people with house chickens

[mjbws]

Haha I know what you mean. I never thought I would have an indoor turkey, but here I am! Cute photos - the one of your cat ... Lol - priceless!

 

[Sylvester017]

Hi everyone! I never thought it would come to this, but I have house chickens...so here I am, lol. My chicken story starts with my cat bringing home a week old baby chick from who knows where. We looked for its appropriate home but had no luck and were even turned away by the nearest chicken properties. So, there we were with the sweetest little chick I named Nugget. I found backyard chickens and was advised to get it some buddies so we did. So now we have Nugget, BigBird, a polish bantam, and Chicken Little, a sultan bantam. Nugget turned out to be a barnyard mutt roo. Fast forward to 16 weeks and they have all been raised indoors. The small bout they got with their outdoor coop was cut short by the 115-120 degree(in the shade) summer days we've had here in Phoenix. They just can't handle it. So I ended up turning a spare bathroom into an indoor coop until it starts to cool off. We are adapting! I too have just purchased diapers from Amazon. They have waterproof lining so all you have to do is rinse them out. So far so good! My husband has gotten pretty good at getting them on Nugget. I did however buy some of those plastic bra strap converters to help hold the straps in place on his back because Nugget learned quickly how to get out of it. Here's a handful of pics of our unconventional chicken raising.

Very smart to keep them out of your Phoenix heat. Chickens are resilient but there is a limit to their tolerance of heat and applaud your foresight to do what your situation required! We've been in the triple digits for over a week here in SoCalif. Beautiful chickens you have! Guess as long as Nugget is wearing a diaper you don't have to worry about cross-breeding more "mutt" chicks

. Your purebred Polish and Sultan pullets are too pretty to make offspring mutt chicks - not that you plan to hatch any chicks but it is something to think about - I just wouldn't use sweet Nugget as a breeder. He looks like a game hen mix with those long legs and unusual comb. People who show Old English Game Hens cut off the combs for shows but I think that is so cruel as the comb bleeds profusely after cutting it off. I thought I would faint watching the cruel practice!

Love the camo diaper on Nugget - it blends so well with his feathering you hardly notice it! My fluffy butt breeds had to be changed at least a couple times a day and then we would baby shampoo and blow dry their tush before putting on a diaper change. Some poops are so watery that the diapers leak even with plastic liners. At night we would leave the diaper off to let the tush "breathe" overnight.

If you'd like to put in your BYC Profile that you're in Phoenix or in AZ so when we see future posts we know what general area you're from it would be nice to know.

Thank you for sharing your story - it makes me NOT feel so much like a nut when I have to keep a recuperating sick chicken in the house for a while. Frequent visitors are no longer surprised when they come by to find one of our chickens in-house

.

 

[mjbws]

Hi, everyone! I just saw this and had to share

 

[marilyn1]

Carmel my house roo.

 

[marilyn1]

Carmel on an outing to Home Depot.

 

[marilyn1]

Carmel visiting the girls.

 

[Lisa Wood]

Carmel on an outing to Home Depot.

May I ask, does he crow while shopping?

 

[Lisa Wood]

Hi, everyone! I just saw this and had to share

Obviously, the Queen Hen of 4th of July parade?

 

[Agarrard]

Carmel on an outing to Home Depot.

I love it! I've thought about the cat harnesses we have and trying them on Nugget. Do you use anything like that when you take him out shopping?

 

[marilyn1]

These are my diapers by Sky. They work great.