House Chicken Experiences Needed

[gryeyes]

I only do "bathroom" chickens, either very young chicks in a brooder or convalescing chickens. I have grown very fond of two I had to bring in, but I don't intend to make them into house chickens. I love the quality time I have with them. and their antics in the bathroom are very much fun to observe. Fritzie is well enough to go outside, but when I brought Yul inside (he had been bullied and pecked bald) they became BFFs. So they'll stay in the bathroom for a while longer.

Fritzie taught Yul how to jump to the metal grate cover over the babies' brooder and "sun bathe" under the heat lamp!!!

 

[riftnreef]

I keep birds inside, but the circumstance is a bit different then just pet house chickens. I built a room into my basement that is 8x18 and devided into two sections. The room is closed off, and has ventalation to the outside via bath fan built into the block basement window. The floor is sealed concrete covered with about 2 inches of pine shavings changed about every two weeks. Lighting is provided via 2 48" shop lights with plant bulbs and 2 more 24" lights hung low with reptile UVA/UVB lights for the birds health since they don't get out during the winter months much. One side contains 6 Serama's, the other 2 Bantam Cochins. These birds are indoors for a couple of reasons...1) I can't do roosters in the city, so any birds I want to breed I have to do this with. 2) The Serama's are too small for the big girl coop, and don't care much for the Ohio winters. 3) Likewise, the Cochins don't do well with the LF outside, and the summers are brutal on them.

I brood all my babies inside until they are at least two months old, but again, I have a special area set up in the bastment for this purpose as the dust generated is astounding. It takes a good deal of work and diligence to keep them indoors most of the time, but for breeding and exhibition purposes it has served me pretty well. The important thing is to make sure they can get some outdoor time when needed. Keep the bedding clean and dry at all times. I myself would not keep them upstairs though as it's just too much to deal with...however, if you have an itch to have pet birds...may I recomend quail? My daughter kept a pair in her bedroom for some time and they were great pets.

 

[7L Farm]

Nope. No chickens in my house. I built them a house. I see people getting giant dogs & they raise them on porches. To me thats cruel but to each & his own. I agree chickens like to be outside scratching the ground and eating bugs. Sleeping on the roost with the flock. Also, where would they bathe if their inside. Chickens like dirt.

 

[Kharmel]

They STINK!! I have one who had a broken leg and can't wait till it warms up in a few months and she can go outside. I'm at work all day, she stays in her cage but in the evening, I let her out for excercise with a chicken diaper.

I clean the cage daily and my house still smells like chicken poop!

Unless you are home all day and able to and want to jump up everytime to clean it up....believe me.....They can stink up a house quickly.

I greet her every night when I come home with "Hi Stinky girl". It doesn't help that she had diarrhea for a week and shot it out of the cage and onto the floor and walls.

I still love her but cannot wait to evict her.

 

[Buugette]

My mother has a bantam polish rooster that lives in the house. She loves him and he is a good boy. He has a large bird cage, modified for him, to sleep in... but during the day, he is mostly out. When he visits my house, he wears his diaper, but at his house, he is pretty well trained.

I have a bantam polish hen, Wilamena, who lives mostly in the house. I have a backyard coop and pen for my girls, but Wilamena prefers to be inside with us. She spends most of her time in the sunroom on "her" chair and comes in to dinner with the family. She gets her own little plate (on the floor, of course)... and when done, heads back out to the sunroom. She does like to watch animal planet and will come in and lay with one of us and watch TV.

My other girls come in to visit once in a while, and they are very well behaved. They have their "accidents", but we are prepared and respond accordingly. Personally, I would much rather my chicken drop a dry oops on the floor than my elderly, very sweet, cocker spaniel pee all over the place due to a leaky bladder. (I don't even bother putting the carpet cleaner away anymore.)

In our house, it is normal to see a chicken in the window, or on the ottoman watching animal planet. My girls do not smell, and I keep the open cage that they sometimes sleep in very clean and tidy. They are also bathed as needed, are very cooperative when they need feet washing and such. They are also much smarter than many people think. When I put them in the wash basin for cleaning, Wilamena will hold her foot up for me to wash... then switch and hold the other up for me. I firmly believe it is all in how they are raised.

D

 

[featherz]

Only babies and invalids in my house. The dust would kill me otherwise! And if the weather is above freezing, even the babies (with a heat lamp) and the invalids go out in my sunroom - that has a concrete floor and two isolation cages. I kept birds in the house (in a brooder) for 6 weeks once and OMG the dust!!

 

[Want Less]

Ive definitely read and heard about people having "house chickens" but I think I'd have to pass on it! I couldn't have waited another day to evict our chicks from the brooder and get them out of the house... even in a huge fish tank that I cleaned multiple times a day, I couldn't keep up with all the dust EVERYWHERE. I can't imagine just letting them loose around the house -- the novelty of it would wear off really fast for me!

 

[blaundee]

Does anyone have any pics and patterns for diapers?

 

[Buugette]

There are a couple different people on here that make them...

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

and I like these too...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=437601

 

[QuinnP]

I have a spoiled rotten house rooster, a wee banty named Arlo. Since he cannot walk he sits in one place & doesn't move. He sleeps in the bed with me on a towel & a fleece blankie, cries if he gets left alone. He is hand fed & watered, rocked & petted, & he is generally quiet unless I put him down & then he squawks. He doesn't wear a diaper & I clean his butt every time he poopoo's. (He hates it) He loves to go outside but sneaking him past the other tenants is hard. (Its illegal to have a rooster within the city limits)