Hello, all. My name is Donnie, but most people call me by my stage name of Lord J. I am a horror rap and EDM(dubstep/glitch/techno) artist, and I am also the bassist for the death metal band, Solomon's Temple.
I recently became the owner of a Rhode Island Red hen, and I had been strictly performing Google searches for info that I needed on caring for this bird. Nearly every thing that I looked up had found a post from this site, so I felt that I really needed to join, in case I had any other questions, or even some advice in the future. Let me tell you a bit about how I came to own this bird.
One Friday evening, my mother and I were in the back yard, and she was doing her Hip Hop Abs workout in front of the TV that we have out there. She got my attention and with a huge smile, she nodded her head towards a gate in our back yard, the gate that leads to her fiance's back yard(he lives next door to us). I thought that maybe he was back there doing something very goofy, like he always does. However, when I stood up and looked, lo and behold, there's a chicken in our back yard. I was shocked, because our yard, as well as my mom's fiance's, are completely fenced in. The only way she could have gotten in the yard is she would have had to climb a couple of logs in the back neighbor's yard and hopped over the fence. I didn't care. I got some rice and lettuce for her, until I could get to a feed store. I figured, even if I was just gonna babysit her for a few days, I might as well actually give her what she needs. We never received a reply to our Craigslist ads and telephone flyers about "Found Chicken", so we are now the proud owners of this beautiful bird(it's been well over 30 days that we've been caring for her).
The chicken's tail feathers were pretty badly damaged when she showed up in our yard, to the point where you could see bare skin on her tail. When I saw this, I immediately thought the worst, that she was used as a bait chicken for training a fighting cock. Fortunately, though, I have watched enough shows on Animal Planet to know that bait birds, as well as the fighting cocks, will all have their beaks filed down to minimize killing. I looked at her beak, and sure enough, it was untouched, which gave me assurance that she probably wasn't abused. She was very skiddish, though, which leads me to believe that she may not have been an actual pet, but rather just a source of eggs. But now, she is very calm around my mom and I, even to the point of allowing me to pick her up and carry her around, and she doesn't "freak out" like she used to. I do want to ask something now. Only one of her wings appears to have been clipped(all of the feathers around the edge were cut, with some quill remaining). The other wing is untouched. Will those feathers eventually shed and regrow? I'm just curious.
During the day, she has had free roam of our entire yard(about 6000 sq. ft.) since we have had her, and we are planning on getting 2-3 more RIRs, just so that she can have the social life that all forms of avians need to be happy. It's just a matter of us finding some that we can get. We are also still working on building a nice coop. We just have a 5.5 foot high poultry netting pen set up that she is put in during the night, and there is tarp covering the top of it to protect her from the weather. We put a table with a ramp under the tarp, with a milk basket on it for her to make a nest and lay in(we have given her a big basket of pine straw to make the nest with), and she has actually made a nice nest in there. Tonight, she kept trying to find a way out of the pen, even trying to fly out, so I let her roam a bit longer tonight. She ended up jumping up on another table, close to where I was sitting outside. She laid down, and went to sleep. I left her to rest for a while, and just an hour or two ago, I picked her up and put her in the pen. I have a feeling that she is becoming fond of me.
Well, now that you have read my little book about Ruby(that's what I call her, lol), you know the whole story behind how I got her. I've never had birds before, but my mom has had ducks in the past, so she has a bit of experience. I do know that since finding this site when I was looking up plants that are toxic to chickens, I have found so much other stuff that I was looking for, so I am happy to consider BYC to be an Avian Encyclopedia
If there's anything else that you want to know about me, instead of Ruby, feel free to ask. I am an open book.
I recently became the owner of a Rhode Island Red hen, and I had been strictly performing Google searches for info that I needed on caring for this bird. Nearly every thing that I looked up had found a post from this site, so I felt that I really needed to join, in case I had any other questions, or even some advice in the future. Let me tell you a bit about how I came to own this bird.
One Friday evening, my mother and I were in the back yard, and she was doing her Hip Hop Abs workout in front of the TV that we have out there. She got my attention and with a huge smile, she nodded her head towards a gate in our back yard, the gate that leads to her fiance's back yard(he lives next door to us). I thought that maybe he was back there doing something very goofy, like he always does. However, when I stood up and looked, lo and behold, there's a chicken in our back yard. I was shocked, because our yard, as well as my mom's fiance's, are completely fenced in. The only way she could have gotten in the yard is she would have had to climb a couple of logs in the back neighbor's yard and hopped over the fence. I didn't care. I got some rice and lettuce for her, until I could get to a feed store. I figured, even if I was just gonna babysit her for a few days, I might as well actually give her what she needs. We never received a reply to our Craigslist ads and telephone flyers about "Found Chicken", so we are now the proud owners of this beautiful bird(it's been well over 30 days that we've been caring for her).
The chicken's tail feathers were pretty badly damaged when she showed up in our yard, to the point where you could see bare skin on her tail. When I saw this, I immediately thought the worst, that she was used as a bait chicken for training a fighting cock. Fortunately, though, I have watched enough shows on Animal Planet to know that bait birds, as well as the fighting cocks, will all have their beaks filed down to minimize killing. I looked at her beak, and sure enough, it was untouched, which gave me assurance that she probably wasn't abused. She was very skiddish, though, which leads me to believe that she may not have been an actual pet, but rather just a source of eggs. But now, she is very calm around my mom and I, even to the point of allowing me to pick her up and carry her around, and she doesn't "freak out" like she used to. I do want to ask something now. Only one of her wings appears to have been clipped(all of the feathers around the edge were cut, with some quill remaining). The other wing is untouched. Will those feathers eventually shed and regrow? I'm just curious.
During the day, she has had free roam of our entire yard(about 6000 sq. ft.) since we have had her, and we are planning on getting 2-3 more RIRs, just so that she can have the social life that all forms of avians need to be happy. It's just a matter of us finding some that we can get. We are also still working on building a nice coop. We just have a 5.5 foot high poultry netting pen set up that she is put in during the night, and there is tarp covering the top of it to protect her from the weather. We put a table with a ramp under the tarp, with a milk basket on it for her to make a nest and lay in(we have given her a big basket of pine straw to make the nest with), and she has actually made a nice nest in there. Tonight, she kept trying to find a way out of the pen, even trying to fly out, so I let her roam a bit longer tonight. She ended up jumping up on another table, close to where I was sitting outside. She laid down, and went to sleep. I left her to rest for a while, and just an hour or two ago, I picked her up and put her in the pen. I have a feeling that she is becoming fond of me.
Well, now that you have read my little book about Ruby(that's what I call her, lol), you know the whole story behind how I got her. I've never had birds before, but my mom has had ducks in the past, so she has a bit of experience. I do know that since finding this site when I was looking up plants that are toxic to chickens, I have found so much other stuff that I was looking for, so I am happy to consider BYC to be an Avian Encyclopedia
If there's anything else that you want to know about me, instead of Ruby, feel free to ask. I am an open book.
and Welcome To BYC! Nice introduction! Good luck with Ruby!
