people with house chickens

[Jkioneil]

so if i have an indoor rooster is it possible not to be woken up at 5am. my husband wants a rooster. we have all these girls and he feels left out lol. i dot want to bother the neighborhood even though it is legal to have a roo i just wondered how o keep it down. bring em in at night and cover with blanket? any suggestions on having a house rooster? can they wear a diaper too? i am not okay with the poo.

 

[mylittlechickpea]

I've already shared this story in an email with PinkSue earlier today, but I still think it's amusing so I'll share with the group

Chickpea and I got some diapers in the mail Saturday, from PinkieSue, of course. So my obvious reaction was to put on them on her. Immediately she freaked out running around backwards weird loud squawks, the whole bit. So I didn't want to leave her, which most of the time isn't a problem I don't go out too much anyways, but I have a friend that got here a few days before hand and wanted to do things, but he's another story entirely and I could live without a single call or text from him for the rest of my life and be completely happy.. I think he was expecting me to entertain him all weekend long and wanted to go out alllllll day long and leave my poor helpless squaking chicken to fend for herself. I understand he may not love my chicken the way I do, but to see her freaking out like that and just expect me to leave her for hours? Really? A little bit of back story and I'm done that subject because I'm still annoyed and angry about it.. He's in the Army and just got orders for here so he's going to be here for the next three years, he doesn't have to do everything all in the first weekend. He doesn't have money anyways, which is weird because he's in the army and had gotten paid three days before and was already broke so what is expecting anyways? I'm not paying his way. Well, he wanted to go to the beach, not only do I have this poor running into walls backwards, I got a nasty nasty nasty sunburn last week and it still hurt, the only thing coming from this burn is cancer... Okay, okay. I'm done with the rant now, I could go on for days about what I did for this boy and how ungrateful he was acting and expecting so much from me, and my husbands bank account, but I'll stop now, and I'm hanging out with him for a while because he hasn't changed a bit since the last time I saw him three years ago...

Onto the real story:


So after the entire weekend of worrying about this little chicken and whether or not she'll get used to her diapers I found one of the old t-shirt ones under my sewing stuff and decided to give this one a try.. I go outside for a few minutes and come back in and low and behold a happy chirping little Chickpea eating some food.... Really? Ugh!! I made completely sure every time I put on yours that you sent that everything is where it's supposed to be, no feathers caught, no toes caught anywhere, the pouch is above her vent, everything!! Maybe she just doesn't want to be a fancy chicken no matter how cute she looks? I don't know *shrug*.... She won't poo in the other two, I made that other one with your pattern.. She had one on yesterday for three hours and when I went to go change the liner there was nothing.. I was so worried, and then she poo'd on the floor, of course, the biggest chicken poo I ever saw.. It was four inches long, it was crazy... Well I'll let her wear this one for a day or two then I'll switch back and see how she takes it... Crazy chicken!


I copy and pasted that one directly from the email I sent her, but seriously I've never seen a chicken in so much distress, I put on the other one and you wouldn't know what trouble she was giving me (or the trouble I gave her, really). When she wasn't freaking out she just laying there all depressed and lethargic, I'd have to take it off so that she'd eat and drink. It was so sad, and now you wouldn't even know it. Maybe she wants to be a plain Jane chicken?? Doesn't like fancy cute things?

 

[jossanne]

There was probably something not quite right with the fit of the new one. No clue though.

 

[mylittlechickpea]

I think it might be the elastic under her tail feathers that she's not a fan off. At first I was thinkiing maybe she just didn't like fabric? But I made another last night in cotton using a similar pattern as the t-shirt one. It kind of wraps around her tail and has no elastic and she is fine with it. So I'm hoping that maybe she'll get used to the feel of having something back there and I'll try out the one from Pinkie again and see if she takes, it's just so stinkin cute! Shouldn't she know that it's like girls and shoes? It's not the comfort it's the cuteness.. lol

I've bought many a pair of shoes based on the cute factor and hope they will "become" comfortable...

Also, she's been seeming a little bored lately.. Any suggestions? I have one of those fruit/veggie ball things around here somewhere, I should that again and put some spinach in, maybe some apple.. Some one once suggested getting like a litter pan and puting some dirt and worms in there for her scratch around, but I can't find worms anywhere.. I don't know if they sell them here... I got some composting worms but those were expensive little buggers and I'm not giving those up. And I'm afraid a meal worm could easily crawl out and start up a new life in my house...

 

[VelvetDragon]

Jkioneil: Yes, roosters can wear diapers too.

As for the sound, keeping them in ABSOLUTE darkness can keep them from crowing to let you sleep in... sometimes. Other roosters are tuned in enough to their internal clock that they know morning is approaching anyway, and will crow. Some just crow in the middle of the night anyway. Of course, keeping them indoors will muffle the sound for the neighbors a bit, if not you. When they're outdoors during the day they will crow though.

Different breeds of roosters have a different sound to their crows. Some of the bantams have high-pitched crows that can be more annoying to neighbors than a big breed's deep crow.

 

[t4dbirds]

I have a question for all of you with house chickens. How do you house them? I have a very large dog crate that is wire and the pine gets all over the place and my house just isn't big enough for two large dog crates (I have one dog that goes nuts when I leave so she has to be crated when I leave. So ones for her and ones for the chics. If the dog didn't need the crate I would be okay because that one is in a great location. Anyway I digress.

Do your house chics have a crate/gage/indoor coop? Since mine are bantams and get the run of the house when I'm home, can I go with a small carrier with walls that will hold a stick for them to stand on at night and a small thing of food and water? For summers I'm setting up an outdoor pin with protection from the hawks so they can play outdoors during the days but it gets really cold here in WA during the winters so they will be mostly indoor during the day and always during the night. (Also keeps nosy neighbors from noticing them

) Oh and they are Cochin banties, just two of them.

Thanks

 

[iluvcks]

Quote:
My Gabby sleeps on the buffet, Tilly slept on the back of the couch. Tilly is outside now, and Gabby only comes in a couple times a week now. But When both of them first came in it was due to an attack. they slept in the brooder and it worked out great. I would think 2 banties in a brooder would be fine if it is only at night. Another idea is to built something like they use for parrots. Picture a base with maybe a 4x4 attached. About 3to 4 foot high. On the top of that attach a tray out of plywood. Cover that with tile or something for easy clean up. Put a lip all around the platform. In the center of the platform there will be a roost that would be big enough for both chickens. The chickens will like this and sleep there everynight. No bedding is required. Clean up poo every morning. And your done.

Here is a drawing of the idea.

Here is a photo of the brooder my DH made. It had a plexiglass window, The top is cut and fitted with doors, and there are holes drilled 8inches fromthe bottom, every three inches allthe way around. You do that because carbon dioxide is heavier that oxygen. Without proper venalation a chick can die fron carbon dioxide poisioning.

 

[Jkioneil]

Quote:
what about Black Australorp?

 

[jossanne]

Quote:
A black australorp roo will be pretty large, and will most likely have a big, deep crow.

 

[Jkioneil]

So I have to share this i have been asking about house chickens and Roosters a lot on here and this is why. We had a house turkey but now she is outside. I tried to keep Amy our EE indoors as my house chicken as she is such a little love but my husband drew the line, put his foot down and I was about to go live with the chickens in thier coop! I gave up my house chicken dream and then one day he looks at me and says i want a rooster. There are all these girls and i am surrouded and i want a rooster. So i said what about the neighbors? it will crow all the time ad i do not think we are allowed to have them here. He thought for a bit and said well then he will be the house chicken and you can get him diapers and we will have a rooster.

I almost did not believe it. for the last week he is showing me chicken websites and hatcheries nearby. He wants a black one i want a nice one so based on the good people here at BYC we want to have a black orpington

. However we can not find a place where we can get 1 black orpington rooster. obviously can not be mailed. and no farms around here have em. So we found a farm with Black Australorps and we can pick up a rooster nex week. but i want to make sure they are sweet loving and not known for irritating and shrill and constant crowing. So anyone know about keeping a Black Australorp rooster? It is so cute watching him get so excited about this rooster. he is so supprotive with my chicken devotion (except for my house chicken idea) but now that it is a boy and he can rationalize it living in the house by it being too loud outside! I am so excited! I get a house chicken i get a house chicken. We are such weirdos we are picking possible ames and going to spend the weekend making a indoor area for it once it is out of the brooder. He is like a kid getting a new toy. seriously have not seen him this excited over something for a while. I guess it is true that chicken addictions are catchy. What started as him humoring me as a supportive husband has turned into his own passion i cant wait to see what comes next.

So about the Black Australorp....?????

YAY!!!!!!!