Thanks to All Crazy Chicken Keepers!

[BeckyBird]

I am a chicken lover. I love chickens. I play with my chickens every day. I talk to them. I spend my free time building coops and cleaning coops. I spend my spare money on hatching eggs and chicken feed. They are my hobby and a great source of happiness in my life.

Sometimes, I feel like I'm crazy--who in their right mind loves chickens? Then, I come to BYC and realize that I'm not crazy at all. There are so many others who love chickens just as much as I do, if not more!

So here's a big Thank You to all of my fellow chicken lovers. There is something truly special about chickens, and it's great we can come together and share stories. I'm so happy with the flock I have, which has taken years to build. Only people like you can appreciate this, and I'm so glad to have a place like BYC!

 

[Gardeningmama]

BeckyBird, I know what you're talking about. Some people have Facebook, I have BYC. I got really tired of trying to talk chicken with family and friends that were only listening to patronize me, and then I found BYC. Now I'm happy and my family is too, LOL. I've finally shut up, (Oh I still torture them a little).
You know, a lot of people love their dogs as much as I love my chickens, but no one asks them why, or calls them crazy. Doesn't seem right, does it? In my circle I am the crazy chicken lady, and dang proud of it.
I thank you too, fellow BYCers.

 

[Kuntry Klucker]

I totally get where you are coming from. We have turned our backyard into a chicken heaven. Some people
put the family dog in a fenced in backyard, we put a flock of chickens and gardens for them to tend too.

Sometimes people do not get it when I talk about my chickens to them. They look at me like I am crazy
for loving my backyard girls like they love their dogs or cats.

What is even better is...a dog just leaves messes in your backyard, my ladies leave me eggs. That is
a good trade off if you ask me.

But in all seriousness you are in the right place to talk chicken with people who totally get you.


Here is a pic of our backyard edible landscaping and the ladies who love to tend to it.

 

[theoldchick]

I'm a crazy chicken person, too!

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Right there with ya!!! I was so glad when I found this site because I have no other friends who enjoy chickens like I do. I am known to my friends as either 'the crazy chicken lady' or 'Ol' McSimmons' haha! I love keeping them as much as others love their dogs. People laugh at me for loving hobby farming, but you know who they're gonna turn to when they want the best tasting eggs money can buy! Here we can be ourselves without being regarded as strange haha! A big thank you to all the BYCers out there!

 

[nikki1]

We've only had chickens since March, but the whole family is totally addicted. We built them the fanciest coop a couple of teachers with no background in architecture or construction could muster, and we dote on our little flock outrageously. Our patio chairs now have a permanent home by the coop so we can lounge in the afternoon shade, with our girls clucking around us. (Except when Amelia, the barred rock, gets too curious and hops up to a lap!) Chickens are just TOO much fun! Here are Penny, Dot, and Amelia sunning themselves on our deck.


And here's my daughter with The Little Girls, Lily, Lucy, Dolly, and Little Rosie Cottonball. (The neighbor dogs found a weakness in our gate and took out some of our original girls. Sad day... Anyway, these girls were the replacements. They're about 6 weeks old now. And no, at the stage pictured they were on a brief outing from their brooder, they were NOT outside dwellers.)


And here's our coop. In the South 40? No way! Right off the patio so we can enjoy our chickie-doos.


Yep. We're having WAY too much fun with our chickens!

--Nikki

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

LOVE that coop. How cute! My girls don't have a very fancy dwelling, but it's a shelter and I can say I built it myself They get spoiled during the day with attention and treats!

 

[nikki1]

I'm really glad we didn't buy a kit or a ready-built coop. We got a lot of pleasure from doing it ourselves...never mind that the whole thing is half a bubble off of plumb! We call it "The Anti-OCD coop" because any half-competent carpenter with a tape measure and a level would be appalled, but the chickens haven't complained yet!

I think that one of the things I really like about chicken-keeping is that as long as you have an eye to health and safety, you can pretty much do it however you want! If you want to go to Home Depot and get a $3000 shed, or if you want to go out back and get free pallets, it's all good. We salvaged a bunch of lumber from a friend's shed, went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore for paint, knobs, vents, etc., and Home Depoted the rest. It was a fun scavenger project.

Right now the girls are just glad the darn thing has a roof...Awful rainy morning here in Washington!

--Nikki

 

[Gardeningmama]

I totally get where you are coming from. We have turned our backyard into a chicken heaven. Some people
put the family dog in a fenced in backyard, we put a flock of chickens and gardens for them to tend too.

Sometimes people do not get it when I talk about my chickens to them. They look at me like I am crazy
for loving my backyard girls like they love their dogs or cats.

What is even better is...a dog just leaves messes in your backyard, my ladies leave me eggs. That is
a good trade off if you ask me.

But in all seriousness you are in the right place to talk chicken with people who totally get you.


Here is a pic of our backyard edible landscaping and the ladies who love to tend to it.

I am so jealous of your setup. LOVE IT!!! I'm gonna show DH to see if he can take any ideas from yours.

 

[Kuntry Klucker]

I am so jealous of your setup. LOVE IT!!! I'm gonna show DH to see if he can take any ideas from yours.

Wow!! Thanks, if you want I can post more pics for you so your DH can get a better idea of how we did
our coop and pen. Glad you like it. My Husband enjoyed building it and I had a blast painting and decorating the coop
and pen. We liked the raised coop idea because it is easier to clean and does not allow as many rodents easy access to the coop.

We so far have had no problems with mice, snakes, or any thing of the like.


Here is the coop and pen from the front.



This is a pic from inside the pen looking at the coop. As you can see I use the deep litter
method which is great on many levels.


The little door on the big door to the pen open up so the chickens can come and go
when free ranging. My husband thought up this idea to let the ladies have access to the pen
without letting hawks or other large things into the pen area.