What happened to the Chickens?
The grandious expectations of Chickens in your backyard
- Thread starter dehowery
- Start date
Star and eclipsa
Songster
Im just gonna breed my two chickens to get more chicks, instead of just buying more. Its cheaper for me and theres probably less of a chance of spreading sickness.
It was unintentional at first. Last year my biggest and best rooster, also had a rather quiet crow. More so than his brothers. This year as the group of cockerels aged and I had about 4 left, and they were crowing there were two with their father's soft crow and the other two were as loud as their great-grandfather. My "breeding" rooster is mostly chosen for size and leadership but this year I gave up about 4 ounces of meat on one rooster to honor one of the quieter male. The quieter of the two males with soft crows was still the largest of those two, so it wasn't that bad.
Anyway, it's just two generations so far of "breeding a quieter rooster" - if I can even call it that. Really I'm just experimenting.
It’s a long story that I will try to shorten. Here goes: In my town you can have as many hens as you want. I got 5 light brahma chicks summer 2015. We paid for sexed females, 1 turned out to be a cockerel (he is my avatar, his name is Marcy). Neighbors called health department on me instead of talking to me directly. I rehomed him. I added 3 pullets to my flock that summer. Bringing the total to 7 pullets. Then I rescued a 5 week old Cornish cross pullet from slaughter. Integrated the 4 newbies to the flock. All seemed well until the leghorns pecked the Cornish cross real bad. I could see her neck bones. Eleanor, the Cornish cross stayed in the house for 2 weeks to heal, while I built her a coop and run from materials in my garage. After 2 weeks in the house she went outside into her new coop and run, but she missed her flock. I bought 2 black silkie bantam pullets from a lady that sells chickens, ducks, geese, peafowl, turkeys, guineas, rabbits, & goats. This brings me to 10 chickens total. Well 1 of the silkies, Martha, turned out to be Martin. He was so freaking adorable! He had such a soft crow. Then my neighbors from hell called the health department on me again for the crowing. The same day that the health department came by, my neighbor confronted me and said that he and his don’t like the smell and the noise from my chickens. I told him that my chickens don’t smell I clean up their poop everyday and I clean their coops once a month. As for the noise only one of my hens was loud. Anyways they’re laying and “making noise” when he’s at work. My parents felt that it would be best to rehome 8 of 10. The 4 light brahmas went to my family friend, the 2 leghorns and splash Andalusian went to my family friend’s friend, the black silkie cockerel went to an animal park, & I kept my Cornish cross pullet and silkie pullet. After I came back from rehoming all 8 of my chickens I let Eleanor out to forage. She immediately started walking around the big run looking for her flock. She was also calling for them and I could tell that she was distressed. It broke my heart to see her like that. That weekend I took my 2 remaining chickens to forage in my front yard and my neighbor came up to me and started to apologize for the way he spoke to me. My mother intervened and told him that if he has a problem he should talk to her or my dad. She also asked him if he noticed that we tehoemd 8 of our chickens. He said that he didn’t notice. I wanted to yell “looks like you couldn’t smell or hear a difference!” Eleanor’s health started to decline and she fell into a depression the following week after I rehomed the other 8. I could tell that she was depressed because she would just sit in the yard and look at their run. She subsequently died 2 weeks later while I was on my graduation trip from depression. I never got to say a proper goodbye to her
. To add insult to injury 3 days after I reforms my chickens my neighbor left a letter on my door saying that he didn’t mean to make me rehome my chickens but that he didn’t like where I was composting. I was composting on my property! His reason for not like where I composted was because his 5 year old son liked to play in the dirt and he was afraid that he would dig in my compost pile. What 5 year old sees a pile of decaying plant matter, chicken poop, & wood shavings and things: “This looks like a good thing to dig in”!? After Eleanor passed away the black silkie pullet went broody and I went back to the lady that I got her from and traded her for 3 five week old silkie pullets. Well 2 died in the first week. So I went back to her and got 3 golden sebright bantam pullets. Then the last silkie died and I noticed that one of the sebright Bantams was doing the mating dance. When I told my mom she made me take them back to the lady. And that is the long short version of how I became pet-less for the first time in 16 years. And now my parents is only letting me get 4 Bantam pullets, 4 large fowl pullets, and a Cornish cross hen that I will save from slaughter in September. All because they don’t want to have trouble with the neighbors from hell.
Wow....How very sad....I hope this time around you have better luck..Thanks for sharing your story. I love all my Birds and would be devastated if I had to get rid of one of them..It’s a long story that I will try to shorten. Here goes: In my town you can have as many hens as you want. I got 5 light brahma chicks summer 2015. We paid for sexed females, 1 turned out to be a cockerel (he is my avatar, his name is Marcy). Neighbors called health department on me instead of talking to me directly. I rehomed him. I added 3 pullets to my flock that summer. Bringing the total to 7 pullets. Then I rescued a 5 week old Cornish cross pullet from slaughter. Integrated the 4 newbies to the flock. All seemed well until the leghorns pecked the Cornish cross real bad. I could see her neck bones. Eleanor, the Cornish cross stayed in the house for 2 weeks to heal, while I built her a coop and run from materials in my garage. After 2 weeks in the house she went outside into her new coop and run, but she missed her flock. I bought 2 black silkie bantam pullets from a lady that sells chickens, ducks, geese, peafowl, turkeys, guineas, rabbits, & goats. This brings me to 10 chickens total. Well 1 of the silkies, Martha, turned out to be Martin. He was so freaking adorable! He had such a soft crow. Then my neighbors from hell called the health department on me again for the crowing. The same day that the health department came by, my neighbor confronted me and said that he and his don’t like the smell and the noise from my chickens. I told him that my chickens don’t smell I clean up their poop everyday and I clean their coops once a month. As for the noise only one of my hens was loud. Anyways they’re laying and “making noise” when he’s at work. My parents felt that it would be best to rehome 8 of 10. The 4 light brahmas went to my family friend, the 2 leghorns and splash Andalusian went to my family friend’s friend, the black silkie cockerel went to an animal park, & I kept my Cornish cross pullet and silkie pullet. After I came back from rehoming all 8 of my chickens I let Eleanor out to forage. She immediately started walking around the big run looking for her flock. She was also calling for them and I could tell that she was distressed. It broke my heart to see her like that. That weekend I took my 2 remaining chickens to forage in my front yard and my neighbor came up to me and started to apologize for the way he spoke to me. My mother intervened and told him that if he has a problem he should talk to her or my dad. She also asked him if he noticed that we tehoemd 8 of our chickens. He said that he didn’t notice. I wanted to yell “looks like you couldn’t smell or hear a difference!” Eleanor’s health started to decline and she fell into a depression the following week after I rehomed the other 8. I could tell that she was depressed because she would just sit in the yard and look at their run. She subsequently died 2 weeks later while I was on my graduation trip from depression. I never got to say a proper goodbye to her
To the original poster - chickens are often times a not real long lived animal. It can depend on a lot of variables, but I have found it better for me emotionally, to keep a flock of birds, the birds in the flock come and go. Not that I am not disappointed when a predator hits me, but it is not so bleak. I have an active flock, with birds coming into the flock and leaving the flock several times a year. Sometimes they are chicks, sometime there is a death, or a culling. It is a reality of raising chickens.
Chicken raising is not for everyone.
Mrs K
Chicken raising is not for everyone.
Mrs K
Neighbors and their meddling. HMPH.
Sorry about your chickens. Maybe the neighbor will come around. Seems like it would be the neighbors responsibility to keep his 5 year out of your property.
Sorry about your chickens. Maybe the neighbor will come around. Seems like it would be the neighbors responsibility to keep his 5 year out of your property.
Thank you for your kind words. They were all my children. I cried for weeks. I still cry when I think about them. I cry more for Eleanor because her life was cut short. I know that Cornish crosses are hard to keep past slaughter age, but she was doing so well. I’m linking an article about keeping Cornish crosses as pets, one of the posters had 4 four-year-old Cornish crosses. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cornish-cross-meat-birds.476028/
What does HMPH stand for?
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