people with house chickens

[MsChickenMomma]

Hello everyone.

Just wanted to let everyone know that Sunni is still doing well. I just got home from visiting my boyfriend last week (he lives out of state), and I was gone for two weeks. Sunni did surprisingly well in my absence. I have never left her before, so I was worried about how she would handle me being gone. She was very grumpy, and wasn't happy about having someone else care for her. But she did well. She ate good, and even gained some weight. Which is good, because she was only 4 lbs 13 oz. Which is quite small for a Buff Orpington.

Another thing I thought I would share, is that I am going to be welcoming another chicken into the house! His name is Stephen. He is a 7 week old, rare Kentucky Speck bantam that my boyfriend hatched out. My boyfriend has been trying to breed his four Kentucky Speck bantams for a few years now, and hasn't been having very good luck with it... He has one male and female rose comb, and one male and female straight comb, of that breed. The hens only lay eggs certain times of the year, and their hatch rate is very low. Last year he was only able to hatch one egg out of several that he set, and the one that hatched was a mix (Silkie and Kentucky Speck), and she became his house chicken.

Well, this year two hatched, and they were both pure Kentucky Specks. But sadly one of them died when it was around 3-4 weeks old, leaving the other by itself.

My boyfriend tried unsuccessfully, a few different times, to integrate Stephen into one of his young flocks. But the poor guy just kept getting pecked bloody. So we took him out of there and brought him back into the house. We then decided that since my boyfriend really can't have another chicken in the house, that the best option for Stephen would be for him to come live with me. We were hoping we would be allowed to just take him on the flight home with me, but the airlines wouldn't allow that. Even if he was shipped as cargo. So he is currently still at my boyfriends house, while we try to figure out the best option to get him from AR to MI.

Hopefully everything goes well with getting him here, and I'll be able to welcome the little guy into the family. And hopefully miss Sunni doesn't mind sharing her room.

Hope you and your house babies are all doing well! -Ashley

 

[Sylvester017]

Who all here has "permanent" house chickens?
I would like to hear more about your experience with your chicken living indoors.
I would also like to hear about your chicken learning to wear diapers.
My silkie is having a difficult time learning to wear diapers. My seramas had no trouble after a few days... not sure how to help my silkie adjust.

Our Silkie was about 3 maybe 4 months old when we decided she was going to need diapers if she was free to roam the house. I sewed the diaper pattern from chickenmom on youtube and custom fit it to our Silkie. It was a 2-person job holding a Silkie while the other person had to go over 10 toes massively struggling to push away the straps. After finally figuring how to get over all the 10 toes and fluffy feathers we found the velcro was the wrong choice of fastener for the straps because the fluffy fur got stuck in the velcro. Back to the drawing board and the next diaper we used giant safety pins to pin the straps together. Finally got the diaper on and then she only wanted to fall over or walk backwards in the diaper. My DH got an idea to hold onto the back shoulder straps and nudge/pull gently forward on the straps so the Silkie's little legs were going forward and not backwards. DH did this for about 60 seconds or until the Silkie got the idea to go forwards. Our Ameraucana REFUSED to move in her diaper and just sat around and moped and wouldn't eat or drink while the diaper was on. After a couple days we stopped diapering her and just kept her out for little spells without a diaper but mostly she had to stay in her indoor dog kennel. We tried 2 different styles and sizes of diapers on her and she NEVER would move in any of them!

There is different feedback from ppl who have had various experiences both negative and positive about diapers so you'll have to figure out which style of diaper and what temperament of chicken you have before something works. For our Silkie it was pulling gently forward holding the shoulder straps to get her moving forward - sometimes we had to adjust the safety pin higher or lower on the shoulders/back. In fact, every time we used the diaper we went through this routine to get her adjusted to walking forward - for our Ameraucana this never worked. Our Buff Leghorn took a little longer walking forward but she eventually mastered it. After a week of cleaning big poops in a Leghorn diaper we decided it was better keeping the bigger chicken outside. For a fluffy Silkie butt we had to give just her vent feathers a baby shampoo rinse every evening with low-heat blow drying before putting her to sleep every night and allowed her butt to "air out" overnight. After about 3 months of wearing diapers her vent area got sparser on feathers but by then she was old enough to be integrated into the outside flock and didn't need diapers anymore. A couple times we had to keep the Silkie indoors for recuperating from illness or injury and we had to go through the whole routine of pulling on the straps to get her to walk forwards. She's our smartest most easily-trained chicken and remembered how to walk in the diaper after just a couple minutes. Our Ameraucana was independent and stubborn and absolutely refused the diapers.

 

[Sylvester017]

I dropped radbird off with the lovely people who ave her to me today. They are so sweet and let me bring over her playhouse coop and asked for detailed instructions on how to care for her.

We stopped at tacobell for her favorite treat before I left. The lady at the drive-thru was thrilled to see her

She got a beef stuffed nacho all to herself, here's the aftermath.


I'm spending three weeks up in oregon, I miss her already!!

I love ppl who LUV their chickens! Is she an OEG?

Watch out for fast foods. We researched that animals like dogs, chickens, etc, get leukemia-type symptoms and small dogs have died -- from onions. A man fed a leftover restaurant steak that was smothered in onions to his Yorkshire Terrier and it got sick and died within a week. A woman in India was feeding a diet of high onions and garlic to her chickens and couldn't understand why her chickens were ill. Fast foods are notorious for using onions, onion salt, onion powder, seasoned salt containing onion in their meat mixtures and salsas, so this is just a heads-up. Most fast foods like Jack-in-the-Box, Del Taco, Taco Bell, Burger King, McDonald's, etc, will use fillers like soy, wheat, gluten, in their hispanic meats. Jack-in-the-Box uses a meat/soy/beans mash in their cheap tacos. Onion seasoning of some sort is used in all meat mixtures or brines in the restaurant industry.

So glad you got the best chicken-sitter in town!

 

[Naliez]

 

[Ponyfeather]

Sadly Topaz might be a boy my dad says I can't keep even if I got note from my doctor.

 

[Sylvester017]

Sadly Topaz might be a boy my dad says I can't keep even if I got note from my doctor.

How are you all figuring Topaz might be a boy? Is he getting a red or large comb, is he crowing, is there some other criteria you're using? Your dad may just be preparing you in advance to face that you may have to re-home Topaz if it's a boy. It's really a shame to have to re-home cockerels - they are really much sweeter than hens. We re-homed a cockerel last month but at least he went to a friend's farm and they love him (he won't be someone's dinner!).

 

[Ponyfeather]

How are you all figuring Topaz might be a boy?  Is he getting a red or large comb, is he crowing, is there some other criteria you're using?  Your dad may just be preparing you in advance to face that you may have to re-home Topaz if it's a boy.  It's really a shame to have to re-home cockerels - they are really much sweeter than hens.  We re-homed a cockerel last month but at least he went to a friend's farm and they love him (he won't be someone's dinner!).

Comb is pink sometimes red and Topaz has the start of wattles which also go red/pink at times.. No crowing yet also my dad is just being a punk about Topaz being possibly a boy. While we aren't suppose to have roosters here they are all over + with Topaz being inside most of the time their shouldn't be much crowing I have only heard Topaz's sire crow a handful of times. It is more he doesn't see a reason to keep Topaz if they are rooster because no eggs. Even though that isn't the main reason I keep a chicken. I keep one for companionship so I am not alone all day I am disabled. Really a rooster would honestly be a better option since he won't let me keep more then one hen at a time.Even though legslly we can have up to six!

 

[Ponyfeather]

wrong photo

 

[Sylvester017]

Comb is pink sometimes red and Topaz has the start of wattles which also go red/pink at times.. No crowing yet also my dad is just being a punk about Topaz being possibly a boy. While we aren't suppose to have roosters here they are all over + with Topaz being inside most of the time their shouldn't be much crowing I have only heard Topaz's sire crow a handful of times. It is more he doesn't see a reason to keep Topaz if they are rooster because no eggs. Even though that isn't the main reason I keep a chicken. I keep one for companionship so I am not alone all day I am disabled. Really a rooster would honestly be a better option since he won't let me keep more then one hen at a time.Even though legslly we can have up to six!

Gorgeous Topaz. Pullets will get their tail feathers usually earlier than cockerels. Our 5-mo Breda cockerel had only a couple-three tail feathers where our Breda pullet's tail was fully formed by 5 months. I don't know if that will help you ID Topaz but I've read numerous times from owners where the females feather out more quickly than the males.

You are fortunate to be zoned for 6 hens. We're zoned for 5 only but we have 4 chickens and it's more than enough for our backyard. I get a new pullet about every 2 years so there is always at least one hen laying. The older ones that don't lay as much are still good for the garden and eating insects - or just for their entertainment value!

 

[Ponyfeather]

Thanks and I have heard some wyndottes get combs + wattles early so fingers crosses. But my mom finally talked my dad into letting everyone take on another chick later this month just in case Topaz is a boy. If not the other chick will go live at a friends.

Topaz is also still such a sweet thing no cockerel aggression so far. Just turned 6 weeks.