people with house chickens

[MageofMist]

very pretty silkies. I wonder what he'll do after her eggs hatch. Some silkie roos will keep the chicks warm while mama takes a break for herself. That would be cute if he did it also.

He lets the hen crawl under him in order to keep warm at night and so he had to sleep standing up, so I doubt he'd complain much regarding the much smaller things hiding under him.

He has shown no aggression towards the hen or any interest in the nest other than snoozing besides it and sticking close, not bothering the hen at all unless she is off the nest, and he charges at me occasionally when I am checking the hen in her nest and she grumps out about it, and he chases the scardy-cat, my cat Angel, out of the room, but doesn't jump at me. So I doubt he'd be aggressive towards the chicks since he is being defensive of the nest and his mate, but it is always best to be safe than sorry as even though Silkies, both hens and roos, have a good rep with chicks, the chickens are still individuals.

 

[kajira]

I have some Silkies free-ranging in the kitchen, as we were worried it would be too cold for them and I didn't feel safe letting them stay out after we recently got them. They are super sweet and my little flock of a hen and roo is gonna expand soon with the hen going broody.

She is a real character, very outgoing and readily takes treats from your hand and even runs over to you, while the rooster is more wary. Also being super broody she refuses to budge off her 14 related eggs and 3 adopted quail eggs (In the yellow dummy ones) as so I have to be a nanny to her, bringing her food and water as well as taking her off the nest for toilet breaks... Oh boy, can she scream the house down! This morning she was in a very bad mood and so she was mock-charging at me in order to try and scare me away from her nest, as I refused to let her back on until she pooped. She always stopped at the last second as she knew I wouldn't move. She does peck at me at times when I check to see if all eggs are fitting under her properly, but I hardly feel them.

The most amusing part of today was... She stopped her tantrum for a minute, just drinking from the water bowl peacefully... Before then starting up again with the tantrum.

Hen: "MY EGGS! LET ME BACK ON- oh, one second, lemme get a drink... Gulp, gulp, gulp Ah... Oh. MY EGGS! LET ME BACK ON THE NEST! NOW!"

The rooster is also quite the character, very sweet yet also a little skittish, he dislikes being picked up, but if you set him down on your lap and give him some sunflower seeds, he pretty much turns into a lap-cat.

He is more wary than the hen, hesitant to take treats from you unless they are something he REALLY likes or if the hen is gobbling them all up before he feels he can get some, he also rarely jumps at me, being very docile. The only times when he does jump is when I am dealing with the hen throwing a tantrum, or when I was herding them back inside when it started raining and the roo didn't like me herding his hen. He is also very sweet and docile towards his mate, letting her crawl under him when it is time to sleep and so until the hen went broody and stuck to the nest, he spent pretty much every night sleeping while standing.

With him not really having any hens to mate with at the moment though, with the only hen being broody, he can be a little pushy with her when she is off the nest with his mating dances around her and getting in her way, but isn't aggressive towards her and I doubt he'd be aggressive towards the chicks. I still pick him up and hold him when she is off the nest though so she can eat and drink in peace without him running around her while showing off how pretty his wing feathers are.

If he does attack the chicks when they hatch, he'll be put in the chicken jail. A large dog crate we got for future implementation in the coop we are gonna build outside.

He is quite the handsome roo also. This is him when he was outside dealing with the pesky slugs and snails that attack our strawberry plants. ^^

BEautiful!! MY roosters are all semi anti-hugging... but my hens are far more social. I leave my roosters be for the most part as long as they are nice/polite about space. If they start getting pushy, then they get held a lot more..... so they learn pretty quick to respect people's space if they don't want held. LOL

 

[Sylvester017]

Do you have an idea what breed of chicken it is? To me it looks like one of the bantam gamebird breeds but I'm not familiar with game birds. Young birds and gamebirds like to fly which this one probably flew out of her yard and to get out of the sun, wandered into the shade of your garage. If the bird is a female, learn the "judge's hold" so she doesn't get picked up by her reproductive sides -- the following video at the beginning shows how to put your hand under the chicken's breast and hold its feet with your fingers -- it takes a few times for the human and chicken to get used to the judge's hold but it is very useful for picking up laying hens:

 

[Anansi]

She's a bantam Easter Egger. She walked in out of the cold and radon last October. She's very people oriented, so handling her is easy. She lets us file her beak and use a rotary file on her toe nails. She likes baths and loves getting a rub down with vegetable oil on her skin. She enjoys getting love from her human, and allows herself to be turned over on her back.

 

[Anansi]

She's a bantam Easter Egger. She walked in out of the cold and rain last October. She's very people oriented, so handling her is easy. She lets us file her beak and use a rotary file on her toe nails. She likes baths and loves getting a rub down with vegetable oil on her skin. She enjoys getting love from her human, and allows herself to be turned over on her back.

 

[Anansi]

She's definitely an interesting creature.

 

[drumstick diva]

yes, she is.

 

[nina1993]

I am a new chicken mommy. I have one isa brown chick. I was looking for and tips or advice to help pamper my poultry princess

lol I quickly discovered that there is a lot of negativity towards indoor chickens. I plan to keep her fully indoors and thought this would be a better thread to discuss it. I look forward to hearing from experienced owners

 

[Sylvester017]

She's a bantam Easter Egger. She walked in out of the cold and radon last October. She's very people oriented, so handling her is easy. She lets us file her beak and use a rotary file on her toe nails. She likes baths and loves getting a rub down with vegetable oil on her skin. She enjoys getting love from her human, and allows herself to be turned over on her back.

She certainly has had a lot of loving/taming since October -- she's so lucky to have you!

Something my vet recommended to me for my hens instead of using Vaseline or vegetable oils on the chickens, he recommend to use vitamin A or vitamin E oils on the chickens' beak, comb, face, legs, toes, and toenails. He said it is more nourishing for the skin since it's vitamins plus doesn't leave a greasy residue on the feathers that Vaseline or veggie oil leaves. We apply the vitamin E oil at night w/ cotton ball and Q-tip and by morning the vitamin oil has absorbed into the chicken's skin and there's no residue on either their head feathers or their leg feathers. I couldn't believe it because when we used Vaseline or olive oil the grease stained the feathers so badly that dust bath dirt stuck to the feathers.

What color eggs does your bantam EE lay?

 

[Sylvester017]

I am a new chicken mommy. I have one isa brown chick. I was looking for and tips or advice to help pamper my poultry princess

lol I quickly discovered that there is a lot of negativity towards indoor chickens. I plan to keep her fully indoors and thought this would be a better thread to discuss it. I look forward to hearing from experienced owners

Chickens are flock mentality birds so she'll be making her humans her "flock" if you have only one chicken. They are wonderful pets. A single chick might cry a lot if you leave her alone in a room or else she'll run after you so she's not alone (flock mentality). I loved our baby but she used to drive me crazy when I had a baby chick. She'd scream if we left her behind and would calm down when we picked her up and put her on the computer desk or put her sleep cage in our room at night. We gave her a soft towel as a blanket and she'd cover herself under it. If we talked to her while she was sleeping in our room, she would softly chirp back an answer but didn't move a muscle. Baby chicks are so darn adorable but it took a lot out of me to keep her company as a chick. I gave her a mirror during the day so she could chirp back at her reflection and during rest breaks she would sit next to her reflection and snooze with the "other" chick in the mirror.

Sleeping chick


The computer had a warm keyboard that she loved to sit on and she constantly wanted to be touched/petted. Don't know if all baby chicks are like this but I don't envy momma hens having to raise such demanding little babies!



The chick jumped off the table and made herself at home on the Ameraucana I was holding.