Thank you! You are very kind! (I only take pictures of the "clean" areas; the rest is usually chaos!)
I get the whiff too! Although, sometimes it's more like a cloud of stink. 3 kids, 3 cats, 2 dogs and a butt load of chickens, there are many culprits for said cloud of funk. I think you're always more sensitive to the smells in your own home though. By the brooder, I had two air purifiers, but they clog with dust within a day no matter how much I clean. But for the smell, I found that mixing pine shavings and the paper bedding for small animals works best. I also put a fan in the window blowing OUT rather than in, and it helps pull the air out of the area. Really though, I think if you have any kind of pet, strange smells come with the territory. Of course, the same can be said about my kids and husband, so for me, there's really no escaping it! Lol
I'm loving having pet chickens. I definitely think they are becoming my favorite house pets. Some people give me a hard time about it, like my Dad when he comes to visit. He thinks we're all going to die from salmonella and he refuses to eat the eggs. If he knew the conditions of the chickens that supplied store bought eggs, he'd see how ridiculous he's being. My friends and neighbors are always surprised to see a chicken watching TV on the couch at first, but are usually more curious than anything. There's even a few who, after seeing mine and how they CAN make great pets, took the plunge and got a couple themselves. House chickens are actually becoming a thing, especially for city dwelling hipsters who want to take organic to a whole new level.
Well, I am truly relieved to know that I am not the only one with the "WHIFF" and the "CLOUD" lol!! Anytime I am sick and feeling under the weather for a few days, we usually get visited by the dreaded "CLOUD". When I wake up in the morning and walk out of the bedroom, there is always an unsavory aroma greeting me. However, when I come home every day and walk in the back door, there usually isn't. It just a fresh smell, unless of course the chickens inside need changing, then its that yeasty bread aroma. I feed them a fermented mash and sometimes their poop smells like freshly baked sourdough lol. I guess it could be worse!
Several months ago, to make a long story short, a random cat showed up and my dogs treed it. I brought him inside and after a couple of months found him a home on craigslist. WELL, in those few months I was trying to find him a home, there was a world war 3 raging in my house. My 2 cats started a revolution in defiance of the new cat, and I am about 99.9% sure someone peed behind my washer. My "laundry room" is actually the hallway between my bedroom door and the kitchen, so every time I walk out of the bedroom, I think that is why I smell cat pee. Its just in that one area that its so bad. Everyone says I can smell things they cant, been that way ever since I had my son lol. I just call it the "mom nose". Maybe that is why I am so sensitive sometimes. We have 2 cats, a snake, and 2 parakeets in the house, aside from the house chickens. Really the only thing that smells are the cat boxes. Well, and the chickens when they need a change. So I don't know why we have such a barnyard aroma at times! I try really hard to keep my house clean. it may not be the most picked up house in the world, we dont have much storage space anyways, but it is at least clean, messy sometimes, but clean. My mom always makes sure to tell me that my house smells like a zoo and that I am messy lol. but this is a woman who worked out of her home most of her life and cleaned any time she was not doing something else. I just don't have that kind of time. As long as I can walk across the floor without something sticking to my foot, or cook and eat without cat hair being in my food, I don't really worry too much!!
It really is amazing to me how much more popular chickens are now than when i was younger. I really do think if more people knew where their eggs were coming from, they would own their own chicken or two or 3 or 20. It really is such a shame how they house those chickens. I have watched several shows where they rescue those chickens and find them new homes, it is amazing how much abuse and neglect they can tolerate and still lay eggs. I wish I lived back in a time of self sufficiency where everyone tended to animals and gardens all day for a living instead of sitting in this office in front of this computer doing paperwork! I would be much happier AND much healthier!! I kinda hope to one day make it to that point, where we raise a lot of our own food!
But anyways, back to chickens. What do your chickens like to watch on TV?? Me and PJs usually watch TV every night and she really truly does seem to enjoy it. It really cracks me up. Last night we were watching netflix and some show they were talking about mantis shrimp. They showed one zoomed in close and PJ's was not really sure what to think about it. I couldnt tell if she thought that was the biggest bug she had ever seen and she wanted to eat it, or that was the biggest bug she'd ever seen and she wanted to hide from it!! but she sure did vocalize about it lol.
I have noticed that she makes different noises than the other chickens. Her noises are very quiet and short, little berrrr ber berp sounds. There the other chickens are loud and drawn out and crazy. I wonder if she just "talks" to me differently than she talks to other chickens? Idk, she sure is a sweetie tho, I am smitten!
