people with house chickens

[HomeschoolPollo]

Skink, thanks for your reply. Thankfully she doesn't make a mess with her water. Only her food. I heard that the rice hulls won't retain the water and make a mash. I am at least going to try them and see what happens. I can get a 50 pound bag for $16 (special order as no one has it local). Thanks for the heads up on the pellets. I will have to look into that.

 

[DuckysGran]

Sounds like us, Ducky runs around the house when we're home and I carry my spray! Thankfully we don't have carpet so it's super easy to clean up after her.

 

[HomeschoolPollo]

Need some ideas for play/exercise time for Amber Dash who is now 34 days old. She is bored. We have carpet and we are finding that she wants to eat everything off the carpet including the carpet fibers. She is eating too much as we saw it come out in her poop. Yuck.

She loves to run after us. But we need more ideas. Thanks.

 

[Donna R Raybon]

Having her alone makes it hard to do things like using chicken tractor outside. You could take chunk of sod that is not treated with yard chemicals and give it to her. She is old enough to be able to climb a chicken ladder in and out of a big washtub or plastic storage box. Put the patch of sod in there and swap it out every few days. I do this in cold weather when I can't put chicks out on grass like I can in warmer weather. Grow some sprouts for her to forage on floor.

I have 14 peeps in the house right now and they are two weeks old. They live in a big tub on table and love to perch on edge and watch the world go by.

My six year old house rooster, Poppy, loves his mirror and has two favorite spots to window watch. He spends days out with big girls and nights/freezing weather inside.

 

[Sylvester017]

Need some ideas for play/exercise time for Amber Dash who is now 34 days old. She is bored. We have carpet and we are finding that she wants to eat everything off the carpet including the carpet fibers. She is eating too much as we saw it come out in her poop. Yuck.

She loves to run after us. But we need more ideas. Thanks.

Chicks that aren't trained by a momma hen will explore pecking/eating everything. Your chick may be looking for fiber. Does she have free-will grit as they need it for digesting. Does she get outdoor time to forage and dust-bathe? Once we knew we were getting chickens and remodeling the house, we made sure to get ceramic tile floors and no more carpeting. We have a couple area rugs but never had in-house chickens eat them. I don't like the mess of a permanent house chicken but do allow our outdoor birds to come visit in the kitchen for a special treat.

 

[HomeschoolPollo]

Sylvester017,

Good suggestions. She gets grit and we purchased her some sand to dust bathe in as she was taking a dust bathe on us. But she won't dust bathe in the sand. We don't have a safe place for her to forge outside so I plan on sprouting some seeds and getting some chemical free sod for her to forge in.

That totally makes sense about the pecking and mama hen. We have taught her to not peck at our hair and she is getting better about not eating the carpet.

Thank you.

 

[Donna R Raybon]

This is my six year old house rooster, Poppy. He is mostly BB Red Bantam. In the day time he goes outside and free ranges with standard sized birds and comes inside at night. I have an area rug that is his favorite spot to hang out in front of his mirror. I think he knows that reflection is himself as he will preen, though sometimes he will fuzz up and try to intimidate his reflection. The mind of a chicken, who knows?!
His other favorite spot is the back of the couch where he can look outside and the back of the recliner where he sleeps. I use sheet over the recliner and towel on back of couch to minimize cleanup and mess.

 

[Sylvester017]

Sylvester017,

Good suggestions. She gets grit and we purchased her some sand to dust bathe in as she was taking a dust bathe on us. But she won't dust bathe in the sand. We don't have a safe place for her to forge outside so I plan on sprouting some seeds and getting some chemical free sod for her to forge in.

That totally makes sense about the pecking and mama hen. We have taught her to not peck at our hair and she is getting better about not eating the carpet.

Thank you.

I like Donna R Raybon's suggestion to use a mirror for a single house chicken. It kept our quarantined juveniles occupied by talking to the mirror, nibbling the mirror reflection and running back and forth in front of it. It seems to really entertain young birds. We had a single baby chick and put a little mirror in her cage with a soft little cloth so she could cuddle and snooze next to her reflection. Chickens are flock birds and seem to like the mirror companion.

This is my six year old house rooster, Poppy. He is mostly BB Red Bantam. In the day time he goes outside and free ranges with standard sized birds and comes inside at night. I have an area rug that is his favorite spot to hang out in front of his mirror. I think he knows that reflection is himself as he will preen, though sometimes he will fuzz up and try to intimidate his reflection. The mind of a chicken, who knows?!
His other favorite spot is the back of the couch where he can look outside and the back of the recliner where he sleeps. I use sheet over the recliner and towel on back of couch to minimize cleanup and mess.

Chickens do seem intrigued with their own reflections! We discovered their obsession with a mirror when we lost one of our pullets inside the house. We found her curled up next to an old door mirror in a back room so we dragged it out and set it where we could watch. Our indoor birds did everything in front of the door mirror we laid down on its side - chickens ran the length of it, preened in front of it, slept next to it, nibbled their own reflection, and talked to it.

 

[HomeschoolPollo]

Amber loves her new mirror/new friend!!! Thanks everyone that suggested this. Now to try to get her to dust bathe in the sand I got her.

 

[Donna R Raybon]

Amber loves her new mirror/new friend!!! Thanks everyone that suggested this. Now to try to get her to dust bathe in the sand I got her.

Sand might be too coarse for her taste. You might try a mixture of sifted peat moss, wood ashes, sand. I would go about 4 parts peat, 1 part ashes, 2 parts sand. I use a big screen colander to sift. If you can't get ashes, just leave out. They like 'dust' bath. Sifted peat and DE would make a nice dust bath. You might try a it of sand in the bottom topped by a couple inches of sifted peat moss. Expect bits to go flying everywhere if she likes it.

Around our house are huge Eastern Red Cedar trees. These are not true cedar, but are junipers. My birds love to bathe in composted needle dirt under trees when it gets real dry. I think they are attracted to the earthy smell of humic acids in compost and dirt.

I bathe Poppy with shampoo and water about once a month. In the summer he is outdoors and keeps pretty clean. In the winter I notice him getting a bit bedraggled looking. He loves getting a bath. I use Adams flea and tick shampoo if I notice him scratching a lot. Otherwise I use my own shampoo, Natures Gate, which is free of harmful chemical. Since he is a Bantam, the bathroom sink becomes his 'garden tub.'
When I am done he gets wrapped in towels warm from the dryer and we sit by the wood stove. Yeah, he is one spoiled little man.