California-Southern

[Jessimom]

@Jessiemom - because we're limited to 5 hens/no roos, I always have to order my pullets as juveniles from breeders. If I hatched eggs I'd have no where to find homes for the boy chicks and my DH won't eat our birds. A breeder shipped us a rare breed beautiful juvenile cockerel in error and DH looked around until he found a good home for him -- he refused to butcher a beautiful cockerel. But you can bet we'll never order from that breeder again!

There are 5 or 6 feed stores nearby that will take my roos. Unfortunately I've brought them close to 40 over the past few years. I try to find homes first. I found a home for one of my silkies, but not the others. I tried to butcher them....didn't work out well. Finally found someone to butcher them for us - they are still in the freezer. I really want to find a home for the Frizzled one. He is super sweet....

 

[SewCluck]

@SewCluck - I sent you a Conversation (private message) on the Whittier butcher info.

Got it! Thanks!

 

[Phage]

Anyone interested in trader Joe x ayam cemani chicks?

Mothers are sweet and crazy awesome layers.

Chicks are "pied"/have Dalmatian spots.
$3

 

[Amelia Egghart]

Anyone gain weight after owning chickens? Is there a term for it? Like the Hen Ten or something? It's more like twenty, anyway!

But hey, loving all the custards and quiches!

 

[Skalabs]

For all of you with chickens in the suburbs, do you leave your chickens out of the run when you are not home?

I always put them back in the run if I leave the house, but they have been fine when I have had the opportunity to doze off for a short nap.

My chicken area has 6 foot block walls facing two neighbors, but the fence is only about 4 feet high on the other two sides with a pool on one side and dogs on another. (The dogs and chickens are cool with each other.). The chickens have not flown over any fences so far, but I know they can if given the motivation.

 

[Sylvester017]

For all of you with chickens in the suburbs, do you leave your chickens out of the run when you are not home?

I always put them back in the run if I leave the house, but they have been fine when I have had the opportunity to doze off for a short nap.

My chicken area has 6 foot block walls facing two neighbors, but the fence is only about 4 feet high on the other two sides with a pool on one side and dogs on another. (The dogs and chickens are cool with each other.). The chickens have not flown over any fences so far, but I know they can if given the motivation.

I live in the East SGV 'burbs. I've backyard free-ranged for 6 yrs whether we're home or not. At first we only let the two Silkies out for an hour or two with supervision. Then we added a White Leghorn and Cuckoo Marans and the 4 of them were very good about free-ranging all day. But not until we set up several shelters in the backyard like a pop-up canopy, low lean-to's, lawn furniture, several dog houses, a composter, several potted plants, and a couple trash cans where they could quickly hide from our Cooper's Hawk or snooze under shade.

We divided the people side from the chicken backyard with a 28" tall rabbit fencing and the chickens respect the short barrier. At first the new younger pullets will try to fly over the barrier but after gently ushering them back to their side of the yard they came to respect the short fence barrier. Of course, it takes some patience at first with the younger birds but they catch on very quickly to the rules of the yard. We also keep more docile birds now which makes it much easier to keep chickens on their side -- we still have the two original Silkies and have two docile Breda with them.

We re-homed the more aggressive White Leghorn, Buff Leghorns, and Marans and keep only the lightweight gentle Breda with our Silkies now. We had a lovely Blue Wheaten Ameraucana that was great with the Silkies but lost her in our bad heatwave last year. I won't be getting any more heavily underdowned or larger fowl in our climate -- they suffer too much from our excessive heatwaves and drought.

We had a 5-1/2 foot chainlink fence but it wasn't private enough so we put up a block wall and iron bars this past year for better soundproofing and more privacy plus we added 18" of privacy fencing on top of the block wall. It wasn't to keep the chickens inside but to keep neighborhood stray dogs out. Two strays broke down our chainlink gate once so now we have double gates plus iron bar fencing all around the front yard for triple gate protection. Dog owners don't do anything to build strong fencing for their pooches so we chicken owners have to fortify against the occasional careless dog owner.

As for aerial predators like hawks, they usually like to swoop down on running prey, so we have lots of hiding shelters scattered about the yard so a hen doesn't have to dash very far to a hiding place. Our Cooper's Hawk will perch 5 feet away from a hiding hen but won't engage in combat on the ground with her -- darnedest thing. The neighborhood Crow murder (flock) chase off the hawks and the Crows don't bother our 4 hens or their feed. We love our neighborhood Crows.

 

[Jessimom]

I'm on 2 acres, but only a little under half do they have access to. I have 2 pens that are totally covered and escape proof. One is for assorted bantam, or when the babies get too big for their mini coop. The other for my silkies. Then I have a partially covered pen for the "teenagers", not quite full grown, not laying, and not aggressive enough to deal with the big girls. It's next door, so they get to see each other and get used to being together. The big girls is entirely under low hanging trees (which they have picked clean). There are a dozen of my full size hens that escape their pen and free range the yard. They go in and out of the two open pens at will. They have been getting close to the neighbor's fences, but the barking dogs deter them from jumping over. There is a trampoline, tables, sheds, piles of lumber, chairs and many trees that the hens can run under when the hawks that live in our trees are hunting. But the big girls - the hawks don't want anyway. I think they know they can't pick them up, so they don't try - there is plenty of other easier game around. We also have a lot of crows that continually chase the hawks away. The crows enjoy eating out of our compost bins.

 

[yrtwins2]

Hi everyone!
I am from San Fernando Valley. Do I Have any neighbors in this thread?
XO
Samira

Yes, I live in North Hills. I am looking for a couple of laying hens to buy. I checked the local animal shelters, none available at this time. Do you know where hens can be purchased? Thank you

 

[Amelia Egghart]

I'm in a Rural Residential area, and let the birds out all day to roam the property. Used to have no fencing at all and the roosters fought off coyotes and neighboring dogs a few times but it ended up being repeat attacks and kills from one neighbor's dog that made me fold and put up a 6' chain link. Of course HE didn't have a fence for either his dogs OR his pool (illegal, much?) and didn't offer any money for the fence that made his pool legal, even when I asked. But that's neighbors. You can't be too much of a jerk - they know where you live.

But yes, I used to close them in but now I leave them out unless I know I'll be home after dusk.

 

[Sylvester017]

Yes, I live in North Hills. I am looking for a couple of laying hens to buy. I checked the local animal shelters, none available at this time. Do you know where hens can be purchased? Thank you

San Dimas Grain in the city of San Dimas has grown chicken varieties as well as some Easter Egger chicks right now. Also, Wes's Pets and Feed in El Monte carry grown hens, beautiful roos, and lots of chick varieties. Give a call before making the trip to see what they have available. Also, Dare2Dream in Lompoc(?) take orders for chicks or hens and have delivery dates posted on their website to deliver hens to the L.A. County area customers (not cheap). Hope this helps.

San Dimas Grain (909) 599-5518
Wes's Pets & Feed (626) 442-0781
Dare2Dream 805-735-3233