House Chickens

[SapphireHill]

Hi I’m a Backyard & House Chicken Educator who works with at-risk youth and those healing from grief and trauma. We do chicken assisted therapy as well as education for all ages and stages.

We also rehab and foster chickens for clients.

I’m very interested in how many BYC members keep house chickens and would love to hear your experiences as well as any tips and tricks you’ve learned along the way. Please post photos and names of your chickens if able!

 

[The Coop Crew]

I would love to have a house chicken but it would be a mess I’m sure
These are my girls.
Rose
Sophia
Dorothy (our sweet special cross beak girl)
& Blanche
The Golden Girls

 

[Callender Girl]

I've never heard of chicken-assisted therapy, but I think it sounds great!

I have one house chicken, and it wasn't intentional. She was given to me by an employee at a farm store when she was the only layer in a brooder full of broilers, larger chicks that were picking on her.
I couldn't put a single chick in with any of my adult birds, and it was September -- too late for her to fully feather out before the temperatures dropped anyway. So, Dottie was only supposed to be in the house until spring. Unfortunately, her early experiences with other chickens left her terrified of them. All of my attempts to get her integrated with other birds, even one other chicken, failed.

Dottie lives in a large wire dog kennel and has a plastic tote nest box. As she was a "mystery chick" at the feed store, I had to wait for her to grow up to know that she is a Prairie Bluebell Egger.

Until the addition of the newest overly friendly rescue dog, Dottie spent a lot of time out of her kennel; she gets along fine -- and will lay down -- with the other dog and a blind housecat. I know chickens are flock animals, but she doesn't seem to mind that her "flock" is made up of absolutely no chickens.

Dottie is very smart; she knows she likes non-GMO multi-grain chips (which I do not intentionally feed her) and learned to recognize the bag, climb into it and help herself.

Dottie likes outdoor field trips, which she takes on the other side of the fenced-in part of the yard where the rest of the chickens hang out. She knows the command "perch" and will ride on my arm.

Keeping Dottie indoors for 4 years has meant a lot of feathers, dust and dander in the house. If I could successfully move her outdoors, I probably would. Also, I think it's impossible to house train a chicken.

Aside from Dottie, only brooder chicks get to live in the house and only until they are feathered enough to move to one of the coops. Seven little girls will be moving out in about four weeks.

 

[Mrs. K]

Personally, I think chickens thrive in sunshine and fresh air. I would not recommend keeping a chicken inside fro people who are already struggling to meet their own life requirements. They would require a lot of cleaning, or living with a lot of dander and filth.

Much better to keep them outside, making people get outside too.

Mrs K

 

[The Coop Crew]

I've never heard of chicken-assisted therapy, but I think it sounds great!

I have one house chicken, and it wasn't intentional. She was given to me by an employee at a farm store when she was the only layer in a brooder full of broilers, larger chicks that were picking on her.
I couldn't put a single chick in with any of my adult birds, and it was September -- too late for her to fully feather out before the temperatures dropped anyway. So, Dottie was only supposed to be in the house until spring. Unfortunately, her early experiences with other chickens left her terrified of them. All of my attempts to get her integrated with other birds, even one other chicken, failed.

Dottie lives in a large wire dog kennel and has a plastic tote nest box. As she was a "mystery chick" at the feed store, I had to wait for her to grow up to know that she is a Prairie Bluebell Egger.

Until the addition of the newest overly friendly rescue dog, Dottie spent a lot of time out of her kennel; she gets along fine -- and will lay down -- with the other dog and a blind housecat. I know chickens are flock animals, but she doesn't seem to mind that her "flock" is made up of absolutely no chickens.

Dottie is very smart; she knows she likes non-GMO multi-grain chips (which I do not intentionally feed her) and learned to recognize the bag, climb into it and help herself.

Dottie likes outdoor field trips, which she takes on the other side of the fenced-in part of the yard where the rest of the chickens hang out. She knows the command "perch" and will ride on my arm.

Keeping Dottie indoors for 4 years has meant a lot of feathers, dust and dander in the house. If I could successfully move her outdoors, I probably would. Also, I think it's impossible to house train a chicken.

Aside from Dottie, only brooder chicks get to live in the house and only until they are feathered enough to move to one of the coops. Seven little girls will be moving out in about four weeks.

I love Dottie

 

[SapphireHill]

I would love to have a house chicken but it would be a mess I’m sure
These are my girls.
Rose
Sophia
Dorothy (our sweet special cross beak girl)
& Blanche
The Golden Girls

They are so cute. I love Blanche’s hairdo.

 

[SapphireHill]

I've never heard of chicken-assisted therapy, but I think it sounds great!

I have one house chicken, and it wasn't intentional. She was given to me by an employee at a farm store when she was the only layer in a brooder full of broilers, larger chicks that were picking on her.
I couldn't put a single chick in with any of my adult birds, and it was September -- too late for her to fully feather out before the temperatures dropped anyway. So, Dottie was only supposed to be in the house until spring. Unfortunately, her early experiences with other chickens left her terrified of them. All of my attempts to get her integrated with other birds, even one other chicken, failed.

Dottie lives in a large wire dog kennel and has a plastic tote nest box. As she was a "mystery chick" at the feed store, I had to wait for her to grow up to know that she is a Prairie Bluebell Egger.

Until the addition of the newest overly friendly rescue dog, Dottie spent a lot of time out of her kennel; she gets along fine -- and will lay down -- with the other dog and a blind housecat. I know chickens are flock animals, but she doesn't seem to mind that her "flock" is made up of absolutely no chickens.

Dottie is very smart; she knows she likes non-GMO multi-grain chips (which I do not intentionally feed her) and learned to recognize the bag, climb into it and help herself.

Dottie likes outdoor field trips, which she takes on the other side of the fenced-in part of the yard where the rest of the chickens hang out. She knows the command "perch" and will ride on my arm.

Keeping Dottie indoors for 4 years has meant a lot of feathers, dust and dander in the house. If I could successfully move her outdoors, I probably would. Also, I think it's impossible to house train a chicken.

Aside from Dottie, only brooder chicks get to live in the house and only until they are feathered enough to move to one of the coops. Seven little girls will be moving out in about four weeks.

Thank you for sharing about Dottie. She sounds adorable. We’ve found chickens have a spectrum of intelligence (like people) including specific languaging and also know a lot of human words. That’s been the biggest revelation in our work. They’re amazing sentient little beings.

 

[SapphireHill]

Personally, I think chickens thrive in sunshine and fresh air. I would not recommend keeping a chicken inside fro people who are already struggling to meet their own life requirements. They would require a lot of cleaning, or living with a lot of dander and filth.

Much better to keep them outside, making people get outside too.

Mrs K

Yes you’re right about the sunshine and fresh air. All chickens deserve that. Being a proper house chicken doesn’t mean they lack that at all. In fact they get a lot of it plus more connection and attention as well.

There are ways and methods of reducing the spread of dander and eliminating mess too.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Mrs. K]

There are ways and methods of reducing the spread of dander and eliminating mess too.

Thanks for sharing.

What are the ways and methods? How do you take them outside?

 

[Azhtann]

I had a hen who refused to integrate with any of my flocks, no matter how much I tried. I seriously considered making her a house chicken. I planned to teach her to use the dog door already installed, and build a run on the outside for her. It never came to that, as she integrated with my seramas at the time. I got her from a family who was giving her away because her owner was going to college. She has lost a toe as a chick and had to be separated, and never learned how to be a chicken after healing up. I was very grateful that she took to the seramas, and through them learned how to properly "chicken", so turning my laundry room into a chicken house was not necessary.