pets?

[Lunachick]

Mine are pets, and incredibly spoiled like my other critters. I'm looking into getting another hen to add to my large flock of two.

Zenbirder - My sister always asks "what are you going to do with them when they stop laying?" I never understood her question, - they are going to continue being spoiled until they go to chicken heaven. And I hope that isn't for a long time!

 

[Mulemom]

Mine are also pets. My DH thought I was nuts for naming all 25 of them.

I was teasing some friends about their "purse dogs". My DH loves to jump in and tell them I have "lap chickens". They all have names and are wearing hand painted leg bands "id bracelets".

Every once in a while now, I catch him sitting out there talking to my chickens. He denies it, but I've seen it. Last night one of them even jumped up in his lap and he sat there petting and talking to her!

 

[SpottedCrow]

My Goddess, Mule...If DH let a chicken jump into his lap, I'd wonder if he was either dead or was holding a Frydaddy...
He won't even PAT them...He will talk to them on very rare occasions when he doesn't think I'm aware...

 

[spottedtail]

I consider ours good old fashioned livestock, not modern day pets.
They're for eggs and meat here.
Well treated, and a good life...but not coddled and pampered.
We don't have the 'chicken obsession' that I see here, but we do regard them as an interesting hobby.

spot

 

[southernsibe]

First of all, I never dreamed that I would enjoy having the chickens as much as I do, or that my kids would be as attached to them as they are. I don't have any "meat" birds, but we didn't get them with that intention. Pets with perks! Meaning the eggs of course!
Rachel

 

[Markp1964]

I've just been doing the "official go-round" with every member of the zoning and planning staff. I was on the phone today with a real condescending stuffed shirt that runs the zoning office in my town. He had never heard of a chicken as a pet ( so it couldnt be a good idea) and didnt think a chicken would be very responsive or interactive! I told him that my son's hermit crabs are much less responsive than a chicken, but my son likes them and most anyone would consider the crabs dandy pets.

The stuffed shirt proved he had no expereince with chickens a bit later when he stated that he didnt think keeping chickens would make me popular with the neighbors"the noise, the smell..." I flat out asked him if he had any real, direct experience with a live chicken. He said he didnt. He didnt have to tell me.
It points to how uninformed folks are. A commercial mega-farm not far from us, Buckeye Egg, has been in trouble with the EPA, in the media alot and just bee a terrible example of what big farms can do to chicksn, peopel and the land. Thats the image most people have when they think of raising chickens! There is just no way that the three birds I want to have in my backyard could be that noisey and smelly>