people with house chickens

[MaddiesMum]

Agreed! Adorable! He looks like such a sweet boy.

On the topic of diapers, what has everyone been using? I was attempting to make a homemade one before my girlie passed, just as a fun project but obviously I never bothered to finish it because I didn't have my gorgeous model there to try it on for me

Before that I was using a black "Bikini Hen Holster" from Crazy K Farm, it was awesome! I did have to make some adjustments, adding some snaps onto the straps to make a closer fit. I tried the diaper from Louise's Country Closet but didn't have much luck with it, as I was dumb and asked for some custom changes (having never had experience with diapers before) and it didn't end up fitting right.
For those of you that do use Louise's diaper, how do you keep it clean? Maddie's Hen Holster had a plastic liner inside that made it easy to just rinse out in the sink if need be.

What other brands do people use and what's your experience? And if homemade, what's it like and how is it working for you?

Pictures are always wonderful

 

[MsChickenMomma]

I already posted a picture of Sunni with her diaper, but order her diapers from lovemychix here on BYC. Well, I ordered them from her website. The design is great, and they are really well made, but I need to make a lot of adjustments for my stubborn Sunni. We are going to make some straps out of fabric that go up under her wings and attach to the straps on her back, so that if she hooks her toes in the belly part she can't pull the diaper off. Sometimes I think Sunni is a bit too smart for her own good.

Last night I tried bribing her to walk with her favorite treat, bread. She started to walk forward, put her foot in the belly strap, pulled the diaper off, and then came running to me for bread. I just stood there like a dummy with my mouth hanging open. She also tricked me last night. She was sitting on my lap and did the poop squat and butt wiggle, and she even added a grunt. So I said, "Oh Sunni, did you have a poopy?" Then I took her to the bathroom and took the diaper off. I checked the inside of the pouch and there was no poop. Right as I was about to say "What the?" she pooped on the bathroom floor. She tricked me into thinking she made a mess just so I would take the diaper off. I really have my hands full with this one. *sigh*

 

[MoonlightFarmCT]

I'm curious about how this "house chicken" situation works.... don't get me wrong, i've brought a hen indoors a time or two, but in a cage! Now I know there are diapers available which is all good an well for poo control, but at some point in the day they are going to want to lay an egg.... so then what happens? They lay the egg in their poo filled diaper ? Im curious !

 

[MsChickenMomma]

I'm curious about how this "house chicken" situation works.... don't get me wrong, i've brought a hen indoors a time or two, but in a cage! Now I know there are diapers available which is all good an well for poo control, but at some point in the day they are going to want to lay an egg.... so then what happens? They lay the egg in their poo filled diaper ? Im curious !

Usually my girl lets me know when she has to lay an egg. She'll start pacing and making tons of noise, so I take off the diaper and put her into her little enclosure.

 

[MoonlightFarmCT]

This is as close to a house chicken as I've ever had ! Miss this girl terribly ! Although I would love for my prized cream legbar to live indoors ! Hmmmm .... Food for thought !

.

 

[ChickenPeep]

@MsChickenMomma That's a really good idea to add straps. Let me know how it goes and I might try it too. And that is exactly what Ebony does! I tried that with her before and she did that same exact thing! Except her diaper didn't come off and she just rolled around on the ground.

 

[kukupecpec]

I am not sure if this is allowed but this is Webster. He's a 4 week old mallard duckling. He is wearing a makeshift homemade diaper until his new diapers arrive.

What a cutie! Of course he is allowed! I had a few indoor seramas but my main lady now is my house goose Trina so we frequent this thread =)
He looks quite big for only 4 weeks or is that just the photo?

Agreed! Adorable! He looks like such a sweet boy.

On the topic of diapers, what has everyone been using? I was attempting to make a homemade one before my girlie passed, just as a fun project but obviously I never bothered to finish it because I didn't have my gorgeous model there to try it on for me

Before that I was using a black "Bikini Hen Holster" from Crazy K Farm, it was awesome! I did have to make some adjustments, adding some snaps onto the straps to make a closer fit. I tried the diaper from Louise's Country Closet but didn't have much luck with it, as I was dumb and asked for some custom changes (having never had experience with diapers before) and it didn't end up fitting right.
For those of you that do use Louise's diaper, how do you keep it clean? Maddie's Hen Holster had a plastic liner inside that made it easy to just rinse out in the sink if need be.

What other brands do people use and what's your experience? And if homemade, what's it like and how is it working for you?

I was having trouble ordering diapers from other people so I just went straight to making my own. It takes a TON of trial and error but once I got my own goose diaper down I had better ideas for ALL my birds and finally got great working diapers all around.
Mine all have a waterproof lining. I've found teh best clean up is a disposable paper towel (or TP for smaller diapers) folded cup. Just slip thedirty one out, and a clean one in. Quick and easy.
If you get really wet poop (like goose or duck

) you can wipe the waterproof lining with a dry paper towel or baby wipe to freshen it up before putting a new cup in.
I made a little video for you - I would have liked to do it WITH Trina, but there was no way to hold my phone to shoot AND diaper Trina at the same time, I'll have to get DH to play camera man for that another day. (I'm not narrating or anything so you dont need your sound on)

I already posted a picture of Sunni with her diaper, but order her diapers from lovemychix here on BYC. Well, I ordered them from her website. The design is great, and they are really well made, but I need to make a lot of adjustments for my stubborn Sunni. We are going to make some straps out of fabric that go up under her wings and attach to the straps on her back, so that if she hooks her toes in the belly part she can't pull the diaper off. Sometimes I think Sunni is a bit too smart for her own good.

Last night I tried bribing her to walk with her favorite treat, bread. She started to walk forward, put her foot in the belly strap, pulled the diaper off, and then came running to me for bread. I just stood there like a dummy with my mouth hanging open. She also tricked me last night. She was sitting on my lap and did the poop squat and butt wiggle, and she even added a grunt. So I said, "Oh Sunni, did you have a poopy?" Then I took her to the bathroom and took the diaper off. I checked the inside of the pouch and there was no poop. Right as I was about to say "What the?" she pooped on the bathroom floor. She tricked me into thinking she made a mess just so I would take the diaper off. I really have my hands full with this one. *sigh*

I had this problem lots with serama. I ended up sewing a shoelace to the body of the diaper to tie behind their wings so their feet couldn't get caught, fixed the problem right away!

I'm curious about how this "house chicken" situation works.... don't get me wrong, i've brought a hen indoors a time or two, but in a cage! Now I know there are diapers available which is all good an well for poo control, but at some point in the day they are going to want to lay an egg.... so then what happens? They lay the egg in their poo filled diaper ? Im curious !

Mine just laid her egg in her diaper, but she was a tiny serama so I just tossed the eggs, no desire to eat an egg that was covered in pooh. If you watched what TIME she laid, you could probably just un diaper and put them in their crate/nest box every day to give them a chance to lay without the diaper.

 

[duckncover]

For anyone considering an indoor duck, especially people that can't have a lot of noise, I would suggest a female Muscovy duck. They make less noise than any other poultry bird because for some reason they can only make little quiet sounds. They are a little different than other ducks. They CAN fly, But wouldn't attempt it in your house. You can clip their wing feathers just like a parrots.

When keeping indoor ducks it is important to only raise one baby at a time and to get this baby before it is 48 hours old or ideally hatch it yourself. They need to imprint on people and learn to live as a pet. They will quickly learn to follow you everywhere, even on walks to the park.The first couple hours are the most crucial. This is when they imprint. Then the next few weeks should be spent with them as much as possible. After that you should develop a routine that balances; cage time, roaming the house time, cuddling playing time, supervised outdoor time, and bath time. As far as your ducks indoor cage a xl dog crate, folding dog pen, or even a baby pack n play would work great. You will need a cover over the top to prevent escapes but ducks aren't super destructive so it can be just about anything. As far as bedding I have found that wood shavings or wood pellets work best. They will eat newspaper. As adults I suggest you keep the food and water separate from the bedding Giving them supervised food and drinks a few times a day will majorly cut down on the mess. Males tend to be more hormonal as they grow so a female would be ideal. I had a male muscovy and he was a great pet but he started to get aggressive once he hit puberty so I moved him on to a farm with other muscovies. I have two mallards now and they were raised together so they want nothing to do with me. I'm hoping to hatch some muscovies in the near future so I can have a pet female.

 

[MsChickenMomma]

For anyone considering an indoor duck, especially people that can't have a lot of noise, I would suggest a female Muscovy duck. They make less noise than any other poultry bird because for some reason they can only make little quiet sounds. They are a little different than other ducks. They CAN fly, But wouldn't attempt it in your house. You can clip their wing feathers just like a parrots. 

When keeping indoor ducks it is important to only raise one baby at a time and to get this baby before it is 48 hours old or ideally hatch it yourself. They need to imprint on people and learn to live as a pet. They will quickly learn to follow you everywhere, even on walks to the park.The first couple hours are the most crucial. This is when they imprint. Then the next few weeks should be spent with them as much as possible. After that you should develop a routine that balances; cage time, roaming the house time, cuddling playing time, supervised outdoor time, and bath time. As far as your ducks indoor cage a xl dog crate, folding dog pen, or even a baby pack n play would work great. You will need a cover over the top to prevent escapes but ducks aren't super destructive so it can be just about anything. As far as bedding I have found that wood shavings or wood pellets work best. They will eat newspaper. As adults I suggest you keep the food and water separate from the bedding  Giving them supervised food and drinks a few times a day will majorly cut down on the mess. Males tend to be more hormonal as they grow so a female would be ideal. I had a male muscovy and he was a great pet but he started to get aggressive once he hit puberty so I moved him on to a farm with other muscovies. I have two mallards now and they were raised together so they want nothing to do with me. I'm hoping to hatch some muscovies in the near future so I can have a pet female.

Your post just officially made me want a house duck. If I could, I most certainly would. I miss my ducks. I used to have 6 of them. Two Pekins (one male and one female) and four mallards. (three males, one female) Two of the boys got out and flew away, and only one came back, so I was left with five ducks. My male to female ratio was bad, but other than that, I loved those ducks. They had a really nice enclosure and everything. But sadly it just didnt work out for us to keep them. If I could get ducks again, I don't think I'd do the Mallards. With as much time as I spent with them as babies, they were just too hard to tame. :/ That could be because I had four of them.

 

[duckncover]

I'd be careful with mallards, lol. My 2 are almost completely wild and I have had them since they were 2 days old. I think they might just be harder to tame because they are wilder than other ducks. I'm met some pretty friendly pekins.