Perhaps those of you with kids mark your lives as before, and after, children. Never having had kids I can relate by substituting the word ‘chicken’ for ‘children’. Many of us have no idea what chickens can bring to our lives before getting them. In some ways, they do resemble children: the stress of caring for fragile beings, the never-ending work of feeding and, of course, cleaning up enormous amounts of poop. The flip side is that they often reciprocate what we put into them: friendship, bonding and love. The poop is still there but the other things make it all worthwhile.
I am usually the kind of person who toes the line. That said, I quit that about three years ago and got three pullets and put them in a sweet little coop in my yard in the city. Against city ordinance. I rescued two more a month ago from a neighbour who didn’t have time to take care of his. Also, in the city. By now, I have a nice set up. Perfect for five ladies. My original gals spoke up about this travesty and a neighbour turned me in. Last Wednesday, the city came by and told me that I had seven days to get rid of them or they would confiscate them. Even though I knew this day might come I cried for two days. Non-stop. My kids weren’t having it. My son came up from Texas and built me a coop to get through the winter. Out of my daughter’s shed! She lives in a tiny rural town. I still won’t see my darlings every day. And I cried this morning a lot because we had to take them all out to her house. For God’s sake, they are only chickens! I worry about them a lot, they require me to go outdoors in single digit temps, and it’s work to keep their coop clean! But I really love it. My kids though, what great kids. – Paschalina Sims
Why didn’t anyone tell me that if I let my hen hatch some eggs that I would end up spending all day and night crying over how cute it is when the little ones poke their heads out! I can’t handle it! – Tanya Hickman
February 3rd started out like any other day. I saw a post on a Facebook livestock page asking for help. A sweet little hen lost her entire flock to a fox attack. She was the lone survivor and the fear was she was lonely and it was only a matter of time before the fox came back for her. I told myself that if the post was still up in a couple hours I would reply. Couple hours passed and the post was still there. It had some comments but nothing concrete. I messaged her and promised as soon as I got off work I would start my three hour and twenty minute round trip drive to pick her up. By the time I got off work there was severe, almost zero visibility fog rolling in. Though some thought I was crazy I made the trip.
I had left the house at 6:30am and didn’t get home until after 8:30pm then spent another hour getting her settled in. She is the sweetest little thing. I have no idea what she is. She lays the most beautiful dark, rusty brown egg. Because of her story I named her Bittersweet. Bitter because she lost her flock, sweet because she will have her happily ever after with us. We call her “Bitty” for short. She had a bit of a rough start, staying in the tiny coop by herself perched up at night on a heating plate. In the mornings I would let her out while I stocked the run so she could have some alone time with me outside. Last night, with it being negative temps, I decided it was time for her to move to the big house with her flock. All went well, she seemed to have more confidence today. Tonight I went out to lock everything up. She was outside with her best friend, my rooster Hai Hai. They both jumped down and went into the large house and snuggled up with their family. – Erin Elizabeth
New chicken mom in happy tears. This picture shows why. Our chicks became “ladies” and started living outside in their coop/run four weeks ago. We have an automatic door that opens and closes every night depending on the sunrise/sunset. As of this morning our ladies had a 100% track record of being in the coop before the door closed at night. Tonight was the first night we went out of town. Confident that our ladies would be fine, as they had been the last fourweeks, we casually checked our chicken ring camera after sunset. THEY WERE LOCKED OUTSIDE THE COOP FOR THE FIRST TIME and of course we were out of town for a wedding, along with all our family. We had relocated to our new home only a few months ago, but I had a phone number for a neighbour we met on a walk. I called and explained the situation and she told me not to worry, she would help. We watched on our ring camera as she and her husband rounded up our ladies and got them in the coop and closed the door. She texted me after and told me she conquered her fear of chickens. So happy for amazing neighbours! – Rachel Riane
My husband and I went out last night to put the girls to bed and it was a little later than usual. My husband works 12 hours a day and this was his last work day so we were both dragging and I was late getting dinner started. It was already pretty much dark and we were both dreading picking up all those chickens by hand and sticking them in the coop. But we went out with our head lamp and looked around the run and no chickens! For the first time our girls had walked up the ramp at sundown and were curled in their nesting box with Midnight our rooster perched on the door guarding the entrance. I can’t tell you how rewarding it was and how excited we were. To know they’re finally on a schedule and using the ramp my hubby built by hand was just a great little moment for me in a year that hasn’t had many triumphs. – Jenny Worrell
My front camera kept beeping, like if someone was standing at our door. I kept looking through the window and even at the camera and saw nothing. To my surprise, when I opened the door my eight chickens were standing in front of our front door. They were just standing there staring at the door. I regret so much not taking a picture of them. So I started walking to the backyard while scolding them, “Since when are you allowed to cross the backyard fence?! Do you wanna get eaten by a dog or stolen by a stranger?” Then I heard my neighbour yell from the other side of the fence, “Awww mama, don’t be so hard on those girls, they’re just kids. They’re still learning!” I froze and remained silent as she walked to the fence and realized I was talking to my chickens. She almost peed her pants after laughing so hard. – Cindy Varela Hernandez
Thanks to everyone who shared their stories and photos.
Bitchin' Chickens 
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