people with house chickens

[jossanne]

Trophy, my bantam cochin, is three weeks old now, and I'm about to decide she's a she.

By this age, my hatchery cochins have been easy to tell the little cockerels, but I don't know how quickly breeder quality birds mature. She's still being slow to feather out, but she is finally getting a tail and feathers on her back and chest. I'm really

that she's a girl, because I know my hunny won't have a problem with me keeping her inside. If she's a cockerel, then it will still take time to convince him. When I first brought her to my bed at nap time though, he picked her up and put her on his chest, and started making funny faces, trying to get her interested in his lips and teeth. Only when she climbed up his face did he get afraid she was going to poo on him

, and he passed her off to me.

She's been in a brooder with giant cochins, LF brahmas and LF wyandottes, and she's looked so tiny in there. But my new order of bantams came Thursday from Ideal, so the big girls moved out to the big girl brooder outside. So now Trophy lives in a brooder with newly hatched bantams and she looks HUGE in there.

It's amazing how much they grow in three weeks. Anyway, the brooder is right next to my puter table, naturally, and when I sit down here, Trophy looks out at me like she's waiting to be picked up. So she's sitting on my left wrist while I type and surf the net tonight.

She's getting really friendly, and I'm growing very attached to her. Today at naptime, she insisted on curling up right under my chin. Every few minutes she'd stir and peck at my face a bit, then snuggle down deeper into my neck.

I'm just crazy about this little bird, and am so excited to have such a doll baby to keep in the house with me. I've never had one more friendly.

Anyway... I could go on all night, but I'll just

now, and post a couple of pics. This is her Thursday, having a photo shoot with the new babies. First you can see her in the edge of the pic when I was taking a pic of a bantam GLW. See how big she is?

And then here she is, looking cute.

 

[feather leg farms]

I had a splash silkie and she was in the house for months! The rooster had tried to breed her and it made a sore on her leg where she mush have gotten a bad infection because she died just recently!! She was inside from octoberish to last week!

R.I.P Sassy)

 

[mylittlechickpea]

Jossanne, she's beautiful

I'm sure she's one happy chick to get to stay in a while longer.

Feather leg, I'm sorry to here of your loss

That's terrible

Here's those pics of Chickpea wearing her diaper that I've been saying I'll put up for a while now... Her poo's are so big, I have to change it so often, and I hate fussing with it so often. I don't want her to get upset with it and refuse to wear it, but it starts to sag, even though there is still room in the pouch, so maybe just a llittle more modification on the straps again..

My vacuum is starting to smell...

 

[FeatherMommy]

Yeah, I find that think straps like that and a low back tends to sag once they poop even the smallest bit. I would try some thicker straps.

 

[mylittlechickpea]

I think I'll try making the back a bit higher, too, I didn't realize how long she's getting...

 

[t4dbirds]

Love this thread. I have two cochin banties. One is a Frizzle and the other feels so silky soft. Anyway, I think they have become house chics

I was trying to figure out how to have chickens with the rules of the home assoc. But they have become so spoiled and love to nap on the dog beds I don't have the heart to throw them out in the yard when they are old enough and take my chance of not not getting caught. I'll just let them out to roam when my neighbor (the only one that can see me) is at work.

They are such a blast to watch run around the house. Poppy the white silkie one (I'll add pics when I learn how) chase me from the dining room to the kitchen then back again every time I get up. They won't sleep unless snuggled in a towel for about 10-15 mins then still chatter at each other when put in the crate. I've got to figure out a better indoor coup. This one I can't put pine in as they are able to kick it all over the place and so I only have newspaper down and my house reeks no matter how often I change the paper.

I think I may have missed the potty training week opportunity so hoping I can convince my sister into making some diapers for me. My two dogs are getting more used to them. Though Fizzle, the black Frizzle tries to use one of them to get up to the couch(freaks the dogs out!). She can't jump that high but Poppy can. Most of the time Fizzle will use my foot to sit on and then I lift it up to the coffee table and she walks up my leg to the couch. Pretty soon Poppy walks over and they are both perched on my leg before I can get it back down.

I've decided that if they any neighbor sees them I'll tell them they are some new breed of parrots. I wonder if they would believe me if I told them they were Chihuahua that walk on two legs

though I'm not sure I can explain the chirping!

I love seeing the pics and reading all your posts about indoor chickens. Makes me feel a little less alone in my nuttyness! Then again how far fetched is having two bantam chickens when I have a cocktail, canary, and an African Grey!I mean it's just two more birds? Right? with two dogs, 1 cat, 1 mouse and a 36gal fish tank and 1 human---- me

 

[jossanne]

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Oh no, you have definitely joined the nuttiness! I have one husband, 6 kids, one house chick, 15 bantam chicks in a brooder, 3 dogs, 3 mama cats (who usually live outside but are in right now) with 11 kittens between them, one inside cat, one inside/outside cat, and one guinea pig in my house. Can't wait to move all the mamas and kittens back out, but the rest can stay. Except maybe my 17yo son...

Forgot to add,

Glad you've joined us!

 

[kgw]

So now I can admit that I rearranged my bedroom closet, took out all the clothes, put down easy to clean panels until it got warm enough to move them outside?

 

[t4dbirds]

Thanks Jossanne, I just wonder what my zoo would be like if I was married and he was into animals too, cause you know I won't give up any of my zoo so he'd have to love them too!

LOL kgw, the lengths we go to for our animals to keep them warm and happy!

 

[FeatherMommy]

LOL I am married to a man that isn't into animals like me. He just puts up with them because he knows I would not be happy without my animals...that being said I still have a zoo. 2 house chickens, 2 cockatiels, 4 parakeets, 1 sparrow, 1 dog, 1 turtle. And believe me..I want more! lmao

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