How NO, NO CHICKENS became MORE, MORE CHICKENS!!
Late last year my husband tells me he wants to get some chickens and a rooster. I thought he had lost it and I replied "No, no way. They poop everywhere and they are not cuddly and I don't even like birds and what about the cats? How can you put birds in their yard that they can't mess with? That's totally unfair to my furry babies." (Response has been edited for bad language) He tells me he's gonna do it anyway. "Fine," I tell him, "but you have you ask the landlord." (I'm totally thinking the landlord is gonna be on my side.) Great, the landlord said it was fine. Time goes by and he doesn't find any birds he wants and we inherit my mom's dog. I'm thinking this is perfect, now that we have the dog there is no way the landlord is still gonna go for chickens. Still, he says its fine since they are outside animals. Great, well I just have to keep hoping that he doesn't find any he wants. Then one night I come home from school to a hen and rooster in the yard. By this time I figure he tolerates my cats, I guess I can tolerate his birds and its not like I have to do anything with them. But still, now there are new animals in the yard and I can't help but try to get aqainted. It took about 3 days for me to realize that Elvis ( I named him on day 2) was not going to peck me to death and about 5 days for me to start picking him up and putting him in my lap. I had crossed to the "birdside" and was madly in love with this rooster and still am. The hen flew away the first day so for a little while we just had Elvis. My uncle called one day about a house that was forclosed on and they had a ton of chickens and the bank wanted them gone. So, now we spend 2 weeks chicken hunting at this place and bringing home everything we could catch. Including, eggs. Great, now I'm incubating. Ok, I think no big deal he can turn the eggs. I want nothing to do with this since if a chick dies I will be devestated. Yeah, right. I turned the eggs and was reminding him when he forgot. So, much for not getting attached to the eggs. Then I get online one day and I discover Silkies. And BAM! just like that, I'm in love again. I have to have some! I find a great lady nearby and buy 2 from her, figuring that if it doesn't go well, I'm not out a whole lot of money. I kept them in the house at night for a few weeks and my husband put them outside in a pen during the day. When it came time for them to move into the coop, I was not ready. So, he put them in when I was at work. He must have known I was never going to be ready and that they would have stayed in the house as long as they could. Then the eggs hatched. Every egg hatched in the middle of the night or when I was at work. All I wanted to see was a chick hatch and it never happened. We had 6, 3 lived. Not bad, we thought, for first timers. (Sadly, a gopher or snake got our 3 living chicks. New house rules, chicks stay inside under close supervision until they are at least 3 months and there are no trips for longer than a day unless I can take the birds!) So, thats how this "No way" chicken girl fell in love with chickens. I have no clue what breed they are, outside of the silkies and since it went so well I am getting more soon! He says I can fill up the chicken coop with silkies but that's it. The other chickens free range in our yard. My poor husband who wanted chickens really has none. But his crazy wife who wanted nothing to do with them has 12 and can wait to get more! 
Chicken Names:
Vuitton and Burberry (Silkies)
Oscar (Silkie Roo)
Coco
Black baby
Oreo
Elvis and Romeo (Roosters)
Hollywood (Roo)
1 Golden Phoenix breeding pair (no names yet)
1 Silver Phoenix Trio (nameless as well)
Oh, and the cats I worried so much about...
Our oldest (Kobe) is declawed and about 25 pounds. I figured he was the safest to introduce first since he's pretty inactive. And I thought if the birds saw that we hadn't eaten him they would know they were safe. We came home one day and a chick had snuggled under his big belly and was sleeping, he just sat there like a mother hen. Kobe quickly became our chicken sitter. The birds get close to him and he stays still and watches them. He was never territorial and I don't think he ever chased anything in his entire life until a stray cat got in our yard. As my husband was getting something to throw at the stray, he realized he didn't need to, Kobe had handled it by chasing the cat away. NOBODY messes with his chickens! LOL I'm thinking he might be an excellent brooder! LOL As for the other two cats, they have never hurt a bird but are kept under close supervision when they are outside. I'm not sure I trust them just yet!