Checking-In On Peeps - Post Here To Say Hello!

[Porkchoptx]

Living in Texas still hoping our backyard chicken bill will pass this upcoming legislation. This will be the 4th try.
For all the Texas members reading this....please contact your state senator and house representative to get them to introduce the bill again. I believe they might be able to file the bill right after the upcoming election in November 2024. They will be in session Jan-May 2025.
This bill is for us who live in neighborhoods and want a few chickens in our backyards. The bill always get voted on and passes each level quickly but always runs out of time and never makes it all the way to the end. Fingers crossed this will be the time.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I've been helped so many times by this blog. I live in an area with very severe and shifting weather (South Dakota). After 2 years I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of it--shade cloth, a fan, and mister in summer, clear tarps in winter. At great expense got a metal roof on part of the run for winter as well, which has made a huge difference and dramatically decreased my workload. But it's all worth it!! 2 new chicks this year.

Super glad BYC has been helpful!

That sounds like quite the journey with your setup! Great to hear that the changes are paying off and making life a bit easier for you and your flock. How are the two new chicks fitting in? Keep us posted on how they grow!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Hi all, yes, it's been a hot minute - life is so busy I don't check the forums often. But, just popping in to share that we still have lots of chickens, lots of eggs and lots of fun! They keep us moving for sure. Actually, we've blocked out some time tomorrow to clean some chicken butts - ugh, not a fun job but it's been so wet and miserable around here I think that's caused a few to get a little messy. So, they'll get a butt bath to clean them up. The joys of chicken keeping!

Ah, the joys of chicken butt baths, right? It sounds like you've got your hands full but are managing with a smile. Hope the weather clears up for you soon. Keep us updated on how things go with the chicken spa day!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I maybe be ending my chicken career because we live in Northern Vermont and are starting to go to New Mexico in the winters. Maybe I could borrow some chickens for a few months ? My coop is great, secure, and I love having them. I've learned so much from BYC over the years ! We'll see what happens.....

That's quite the climate change from Vermont to New Mexico. Sorry about the end of your chicken keeping. Would be nice to rent a few chickens for the summer. Hope you new adventure goes well.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Deep diving into my honey bees for about 2 more weeks.

Awesome! Any pics / details? We're thinking about getting bees.

 

[muddy75]

Quite unusual to get a request for commentary on a long snoozed page.I still have my birds but I don't come here any more bcz it's mostly beginners w/ fluffy-butts.I've been raising/breeding/selling game fowl for almost 60 years and the level of conversation here is kinda painful,even stupid, at times...it hurts to read it and the things ppl put their chickens through.Ya'll are nice enough ppl,just not "my" ppl.
Wishing everyone the best in your endeavors!

Happy you stopped by…..there are a few seasoned peeps to share war stories with on here in addition to the newbies

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Yes, I have been neglectful of the wonderful BYC community! I’ve had a lot of heartache in the past year. I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer so I’ll spare you the details. We still have about a dozen chickens, a handful of ducks, a goat (his brother passed away last year) and 2 pigs…in addition to all our indoor animals. I went to a residential treatment facility for complex PTSD and, while I was gone, my husband gave away almost all my good layers. Maybe next year I can replace them. Thank you to all my fellow chicken-lovers—BYC has been a great help!

Oh, I'm sorry to hear about the tough times you've been through, but it's great to see you back in the BYC community. It sounds like you still have a lively bunch at home! When you're ready to get more layers next year, we'll all be here to cheer you on (and see details/updates/lots-of-pics) .

 

[muddy75]

Life is busy! In the last 2 years we've raised 3 rounds of heritage turkeys, for a total of 100ish. Currently have 14 laying hens with 1 roo and have a batch of approximately 19 that will start laying this summer. We had started with 15 guinea but we are down to 2 but that is OK because they are such bullies! We've had our share of predators and very little sickness, thank goodness. My husband was recently diagnosed with a large cancerous tumor in his stomach and abdomen so we are on hold for new projects. We have 10 acres with a vegetable garden, herbal tea garden and we were in the process of starting market flowers. But those things will wait. I'm very thankful for this community, it has helped me on many occasions.

Love your photos! Sorry to hear about your husband. Sending and

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Hi 'Nifty-Chicken' and all! I've sort of fallen off the BYC Wagon. Because of health issues, I was having a great deal of trouble taking care of my wee flock to my standards, so Paula, Penny, Patty, Peggy and Leela were re-homed to my daughter's farm where they are living their best lives. They still respond to the special 'I've got treats for you' sound when I go out to visit. I miss having them here. They were so much fun to watch and interact with, and fresh eggs were a bonus.

Wishing the BYC community all the best. I still enjoy 'all things chicken'.

Sorry to hear about all your health issues. I'm glad your daughter was able to take on your chickens and you can still visit them. I have always loved that a chicken sees every single day as the best day ever. Such simple, and beautiful creatures they are.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

What a sweet note to receive! Unfortunately, we don't have chickens any more. It's a long story. STRAP IN, FOLKS.

Let's start with the doggos. We have two mutts, Grover Cleveland and Birdie. Grover Cleveland is some sort of border collie/red heeler/ bunch of other random breeds mix. When we got Grover, he'd had a rear leg amputation from being hit by a car. When we adopted him, we did a lot of intensive training to make sure he had excellent recall and obedience.
Birdie is maybe beagle/shar pei/pit bull/some other random breeds mix. When we got her, she had been tied up to a post during Hurricane Harvey. We didn't do a lot of training with her because she didn't have much interest in misbehaving. She mostly just imitated Grover and stayed pretty close to us. (These facts become relevant later.)

GC was the one we were worried about when we got chickens as a Covid project, because of the time a neighbor's chicken flew into the yard and he killed it. It was sad and awful. So when we got 4 chicks, we were extremely vigilant about exposing them to each other and training him to understand that they were his to guard. I think the herd-and-protect genes were strong enough that he was into it, and he basically became their protector and rooster, running out to defend them against invading possums, hawks, and neighborhood cats. Birdie just wasn't interested at all. She mostly stayed inside on the couch, and when she did go outside she just ignored them, so we didn't do any chicken-training with her.

Fast forward 3 years, these are the world's hardiest chickens, survived a hurricane, a neighbor-dog attack and neighbor-cat attack, and all kinds of nonsense. Amazing. But then it was coming time for us to move to a new state (from LA to NC) and we knew it would be several weeks for us to get a new coop in place, and weren't even sure if we'd be allowed to have chickens in a rental, so we gave our 4 ladies to a friend with a farm. I was so sad, but it was for the best.

In the meantime, we found Birdie limping, got an X-ray, and discovered that she had a years-old injury wherein her femur had broken very dramatically and healed twisted together like a candy cane. We realized she must have been in constant pain, even though she had never given us any indication before--no whining or limping, no shying away from touch, no uneven gait. Dogs, like chickens, instinctually try not to show when they are in pain. The only weird thing was that she had always been very uneasy on smooth floors and really skittish around moving objects. We figured it was doggie-PTSD from her hurricane-history, buuuuut turns out she was actually in a lot of pain and we just didn't know it. So based on the vet's recommendation, she had a rear-leg amputation. After a couple of weeks, she started to have a new personality, just a lot more joyful and playful. It was so cool to see!

OK. So we move to NC. Lo and behold, the house we were renting actually came with 9 chickens. (The owners were to be out of the country for a year, and said we could either keep the chickens or re-home them. What luck!) All went well for a month or two. But then all of a sudden, chickens started dying.

We found a chicken carcass one day. Not eaten, but fairly mangled. Then another one a few days later. Then another one a few days later. And we thought we had a predator, but it was so weird because it was happening during the day when the chickens were free-ranging in the yard instead of at night when they were in their pen. Y'all know where this is going. One afternoon, I saw Birdie harassing the chickens...not actually attacking them, just running after them at an easy pace. And she was having SO much fun...just joyfully terrorizing them. I kept trying to interfere, but this rental back yard was HUGE and as previously mentioned we never did much training with her because she just wasn't inclined to misbehave. JOKE WAS ON US.
That's when we figured out that we did indeed have a predator, and that it was Birdie. Seems that once her pain level was low enough, her beagle genes kicked in.

We started keeping the chickens in their pen full-time except when Birdie was inside the house, but they were NOT happy to go from mostly free-ranging to mostly chicken-run-chickens. So we gave them to a neighbor with a ridiculously large yard and no bloodthirsty dogs.

Thus ends the saga of why we don't have chickens any more. When Birdie shuffles off this mortal coil, we will come back to chicken-life. I have enjoyed being part of this community, and have received some truly excellent advice and kinship. I will be popping in here and there to enjoy the stories and pictures.

Warmly,
Danielle

Hi Danielle! What a rollercoaster! From LA to NC with quite the crzy stories in between. So, Grover and Birdie have had some of their own journeys/adventures along the way? Wow!

Ugh, I'm sorry to hear about the tough decisions you had to make, but it seems like you've handled everything well for all your critters.

Thanks so much for sharing your story with us, it's definitely a unique one! Looking forward to having you pop in whenever you can. Your experiences and insights are always welcome here!