

[Bodger]

I love my chickens, it just a shame that they can be such nasty little * to each other.

I've got a broody hen with ten seven or eight weeks chicks. Over the weekend, for some reason they have gone into fight mode and i've had to remove two of them for their own safety. One of them has literally been scalped and is a right mess, no wonder I have to keep making new pens.

[Porffor]

Great memories!

Bodger - How cool for a neighbour to turn up with a present of a couple of chickens! i'd have been in my element.

I have always been animal orientated so it's lovely to read all your stories, thanks for sharing and not thinking i'm nosey! lol

Blugaloo - a great skill to have gutting/skinning and boning, i've always wanted to know how to do it. I love eating fish, but hate bones in them.. am useless at de-boning a fish.

Once gutted and skinned a chicken (still warm but i didn't do the killing). I do think it was pretty easy but I was 19 and vegetarian at the time!  :shock:

[blulagoo]

I think the worst (and funniest) tale my gran told me was about my elder siblings. They had nagged my mum for a pet rabbit but she said no, my gran lived round the corner and she said they could have one at her house as long as they went and fed / cleaned it out... yes you know what is coming.

They did for a few months and then slowly petered off. So.......