Managing/ Moving birds inside from outside?

[Lilac Ginata]

I have 4 chickens who live at my friends farm with his 10 chickens. My friend is talking about selling his small farm meaning my girls would have to go. I would hate to get rid of all of my sweet girls and would like to keep at least one But she would have to be moved inside my townhouse in a large rabbit hutch. Has anyone else every raised a pet chicken indoors? Which of my 4 girls would be best suited for indoor life? I have a speckled sussex who is very very smart, a red sex link about to start laying, and two welsummer pullets still very young. Thank you so much for any input!

 

[centrarchid]

I have done similar for a range of reasons. Cleanliness will be difficult to realize. Keep their confinement in a well ventilated area, preferably with an easy to clean surface such as linoleum. Also try to keep them on some sort of fiber like wood ships. The fiber will absorb much of the moisture produced. Keep water well away from fiber. Make so feces can be collected and removed promptly from roosting birds. Also increase fiber levels in diet to promote a more manageable fecal pellet. I like to use more intact greens like dark leafy lettuce and even BOSS (black oil sunflower seed). I also like to provide a restricted ration with respect to your typical poultry feed. The poultry feeds re well balanced for intensively reared production flocks but also promote the nastier feces, especially with respect to the cecal poop. If you reduce the number of birds a little then feeding silly things like meal worms in addition to standard fare can help.

A proper diet can make so cleanup even when bird is running about on kitchen floor is easy to clean up. All this playing around to promote cleanliness will force you to under the chicken's nutritional requirements and how to meet them. You can do it but may find your self providing a ration that is very similar to what a wild jungle fowl would prefer to consume.