I'm not a chicken idiot...

[missbecky]

Oh my goodness. That parrot has some teething issues... Lol.

Mine had free range of the house. He chewed up my leather Justin boots, but I scolded him, and he left my stuff alone.

I potty trained him, but don't know if you can potty train a chicken (?).

 

[slayv4petz]

LOL! Yes, she does, I'm not sure about the potty training, baby wipes are a girls best friend
Besides the lack of damage a chicken can do, they are Far more quieter then parrots

 

[slayv4petz]

I think my argument would be something along the lines of his aiming of the toilet or lack of, then you cleaning up after a wee Lil chicken is no big deal

I'm lucky that my hubby is pretty tolerant of my antics
And when he gives me that you're weird look, my reply is "I'm not weird! Just gifted, Very very gifted

 

[collingwood]

I parent my flock like they're my own children!

 

[sunflour]

I parent my flock like they're my own children!

Mine are my children.

 

[missbecky]

* I make the guys all sit down on the toilet. I tell them that it's not a urinal, and we don't live in a gas station.

I'm trying to train my roosters not to crow... I was wondering last night if a zapper would work, because as soon as they saw me (in the dark -maybe because I turned the porch light on) they started to show off, to get my attention. My neighbors were sleeping ...so I was worried they would wake them.

When I went to let them out that same morning they started crowing as soon as I walked in the coop. I told one "stop it", and he stopped mid crow... Looked at me like "What, what did I do"? Then the other one started. They were having a crow off... As I was trying to hush them Lol. Horrible... Just like my human boys.

 

[missbecky]

Oh... Get this,

I took my son to the doctor...

My husband and I were talking about our 'rooster' situation. So, the nurse says "My neighbors have chickens. I have no idea why they have to have chickens -their rooster crows at all hours. We moved out to the country because of all the acreage. We have dogs. We had them before they got chickens. So the dogs were there first. I don't understand why they would have chickens when they know we have dogs? They are 'beagles'! I just hate it."

I didn't really understand where this woman was coming from. She moves to the country... Surrounded by farm land, and doesn't think her neighbors can have chickens? Her dogs can bark, but a rooster can't crow? Sounded like maybe her dogs might have gone after the chickens, but she wasn't letting on. Only that they may, or may not have any chickens left as she hasn't heard them for awhile, and they were "in a flimsy little coop anyways" (ack!).

A few days before, some guy who lives in the country told us that his neighbor poisoned his toothless dog, who were never off a leash, and was kept fenced in (So sad).

The worst thing we had happen was some kid heard about the poisoning of this old tree which belonged to a football team (we're a football family; coaches & players), so he thought it would be a good idea to poison our tree -It dropped dead overnight.

Which brings me to this point...

I know this sounds stupid, but After 'the tree' incident, I was so worried that besides wild predators figuring out how to open my self locking latches, that someone (some deranged tree killing teenager) might sneak in and do harm to my chickens...steal them, let them out, kill/poison them, or worst case scenario ...have his way with them.

I used to get up multiple times during the night to go check on them to making sure everything was okay. I may be a worry wart, but considering the audacity of some people... It seems you just never know.

 

[FarmerWife]

Ummmmm.............. Well if she can't stand the sound of chickens, she should have moved to a big city where chickens aren't allowed. Sounds like big city folk to me , lol. I grew up in the city, but when I was a kid my uncle gave me baby chicks one Easter, I LOVED them. I've always loved chickens. But two of them were roo's, one was a mean , vicious rooster, so we had to give him away, but the gentle one, I had spoiled rotten. The next door neighbor poisoned him because she didn't like to hear him crow. Some people are just mean. Like that teenager who killed the tree. I didn't even know you you could poison a tree, not that I ever would. Maybe you might want to think about using a pad lock or something that he can't open while you're sleeping?? Or motion detectors? But if you're in the country, and you have dogs or cats, that would be going off all night. Sad that you even have to worry about that. Winged and four legged predators are bad enough, two legged one's? Jeez. I hope your chickens will be safe, I've heard of people doing things like that so I'd be really careful. If you put a lock on, you could just unlock it in the morning , and lock it again after they've gone into the coop for the night. You just never know what people will do, some just aren't rowing with both oars in the water. Good luck to you and your chickens!

 

[missbecky]

Thanks for all your responses. So far so good.

I went and bought a bale of straw for the chikies, and put it all over inside their coop -so they could have plenty of places to nestle. I figure that I'll clear it out, and go back to pine chips when the weather warms back up. It seemed so nice & toasty in there ...so I'm thinking they should be good for winter.

 

[crazyhen]

I hope you didn't do like me and bring in bugs with your hay. My hens had never had a bug until I put hay in the coop. I learned my lesson. I just use the wood chips now.