Sponsored Post Backyard chickens are a kid's best friend

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My DS is also grown and visits often. He likes feeding my little backyard flock their treats. He says I should text photos of my chicks as they grow -- he says my chickens are now legendary and his friends want to see photo progressions of them.

That's so cool! Sounds like they have their own fan club, lol.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yeah they are past laying age and it is a farm... so pet or no pet they all go. And good riddance to those leghorns too. Worst mistake anyone ever made was to buy themselves one of the brown ones, though any color is just bad.

As a kid all I ever knew were white Babcock Leghorns on Mom's farm so when I started backyard chickeneering I added a White Leghorn pullet. She was hatched and raised by 4H teens so she was somewhat tame when we acquired her. She was a kind alpha to our two Silkies for 3 years and put the mean Marans in her place but eventually our sweet White Leg went bonkers as we added more hens to the flock so we re-homed her after trying to give her a chance to settle down. We also re-homed the Buff Leghorns who were even more aggressive which surprised us -- we were hoping they would be calmer but no such luck. My DH found a place to re-home them all since the Legs were all good layers.

Now, I just want a peaceful backyard mix. I loved our Ameraucana with her pretty blue eggs but we lost her last year from complications brought on by our horrible heatwave. She was just too heavily underdowned and never fared well in our humid climate. We recently lost our sweet Black Silkie to ovarian cancer and lost our beautiful gentle Blue Bredas but our Cuckoo Breda seems to be a hardier variety and still with us. 3 new Dominique chicks will soon be big enough to transfer outside permanently with the two adult hens we have left -- a Cuckoo Breda and older Partridge Silkie.

61/2 year-old Partridge Silkie

Year-old Cuckoo Breda (tassle crest, feathered legs/toes)

2-month-old Dominique chicks - very pesty-friendly breed

 

[shawthorne44]

What a story! So many weird people in this world! So glad you were able to find joy in chickeneering. How many do you have? We're zoned for only 5 hens/no roos but we're happy because some cities around us don't allow poultry at all!

Well, thanks to chicken math we have 19. I was originally thinking of 10. They allow 5 where we live, but if you have an acre you are allowed 10. It is so rural in our town, pretty sure there are more farm animals than people, that I didn't check beforehand. They are bringing us joy, just now DH brought SuperChicken inside so he could talk to me while holding her. My friends scare story might have made me prioritize non-mean chickens. But then I can't stand mean, so I probably would have anyway. Our former city doesn't allow chickens.

 

[Glitterchicks]

My 3 boys all love the chickens. Especially Walker, he helps me feed and care for them daily- never letting them go without extra treats!

 

[sumi]

I hope you and your angels can get to enjoy chickens again soon @Blooie The pics and stories say so much

 

[Sylvester017]

Guess I must've always liked chickens. Mom took a pic of me alongside her first hens on her new farm 73 yrs ago! She certainly wasn't teaching me how to hold a hen the right way! But then, on a farm chickens are just livestock and not pets!

 

[Sparrowsong98]

Sexlinks and Leghorns are known to be assertive breeds and Orprington chicks terrorized our Silkies -- we found out the hard way. Our 7-lb Marans hen was mean to our 2-lb Silkies too. I wanted to send the bullies to the butcher but my tender-hearted DH won't think of processing our birds and finds them homes with our chicken friends instead. I was hoping to have a meal or two from our own processed birds until I found out DH couldn't think of eating his pets lol! All our re-homed birds are still alive and well but in other flocks with equal temperament breeds.

Yeah they are past laying age and it is a farm... so pet or no pet they all go. And good riddance to those leghorns too. Worst mistake anyone ever made was to buy themselves one of the brown ones, though any color is just bad.

 

[Sylvester017]

Lost one of our sweet Dominique pullets we raised from chicks to our cursed Satanic SoCalif heatwaves -- 122 degree index because of humidity! It's 100 today but feels hotter -- It's summertime, chickeneers! Get those little boys & girls outside to feed cold treats to your birds! The interaction with the kids keeps the chickens busy so they don't vegetate in the heat and die!

 

[Momma_Bear]

Austin, Tx

 

[silkiemother]

yikes. I am terrified of rattle snakes because one time when I was about 6, I was out playing in the yard with my mom and Grandma watching me and while I was playing on the ground, a 3 1/2 foot rattle snake was heading towards me and I didn't notice the snake until it was five feet away from me.and when I noticed the snake I started screaming for my daddy and was running as fast as my little legs could go.so yeah, I am terrified of rattle snakes.