Is it ok to have a house chicken?
I have an Old English Game banty cross who is a part time house chicken. She likes her dust baths outside and enjoys hunting bugs in the grass (although she misses half of them because she’s partly blind) but she also likes watching tv. She sleeps inside during the winter and will sometimes go out if it’s not too cold. In the summer she is a strict outdoors chicken. She has a ketchup obsession and likes popcorn and movies. She’s a year old but she hasn’t laid any eggs yet. She is afraid of chickens. She refuses to interact with my hens and runs in terror from my rooster. But this spring she adopted these chickens, when they were little baby orphans, and raised them all on her own! Still she’s scared of them now. She’s also very slow and is never in a hurry. She likes to look dogs in the eye and has visiously attacked my Labradoodle more than once.
But should chickens live indoors? Chickens still need to be chickens. I’ve heard of people who have a chicken or two locked up in a tiny dog crate in their house, and that’s not good. But some chickens, if they have a decent cage and get to go out at least once in a while, are well suited to living in the house. Other chickens are just meant to be outside. Picasso (that’s my chicken’s name and yes she does paint) has always loved people more than chickens. When she was just a few weeks old and living with her mother and siblings, she would seek me out and beg for attention. That’s why she’s been living in the house off and on, because she craves love and attention. But like I said, some chickens are not meant to be inside. Here’s a good post from a blog I follow on house chickens: http://hencam.com/henblog/2011/04/house-chickens/
So what is you opion on house chickens?
I have an Old English Game banty cross who is a part time house chicken. She likes her dust baths outside and enjoys hunting bugs in the grass (although she misses half of them because she’s partly blind) but she also likes watching tv. She sleeps inside during the winter and will sometimes go out if it’s not too cold. In the summer she is a strict outdoors chicken. She has a ketchup obsession and likes popcorn and movies. She’s a year old but she hasn’t laid any eggs yet. She is afraid of chickens. She refuses to interact with my hens and runs in terror from my rooster. But this spring she adopted these chickens, when they were little baby orphans, and raised them all on her own! Still she’s scared of them now. She’s also very slow and is never in a hurry. She likes to look dogs in the eye and has visiously attacked my Labradoodle more than once.
But should chickens live indoors? Chickens still need to be chickens. I’ve heard of people who have a chicken or two locked up in a tiny dog crate in their house, and that’s not good. But some chickens, if they have a decent cage and get to go out at least once in a while, are well suited to living in the house. Other chickens are just meant to be outside. Picasso (that’s my chicken’s name and yes she does paint) has always loved people more than chickens. When she was just a few weeks old and living with her mother and siblings, she would seek me out and beg for attention. That’s why she’s been living in the house off and on, because she craves love and attention. But like I said, some chickens are not meant to be inside. Here’s a good post from a blog I follow on house chickens: http://hencam.com/henblog/2011/04/house-chickens/
So what is you opion on house chickens?
