people with house chickens

[kajira]

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[kajira]

WOW! What an animal farm

. You've got it all worked out it seems! Good luck and I think it's great for your DD to have a pet of her very own! Sounds like it will be one spoiled chicken!

I wrote you a reply and my computer must have eaten it.

Long story short - the chicken's not the one so spoiled, it's my daughter ! LOL

She has convinced her dad to keep an entire litter of kittens (except 1 she gave to her best friend.) she was able to rescue a kitten in a parking lot and convince her dad to keep another baby cat.

She asked for a pony - she got a pony. she asked for her own dog, she got her own dog. she asked for chickens, she got chickens! LOL

She even has a frog living in her room in a habitat she made out of a gallon water jug. She puts mealworms a couple times a week in there for it.

 

[Sylvester017]

I wrote you a reply and my computer must have eaten it.

Long story short - the chicken's not the one so spoiled, it's my daughter ! LOL

She has convinced her dad to keep an entire litter of kittens (except 1 she gave to her best friend.) she was able to rescue a kitten in a parking lot and convince her dad to keep another baby cat.

She asked for a pony - she got a pony. she asked for her own dog, she got her own dog. she asked for chickens, she got chickens! LOL

She even has a frog living in her room in a habitat she made out of a gallon water jug. She puts mealworms a couple times a week in there for it.

I think it's wonderful! Your DD has magnificent parents to expose her to the sanctity of ALL life! My DD never played with dolls but her room was full of stuffed animals with a giant dolphin being one of her favorites. It was she who played, trained, and socialized the parrots, budgerigars, and cocktiels we had in the house. I never worried that any of them were neglected. She's the reason we raised Persian cats 40 yrs ago and rescued a wandering tortoise in the street. We even took in a lone New Hamp Red hen a neighbor found which added to her menagerie - I wish I had taken a pic of that sweet hen:



The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.~M. Ghandi

 

[Persephonechick]

Hi, I am new here. I have 3 house chickens currently. I was only supposed to have my frizzle cochin girl Persephone but my friend gave me a little polish (chipmunk). Then chicken math hit me and I added Poe a little showgirl on Sunday.
Persephone goes everywhere with me and has a fan club. I am hoping the other two can join us when they are a little bigger.

 

[kajira]

I think it's wonderful! Your DD has magnificent parents to expose her to the sanctity of ALL life! My DD never played with dolls but her room was full of stuffed animals with a giant dolphin being one of her favorites. It was she who played, trained, and socialized the parrots, budgerigars, and cocktiels we had in the house. I never worried that any of them were neglected. She's the reason we raised Persian cats 40 yrs ago and rescued a wandering tortoise in the street. We even took in a lone New Hamp Red hen a neighbor found which added to her menagerie - I wish I had taken a pic of that sweet hen:



The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.~M. Ghandi

thats awesome!

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My daughter finds turtles too. but this one was at a lake and its illegal here to steal them from nature

 

[Lisa Wood]

I LUV this photo! Looks like the chickenwhisperer! As for opinions I agree everyone decides for themselves. For us we had a White Leghorn at one time that sneezed for an hour after her dust baths. And we now have a Silkie with CRD issues and we also are supercillious-sensitive allergenics so powdery substances, dusts, shavings, etc, we chose not to use. I gave my unopened pure white DE to a friend after I decided not to use it after the contradictory research about it and she tried it as a dust-bath additive for her 15 layers in their pen - she said it did absolutely nothing to control ants, flies, lice, spiders, earwigs, beetles, etc etc etc ~ but she liked the Manna Pro Poultry Protector I gave her to try. For our backyard we find flies are seasonal being the most active in hot summer months and then dwindling to nothing in the cooler and winter months - yet the poop content remained the same in both seasons. We've been fortunate not to have a problem with flies - we keep the produce and fresh food we give the chickens at a minimum that they can eat up in 10 minutes and take it away after that - no insects! Here's my chickenwhisperer handing out evening treats!

Oh! What are the little fuzzies? Are they Bantam what? I am new to chickens, and I csn see the attraction to bantams. Mostly online they have nothing next to them to compare their size! Anyone who sits on the floor with their chicks and has value treats will be a chicken whisperer. We should take pics. Today I made them air conditioned room. It was s novelty, and they did not use it. But I wanted to tell you guys, I just read one chapter in "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens", and I learned all this cool stuff. Like chickens have a language with specific words identifying all yhis stuff!, The roosters have a different vocab because he is the guard, so he tell hens predator for air or ground, run for cover, now its safe. Etc.,The comb on rooster signifies testosterone levels. The higher the comb, the more testosterone, so mainly they rile yhe roost. Then challengers will decide wheather to fight or bow out based on the comb Did you know there are rooster crowing contests? The scientific community has disected the crows just like they do dolphins and whales. If you google "long crower" you get several hits. There is a laughing rooster. Oh well. I have to stop before my head explodes............

 

[Sylvester017]

Oh! What are the little fuzzies? Are they Bantam what? I am new to chickens, and I csn see the attraction to bantams. Mostly online they have nothing next to them to compare their size! Anyone who sits on the floor with their chicks and has value treats will be a chicken whisperer. We should take pics.
Today I made them air conditioned room. It was s novelty, and they did not use it.
But I wanted to tell you guys, I just read one chapter in "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens", and I learned all this cool stuff. Like chickens have a language with specific words identifying all yhis stuff!, The roosters have a different vocab because he is the guard, so he tell hens predator for air or ground, run for cover, now its safe. Etc.,The comb on rooster signifies testosterone levels. The higher the comb, the more testosterone, so mainly they rile yhe roost. Then challengers will decide wheather to fight or bow out based on the comb
Did you know there are rooster crowing contests? The scientific community has disected the crows just like they do dolphins and whales.
If you google "long crower" you get several hits. There is a laughing rooster. Oh well. I have to stop before my head explodes............

I know what you mean ~ I've been devouring information on chickens for 5 years and still have so much more to know!!! Even with my own vet we still are learning things from EACH OTHER!!!

Bantams ARE adorable! Our two littles are bantam Silkies and the oldest in the flock. It's a good thing I researched Silkies and bantams in general because all bantam breeds are notorious for being very broody so I was prepared whenever our Silkies went broody to make certain they ate/drank/dust-bathed/exercised daily. Sometimes chickens behave broody but in reality are molting and just get reclusive while molting. We found a Leghorn that wanted to be reclusive when she was molting. Our two Silkies are molting and growing in new quills right now so once in a while I find one hiding out in the nestbox. Chickens also lose their appetite during molt so I give them children's no-iron Poly-Vi-Sol drop on their beak one or two times a week for extra supplementation ~ if they aren't eating well then I feel the added vitamin on the beak a necessity.

The Long Crower rooster breeds are a riot. I LUV their crows or their "laughs" but in our neighborhood we can't have ANY roos. I feel blessed at least we are zoned for 5 hens. Other cities around us have ordinances against keeping any poultry but cities are not enforcing the codes unless there are neighbor complaints. It's like ordinances about barking dogs or too many cats/dogs ~ if the neighbors don't complain then the city/animal control doesn't bother .

Storey's Guide is a great chicken reference book. I additionally invested in a hard copy of "Free-Range chicken gardens" by Jessi Bloom. I love to garden so it was a helpful book to pick up regarding yard design and some toxic vs safe plants plus some general info on chickens in gardens. My very favorite website on toxic vs safe poultry plants and their effects on chickens is the following:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160313051928/http://poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

Some other sites on toxic vs safe plants - dogs/cats/chickens ~ but I bet you probably already saw these in your own research!!!:
http://www.grit.com/animals/common-...-to-dogs-cats-and-chickens.aspx#axzz3KpE7wOXl
https://poultrykeeper.com/general-chickens/poisonous-plants-chickens/
http://www.ehow.com/sitesearch.html?s=plants+for+chickens+in+the+garden&skin=corporate&t=all

 

[Sylvester017]

thats awesome!

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My daughter finds turtles too. but this one was at a lake and its illegal here to steal them from nature

Any animals other than our breeding Persian cats were all rescues when our DD was growing up! To this day neither of my kids have any children of their own but their abodes are never empty of rescued dogs/cats!

My DD and SIL are thinking about moving to larger acreage away from their nature preserve location so they can add poultry to their yard. Living next to a nature preserve they get too many large wild animals including bear, mountain lion, coyote, skunk, weasel, fox, possum, lynx, bobcat, raccoon, rattlesnake, deer, jackrabbit, large raptors, stray dogs, feral cats, etc. My DD doesn't feel comfortable having a housecat in case it ever got out and captured by one of the larger wild life behind their backyard. As it is she brings in the Pitbull mix indoors at night just in case something large gets over the iron fence. I've personally had a stare-down with a sneaky coyote at the fence line and didn't flinch until it moved on - I swear it looked as big as a wolf but there was no mistaking the bushy coyote tail!
The nature preserve behind DD's backyard:

 

[kajira]

Any animals other than our breeding Persian cats were all rescues when our DD was growing up! To this day neither of my kids have any children of their own but their abodes are never empty of rescued dogs/cats!

My DD and SIL are thinking about moving to larger acreage away from their nature preserve location so they can add poultry to their yard. Living next to a nature preserve they get too many large wild animals including bear, mountain lion, coyote, skunk, weasel, fox, possum, lynx, bobcat, raccoon, rattlesnake, deer, jackrabbit, large raptors, stray dogs, feral cats, etc. My DD doesn't feel comfortable having a housecat in case it ever got out and captured by one of the larger wild life behind their backyard. As it is she brings in the Pitbull mix indoors at night just in case something large gets over the iron fence. I've personally had a stare-down with a sneaky coyote at the fence line and didn't flinch until it moved on - I swear it looked as big as a wolf but there was no mistaking the bushy coyote tail!
The nature preserve behind DD's backyard:

That's beautiful.

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This is our front yard.

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this is what our back/side yard look like. It's pretty open since it's hay - and we have a canal on the other side that gets flooded. We have so many rats, mice and other goodies that I think crossing a bunch of fences and trying to get to chickens that are protected by dogs, keeps most critters away.

 

[Sylvester017]

That's beautiful.

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This is our front yard.

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this is what our back/side yard look like. It's pretty open since it's hay - and we have a canal on the other side that gets flooded. We have so many rats, mice and other goodies that I think crossing a bunch of fences and trying to get to chickens that are protected by dogs, keeps most critters away.

Dogs are definitely a plus on wide open acreage! Lovely photos w/nice detail - you have a good camera. I have a little 10mp Nikon digital and am looking into a DSLR. Maybe prices will come down at Xmas time!