Suburbia or The Twilight Zone?

I live in a suburban southern California neighborhood. We usually have a pretty small flock, but right now we are smaller than usual with only 3 hens & a duck. Our girls are all lap hens & they are my kids pets. The duck refuses to come to us unless we have food, but the chickens will come when you call their names & will jump up on your lap. Most days I think they're better than a dog. Hey, my dogs are GREAT, but none of them have ever made me breakfast. Today one of my new neighbors asked me how much I would charge to sell her one of my chickens. I politely told her that I couldn't sell them, because they are my kids pets. I told her where she could buy both laying hens & baby chicks & how much they cost. I reminded her that she should buy at least two because they are social animals & told her to give me a call if she needed any help or info. She said, "That's ok, I just wanted soup."


Soup? Seriously? I have nothing against chicken soup, but YIKES! I completely did NOT see that coming. Now I'm feeling a little paranoid & wondering if I need to lock the coop at night. We've always kept them safe from predators, but I never imagined we might need to keep them safe from people.

Ugh, I hate when people make comments like that when you have clearly thought your chickens are your pets and not food. It's rude, IMO. I have nothing against eating or slaughtering chickens, but I don't appreciate people making comments about my birds or pictures of my birds knowing they are my pets!

Anyway, it might not be a bad idea to lock up your coop at night. Better safe than sorry. Hopefully you won't have any issues though!

Chickerdoodle13 said:

Ugh, I hate when people make comments like that when you have clearly thought your chickens are your pets and not food. It's rude, IMO. I have nothing against eating or slaughtering chickens, but I don't appreciate people making comments about my birds or pictures of my birds knowing they are my pets!

Anyway, it might not be a bad idea to lock up your coop at night. Better safe than sorry. Hopefully you won't have any issues though!

Click to expand...

Thanks! I was starting to feel all alone out here. Even if they weren't pets, the fact that we only have 3 birds makes it a weird request. They certainly aren't a starving family in need of food either. We definitely started people-proofing the coop ... Just in case.