Hi, I'm new to having Chickens - Got them April 1st, 2010 and just love them. We built a nice coop and I'm very afraid of predators, so I burried the chicken wire underground around the whole coop and pen, then put additional chicken wire around it. So far, so good. The only problem I had was with a neighbor not liking that I had gotten chicks. But I had checked with the town and I can have as many as I want, but I don't want to annoy him with Roosters crowing, so I keep the little mille fluer bantam in until 8:30 am to "muffle" his crow and my RIR Rooster has not started to crow yet and I'll deal with that when I have to.

I appreciate all of the advice and knowledge from this website. I never knew how much fun they can be. One of my golden comets jumps up on my back every time I bend over in the pen. She is very friendly as are the reds.

My other animals in the house are: A cat (Emi) from the rescue-four years old-takes care of any mice around the coop and doesn't bother the chickens at all, A dog named Cheech (shepherd/akita mix) very friendly and good with the chickens - also got him from the pound three years ago - can't believe he was in there, he's such a good dog. I also have three parrots - a blue and gold macaw (Rascal) that I've had for twenty years, a moluccan cockatoo (Murphy) and a sun conure(Sunshine) - (the last two were taken by me because other people no longer wanted them - they are also great pets) and a couple of unwanted fish too!

So thank you all - I'm sure I'll have more questions and hopefully some day, I'll be able to help someone else!

Cheers!

Enjoy the nice weather . . .