can chickens live in your home premenantly

[RoostersAreAwesome]

No, I'd rather say, if you want an indoor pet bird, pick a species more suited to this endeavour, and find a rescue bird you can work with. There are many indoor parrots who need a patient hand and a good home in rescue centres.

If you must have indoor pet chickens, plan for a flock, and a tiny breed. The smaller, the better.

Pigeons/doves are another good alternative, and there are a surprising amount of them in need of rescue.

 

[StepfordCuckoos]

We currently have an inside chicken, but that's because she's recovering from an injury. She seems to like it in her room, but I imagine she would be happier outside with the girls. People do have indoor chickens though!

 

[JoCoKS]

i was thinking of getting one chicken and i wanted to know if i could keep it as a house pet. also what would be the sssential things i would need ?

I have a pullet which about 2 months old that has a birth defect in one leg and struggles to get around otherwise she is perfectly healthy. She does get up to move around with a lot of effort but I do not think I could put her in the coop with the others so I was thinking about keeping her in the house. Right now she is in a second cage from her sisters were she can see them as I try to fine away to help her which I hope I can. I come from a long line of medical peolpe so am hoping so of it rubbed off on me. I was going to try to get help from a few schools especially Kansas State but every school is closed.
Please advice because I am not sure what to do with this beautiful Bielfelder hen. I assume she probably can still lay eggs which is not important.

 

[Shezadandy]

I have a pullet which about 2 months old that has a birth defect in one leg and struggles to get around otherwise she is perfectly healthy. She does get up to move around with a lot of effort but I do not think I could put her in the coop with the others so I was thinking about keeping her in the house. Right now she is in a second cage from her sisters were she can see them as I try to fine away to help her which I hope I can. I come from a long line of medical peolpe so am hoping so of it rubbed off on me. I was going to try to get help from a few schools especially Kansas State but every school is closed.
Please advice because I am not sure what to do with this beautiful Bielfelder hen. I assume she probably can still lay eggs which is not important.

Have you watched the show Heartland Docs DVM? One of the first couple episodes had them working on a rooster with mobility issues - they built him a brace out of stuff like the below links - I'm not sure if they used the padding or not but all you do is soak it in water at a certain temperature and mold it into the shape you'd need. Not sure how many times you can mold the same piece, but you might be able to come up with something for her.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0793FPLFY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KCG9FNC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Chercher72]

Hi. I had a bantam chicken growing up in a cage in my bedroom. I never had issues with her. She was a great indoor pet. I would take her outside and then she'd come inside for bed. One chicken doesn't give off a lot of dander. A bantam would be a good choice for indoors but ultimately they long to be outside. You do what you like don't listen to Debbie downers. Try and if it doesn't work out-you tried. But I wouldn't have a bunch inside, they could be very dirty in flocks.

 

[JoCoKS]

Hi. I had a bantam chicken growing up in a cage in my bedroom. I never had issues with her. She was a great indoor pet. I would take her outside and then she'd come inside for bed. One chicken doesn't give off a lot of dander. A bantam would be a good choice for indoors but ultimately they long to be outside. You do what you like don't listen to Debbie downers. Try and if it doesn't work out-you tried. But I wouldn't have a bunch inside, they could be very dirty in flocks.

My problem is my Bielfelder hen has a birth defect that restricts her ability to walk. I have spent hours trying to find or make a boot to put on her leg because if the ankle is turned 90 degrees her messed up foot straightens out. I finish the project last night and as soon as my wife gets thru working at home I am going to have her hold her and let me see if this boot puts her foot down like it should be. IF anyone has an idea on how to care for her messed up foot PLEASE ADVICE ON WHAT YOU WOULD. I bought this hen and her sister from a NPIP chicken farm so I was not expecting this. They did refund my money but left me with this sweet messed up pullet. Can she go outside with her sister?

 

[Nija Chick]

I think if I were to try to keep a chicken inside, I'd set up a large pen maybe king bed size or bigger where he/she would have her soil, grass, perches etc, like a big parrot pen on the floor, I'd cover the floor with a thick lenolium and curve up the edges, and a two ft' fence put perches and swings in her area, and I'd let her out to sit on my lap on a towel for petting, definitely hardwood floors, lots of cleaning, it'd be similar to keeping a rabbit indoors, but rabbits can learn to poop in one location, chickens don't, but in that aspect, they would be similar to a parrot. Just gotta keep a poop towel or diaper under the back end lol. I also made a harness for my rooster out of a dog leash, so I could take him on walks. That might be of use to you also.(My rooster insisted on going to the neighbors to fight their rooster, so had to keep him leashed lol.)

 

[Sauron1]

I do. I'm a salmonella survivor. When i was young I was hospitalized for nearly a week with a fever exceeding 106. Sll i can really remember waa the abdomen pain. I liken it to the image of razor blades grinding against each other in your belly.

My mother told me i was on deaths doorstep. My great grandmother nearly got into a fist fight with doctors because they were letting it "run its course" and she was the one who got them to give me medicine and ice baths, essentially saving my life.

If you want to wrap a chicken in a diaper and let it walk around your house, that's your business. Snuggle and cuddle until your heart's content. But don't ignore the risk, especially if you have small children who like to put things in their mouth.

The current atmosphere with the virus is concerning and reactions are a little exaggerated. But its an effort to prevent something from entering your home and body that can make you sick. Choosing to keep a chicken as a pet indoors, is choosing to invite something into your home that can make you sick.

Again, your house, your choice, your business.

How old were you when you got Salmonella?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

i can take her outside once a day if that would work . i can’t really leave her outside because we don’t have that much space and it’s very cold . i was thinking the chicken could adapt to living indoor if i bought it as a chick

That doesn't really satisfy the fact that chickens are flock animals and need friends. Lone chickens RARELY do well. I've known two people around here with indoor chickens. One had a flock of chickens that lived in her breezeway and during the day the door was open to the backyard. Then if the house door from the breezeway was open, they would venture inside.
Another guy started with two indoor silkies and one died. He had several dogs and cats. They began to substitute as friends for the lone chicken and I think the chicken actually thought it was a cat.

Most chickens spend their day scratching in the dirt which is their favorite pastime. They also really need to dustbathe. That is tough to provide in a house.
Add to that, an indoor chicken's dander will have everything in the house coated with dust.
Hopefully you aren't allergic to that in a big way.

 

[Al Gerhart]

I do. I'm a salmonella survivor. When i was young I was hospitalized for nearly a week with a fever exceeding 106. Sll i can really remember waa the abdomen pain. I liken it to the image of razor blades grinding against each other in your belly.

My mother told me i was on deaths doorstep. My great grandmother nearly got into a fist fight with doctors because they were letting it "run its course" and she was the one who got them to give me medicine and ice baths, essentially saving my life.

If you want to wrap a chicken in a diaper and let it walk around your house, that's your business. Snuggle and cuddle until your heart's content. But don't ignore the risk, especially if you have small children who like to put things in their mouth.

The current atmosphere with the virus is concerning and reactions are a little exaggerated. But its an effort to prevent something from entering your home and body that can make you sick. Choosing to keep a chicken as a pet indoors, is choosing to invite something into your home that can make you sick.

Again, your house, your choice, your business.

Salmonella is no joke. Back around 2006 I was starting to produce granite countertops and there were a lot of nasty rumors out about bacteria, heavy metals, and radon gas/radiation being a problem with some slabs/types of granite. So I started doing some research and recruited quite a few bored scientists to advise, even loan equipment for some of the experiments.
Our source of bacteria? A frozen chicken from Walmart. Thaw it out in the fridge, wipe a q tip across the skin, into petri dishes set into a homemade incubator made out of a low wattage bulb and an ice chest to identify the bacteria. Once identified, q tip again wiped across the still refrigerated chicken that had been thawed for about 30 hours at that point and contaminate the various granite samples and counter top material samples.
Incubate the samples for 12 hours and run the tests and count the colonies of bacteria, number and diameter of the colonies. Then you could disinfect the samples, then rise the samples off and run a series of petri dishes to count the total number of surviving bacteria.

During some of this work I somehow got some of this bacteria, mostly Salmonella, on the very top of my head and somehow right in the center of my back. Probably some disinfecting fluid splashed up and down the back of my shirt. Not dressed up in bio wear or anything, just street clothes, wearing gloves and sanitizing or so I thought. The result, huge boils in both places. Took antibiotics to get rid of them.

That put me off chicken for several years. And put an end to my bacterial testing.

Salmonella is nothing to mess with especially if there are kids involved. Chickens are covered in it, they walk in it, ingest it, poop it. And somehow they are able to control it and not just die of it unless their immune system receives a shock (quarantine your birds people for several weeks if you bring in a new addition to the flock) from being transported or other stress.