Hello folks of the WWW... Actually I'd spent some time on BYC last summer when I was looking for plans to build our coop. Haven't been in here for a while, but was reminded of the site by an article in MotherEarthNews & thought I'd come back for a visit. Haven't got tons of time & so I might not be a regular contributor, but you've got a great thing going on in here... Kudos for that!!
We live deep within a city of 120,000 or so & have a little coop (a City Biddy Hen House, from UBuilderplans.com), with 4 hens. This site was pretty good about giving us some of the right questions to ask when getting into the whole hen thing. Our city doesn't have very clear guidelines about hens, but we checked it out with our neighbours before doing anything and followed guidelines that we'd seen in other municipalities (15' from common passage way, 10-12' from property line, no roosters, etc.).
Our 3 kids have enjoyed this hobby immensely and the neighbourhood kids think that we have just about the coolest pets going especially since the kids have the hens quite tamed & can pick them up, walk around with them, etc.
Lost 3 of 4 hens the first year (didn't know that you couldn't feed them potatoes/peelings - someone had just said... "They're like pigs! They'll eat anything!" ... live & learn). This spring we got 3 day-old chicks & raised them in the basement until they were old enough to go out & be 'henpecked' by "mama".
Anyway... it's a great adventure!!
Happy Henning!
SJMike
missionpoint.ca
vie.nouvelle.over-blog.com
We live deep within a city of 120,000 or so & have a little coop (a City Biddy Hen House, from UBuilderplans.com), with 4 hens. This site was pretty good about giving us some of the right questions to ask when getting into the whole hen thing. Our city doesn't have very clear guidelines about hens, but we checked it out with our neighbours before doing anything and followed guidelines that we'd seen in other municipalities (15' from common passage way, 10-12' from property line, no roosters, etc.).
Our 3 kids have enjoyed this hobby immensely and the neighbourhood kids think that we have just about the coolest pets going especially since the kids have the hens quite tamed & can pick them up, walk around with them, etc.
Lost 3 of 4 hens the first year (didn't know that you couldn't feed them potatoes/peelings - someone had just said... "They're like pigs! They'll eat anything!" ... live & learn). This spring we got 3 day-old chicks & raised them in the basement until they were old enough to go out & be 'henpecked' by "mama".
Anyway... it's a great adventure!!
Happy Henning!
SJMike
missionpoint.ca
vie.nouvelle.over-blog.com
