Chickens in the house

[Pampered Hen]

I currently have a hen in the house. She is healing her wounds from a hawk attack. She lives in a 2x3 ft. dog crate. This is a messy affair. I give her wet mash and man, when she flicks her beak, the stuff goes flying! She is not a pet-type chicken - doesn't like to get touched or held. She is a flighty Golden Campine and would much rather be outside! Not all chickens are made to be a house chicken and I believe they all prefer an outdoor run over a living room.
Apart from the pooping everywhere issue, we all know how destructive they can be. If you plan on taking a chicken inside to run "free" remove all house plants (in particular the toxic ones) and anything a chicken could swallow that might be bad for her (thumb nails, staples, etc.) Also, keep an eye on anything that is not attached properly i.e. loose ends of wall paper... Chickens have a really good eye for those things and they WILL investigate just about everything with their beaks and they will pull and pick until something comes loose! Just my 2 cents...

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Here you go

I just bought some chicken saddles from this lady and she's a wonderful chicken seamstress.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=131065

 

[nicokl502]

i have a chicken in a dog pen a way to keep the bedding from getting everywhere is to put cardboard around the bottom it helps a lot and there no mess it helps a lot

 

[froggiesheins]

I have 2 Serama hens that come in the house at night and they both have separate cages adjacent to each other. They come out w/ me for PC time,TV time or working in my shop time. I put polar fleece on my lap or in front of the PC and keep napkins cut up for the poopies. They both sleep in my bedroom (their own cage) and I use newpaper for the floor to keep the "mess" to a minumum. Because I only let them roam where there is bare floors, clean up is nominal and their company far out weighs the little bit of clean-up involved. Now if these guys were my big outside chickens, that would be a mess....And both birdies grew up inside a house and were handled from day one.

 

[Attack Chicken]

Had some birdies in the house today!

5 on the couch sitting and preening and just taking a nap (on a towel) and then my house chicken my serama roo on the floor. Only had maybe 3 little poops in 30-40 minutes? Easy to clean up but they were the solid poops and not the

ones.

Three house chickens here: Largefowl white leghorns Kernal and Krispy and then my serama roo Tyson. I'm still alive and kicking so they haven't killed me yet.

AC

 

[froggiesheins]

Quote:

 

[mrsbos]

Here is my 6 month old EE, Chickie, hanging out in our living room with her chicken diaper on (chickendiapers.com). We don't normally diaper them to roam the house, but we were getting her used to wearing it, because we were taking her to the kids' school that week. I have tons of carpet inside my house, and would never let them run around undiapered. We love bringing our girls in from time to time, however, to hold them in our laps and cuddle them. It's usually for no more than a half hour. When they start getting antsy, we take them back outside, where almost inevitably they proceed to deposit a large poop on the back patio. We haven't had one poop in our lap yet...knock on wood!

I think we've been bringing them in more often because it's been so cold and yukky outside, that no one wants to be outside to spend time with the chickens. When summer rolls around, we'll be hanging out with the girls outside---much more fun.

 

[jojo54]

Lulu, our lame chicken lives indoors in bad weather. She limps too much when it is cold and/or damp. She doesn't move around too much. We have a little roost (6" high) in the corner of the kitchen. We have an old piece of lino there to keep her food and water dishes. She likes to lay in front of the fridge on a little rug we have there. She usually stays out of the living room. I do have a footstool covered in an old sheet and towel where she sits when I'm on the computer. She doesn't wear a diaper so we have poo to clean off the floor BUT it rarely smells bad. She has a nest box that she uses when she lays which is not too regular.

In the summer, she stays outside most of the time and sleeps in her box in the garage. She does hop up the back steps when she wants in. She likes to cuddle and so do I.

 

[dianaross77]

I too have house chickens. Ours are Seramas. It's no different than any other house bird. I find that as long as they aren't eating when out of their cages, they don't usually poop. We sit with a towel in our laps and keep clorox wipes handy. We also don't have carpet and our furniture is leather so if anything gross happens we just wipe it down. The funny thing about these chickens is, they just kinda hang out wherever you put them. They don't really wander. I leave their cage door open for a couple hours a day and they choose when they want to fly out. Ours live in a big wire dog crate that is covered in black craft felt. It keeps the dust down and helps the rooster sleep in. As far as diseases go, I'm sure you could get them from outside chickens too. I would imagine you'd be walking through a fair amount of poo!

edited for grammar

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

My husband had two rules when I told him I wanted chickens:

- 4 max (although i just convinced him we need 5)
- And no chickens in the house!

But he wanders around nibbling on popcorn and dropping it all the time. I like to walk around barefoot and I'm constanly stepping on it. I finally said to him the other night, you keep dropping popcorn and I'm gonna let the girls in to clean up after you!