Recent content by BirdOfPray

No, the goats and chickens will be separate -- I'd like to move the chickens into an area after the goats or cows are done with it. I'm not overly keen on the idea of mixing types of livestock more than necessary. Seems like everyone would be healthiest and happiest with their own space. I may...

I'm looking at Polyface for some of my inspiration, but we had "chicken tractors" (I know that's not what he calls his) when I was growing up and we didn't really like them. We ended up free ranging our birds. I don't want to confine them to a permanent poultry yard, but I'm not sure free...

Hi folks! I'm working on a plan for the way I want to keep our poultry, and having some trouble coming up with what I want. We have goats and will add a few cows later on. For the goats, and probably the cows, we're using portable electric fencing for rotational grazing. I'd like to essentially...

I joined years ago hoping to work out having chickens in our suburban backyard, and at that time circumstances did not work out in my favor. The ordinances and enforcement officers were unfriendly and we were were about to share a property line with a high-end apartment complex, so the odds of...

Yeah, this is why the Border Collie isn't getting the job. ;) We'll see how she does, but she's a little fixated on movement so I suspect she won't be around the chickens unsupervised. We may very well end up keeping the chickens in a fenced run, but when I was growing up we had chickens...

Hi y'all, I'm here with yet another change in circumstances. Last time I posted, I was stuck with an HOA that wouldn't allow chickens so we were looking into rabbits. Things happened and now we're living on 14 acres shared with my parents with plans to get cows, chickens, rabbits, and bees...

Ha! I think I would be susceptible to rabbit algebra... "but it's just one more, and we already have the space!" Fortunately, my husband is firmly anchored in the math of reality and gently reins in my crazier ideas. My thinking right now is this: within the next year, we'll be replacing that...

Quote: Raising angoras for meat would be very efficient -- I want the fiber, but if my fiber rabbits could also be my meat producers it would mean I don't need to have a separate breeding pair for that purpose. And it would certainly be easier to argue that they're pets if they look fancy and...

We're outside city limits -- in a weird little corner between a city and a smaller town, and neither of them wants to annex us and have to pay to provide services to us. We don't mind, because we'd just as soon not pay either of their taxes. So aside from the HOA, we can more or less do what we...

Hi there! I joined here a long time ago hoping to have backyard chickens, and it didn't pan out with my city's ordinances and our lot size. Now we've moved, but the HOA has rules against livestock specifically including chickens. Eventually the goal is to move somewhere else with a larger lot...

I was just wondering if there's an ideal flock size, or at least a minimum flock size for chickens to be happy and healthy. I know a lot of animals do best with others of their own kind (we always had more than one horse, for example, sine they're herd animals and more comfortable with company)...

Still doing my research on a small backyard flock, and one question I haven't answered yet is what breed would be the best choice. I'm looking at 2 to 4 chickens to keep as pets and for eggs. We live in Austin, TX, so heat tolerance is definitely an issue... cold not as much. We do have pretty...

Quote: If someone is interested in adopting chickens from an animal shelter, it might be worth looking into what it would take to get yourself classified (officially or unofficially) as a rescue organization. I used to volunteer at the local Humane Society when I was a kid. They always had a...

Thanks! I'm thinking stationary coop and run will be it, with maybe some free-ranging depending on what I work out with the local ordinances. We have a 6' fence so while it wouldn't stop a determined chicken, I imagine it would keep them reasonably well contained for supervised free-range time.

Still doing the research to try to sell my husband on the idea of getting chickens, and one of his big concerns is going to be the lawn. We definitely aren't golf-course lawn people, but he does try to keep our St. Augustine watered and mowed. My question is, which would be overall easier on the...