How to raise Backyard Chickens: [CHICKENS-101] Re: Chicken smell

I grew up in the countryside - English countryside, which is of course on a much different scale to US countryside - and my first ever job aged 13 was on a chicken farm. But before that I was used to chickens - our neighbours kept chickens in their back garden. Things were different then. Our neighbours grew vegetables, kept chickens, and lived in a 17th century wattle-and-daub cottage with a single cold tap, earth (dirt) floors and an outside toilet. We were the incomers with our brick house and central heating. I am sure that cottage has long since been gentrified and is now worth three-quarters on a million pounds.

I love the smell of the chickens - I find it quite nostalgic. I guess my neighbours have less happy associations with chickens! I grew up down the lane from a pig farm, and that really did smell.

Best wishes

Chrissie

--- In CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com, sidesaddle5@... wrote:
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> Got to thinking of a day a week or so ago... Of course with ours being a brand-new coop, with new bedding, all it really has smelled of is freshly cut wood. I guess it must have been one of the days DH was shingling it, and he'd closed the windows. I went inside the coop, and suddenly got a faint whiff of "chicken." Took me right back to childhood. Our farm at one time had been a big poultry operation, with one barn specifically for poultry--the whole south side, two floors, was chicken "rooms," with huge windows... The dozen or so banties we had must have felt the one room they were in was palatial for size! Anyway--that one little whiff from the closed coop sure brought back memories of feeding, watering, eggs, and the occasional late-night rat-hunt with the two dogs... They say smell is one of the most evocative senses.
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> Rhonda
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> Sidesaddle Hall of Famer
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