Can you keep chickens in your house

[mrosspitt]

I just wanted to add that using stall bedding pine pellets is far more useful for keeping them in the house than shavings. Inside, shavings stink like they're ready to be changed in about a day with just one chicken. The pellets last much longer. People use them for cat litter as well. Imagine pine shaving in a cat litter box.

 

[Hokum Coco]

Can you keep a chicken in your house wat do you need to do this a cage or what what about their poop.

I can not see why not. Look what buddy girl has in her living room !!!

 

[JessicaHen]

We usually have at least one chicken staying in our chicken hospital

. Right now I have one with a gout flare up so he sleeps in my shower with shavings. In the morning I soak his feet in the sink, cover with neosporin and bandage. He goes outside and hands with his fav hen, wars bugs and grass and sun bathes. Every evening the whole flock goes to the coop and he comes and sits at my back porch staring in the window until I get him, take off bandages, soak feet again and put him in his own private room with fresh water, food and clean shavings. I personally think that chickens need the social interaction with other chickens, the sunshine, to be in the dirt scratching, eating plants and just being chickens. If they want in bring them in, but put a chicken diaper on them. Mine didn't like the diaper at all!!! So I quit bringing them in. If I do bring them in its wrapped in a towel and I snuggle them an we watch tv together.

 

[missmissi]

I just wanted to add that using stall bedding pine pellets is far more useful for keeping them in the house than shavings. Inside, shavings stink like they're ready to be changed in about a day with just one chicken. The pellets last much longer. People use them for cat litter as well. Imagine pine shaving in a cat litter box.

Thanks for this I totally forget about pellets! Only used a diaper on one of the girls and she hated it. Too bad. I'm not giving up on them though.

 

[ilovechickens90]

I can not see why not. Look what buddy girl has in her living room !!!

are you sure that picture isnt photoshopped? Wether it is or notj its an awesome photo! And i think you could try the chicken in the house and see how theylike it

 

[twandx]

i agree. Got 2. Any advice on keeping them in house appreciated. Do you construct a roost? Can you use straw bedding?

 

[missmissi]

Our barred rock lived inside for a month while recovering from eye and head injuries. I loooooove her so much, wished for her to stay inside full time. She had a giant dog crate in our living room with a tree branch and a 2ft block of wood in there at night, plus a hay nest day and night. She shuffled around the house a bit and spent alot of time resting with me in our bed and on our sofa, as I found a less than perfect rhythm with her eat-then-poop schedule, and she laid an egg every day. We tried chicken diapers periodically, hoping to get her used to diapers, to no avail, she hated the diaper.

We let her make the call to go back outside on her own. Our house smelled terribly, I did my best but I had become tired and frustrated. I still bring her inside sometimes for naps and treats.

 

[mrosspitt]

Pine bedding pellets+ a log to perch on + a dog/puppy playpen

Something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/ESK-COLLECTIO...F8&qid=1444754767&sr=1-2&keywords=dog+playpen


I kept three Bielefelders inside for way too long. It's going to be more work and will get expensive to keep up with bedding inside. It's also good to have such a playpen in case of injury/severe weather, etc.

 

[awakening2]

You can actually keep a single chicken in your house, as a pet, but be prepared. We became owners of a Buff Orpington, quite by accident, as a baby. Our daughter brought her home when we were out of town. If we hadn't kept her, she would have been killed. She's now 9 months old and thriving. She has lived in our home her entire life. She will never be able to join another flock. She is ours, for life. We now have a system, but it took us months to figure it out. I hope we can save you lots of money and time! I spent a fortune on diapers getting to this point.

She has a cage, an old dog kennel, with a plastic tarp beneath it, wood shavings, grit, food and water. She sleeps in it, otherwise she is a member of the family and walks around all day.

She wears a diaper, with a plastic liner. I had MANY failures before finding Crazy K Farms. Until very recently, we had to use an additional string to keep the diaper in place, it tended to drop down and be ineffective - but now she's FINALLY big enough that they stay in place, by criss-crossing the straps. Be prepared for the mess of changing diapers, my least favorite part of having a pet chicken. It's gross - plain and simple. I change her diaper 3-4 times a day. Dump the poop in the toilet, rinse the liner, soak in bleach water, rinse, dry and it's ready to go. I find keeping four diapers and liners ready to go the easiest way to keep ahead of her.

We throw out most of her eggs because they're usually mixed with poop. If we get to them fast enough, and there isn't any poop in the diaper, we wash and keep them.

We have two dogs and a cat. They all get along just fine. Our chicken begs for food, comes running when her name is called and likes to snuggle. She is not lonely being an 'only chicken'.

Would I have undertaken this if my daughter didn't bring her home, unannounced? NEVER But, she did, and we did, and it can absolutely work.

I wish you the best of luck!

 

[mrosspitt]

That's why I'd suggest the playpen for general living time. It's big enough for one chicken, and I've found it to be generally cat and dog proof. You could let them out occasionally. In that case, you would be able to use the eggs, you wouldn't have to buy diapers and clean them. Also, since chickens produce droppings seemingly every few minutes, changing diapers must be fairly ugly 3-4 times a day, and that's not very healthy for the animal.

I think when most people ask about keeping chickens indoors, they're wondering about having some sort of enclosure, not free range indoor chickens!