who else has chicks in the house??

jenanneray

Chirping
8 Years
Mar 2, 2011
231
0
99
Franklinton, NC
I have a broody with her single chick in a room (that is not being used currently for human purposes) in my house right now, in a dog crate, and have my incubator in the same room. I clean out the kennel and replace the pine straw so it doesn't stink, there's plastic covering the floor to prevent accidents, because I know they will happen, and they have fresh food and water and they seem very content in their own space away from the other grown chickens. I was wondering how many other people do the same thing, either with chicks in a brooder, just have house chickens. I have 21 eggs in the incubator right now and I also plan on raising them in the house. My inlaws think I have lost it completely, and that it's "nasty" to have a chicken/chicks in the house, and wanted to know why I just didn't put momma and baby outside. (They also have chickens in their yard, and some of the eggs in the bator came from her chickens.) I don't have an outside brooder right now, and I'd rather not let my chicks be cat or snake food. Just to clarify, my husband is fine with the chicken, he helped me move the stuff to it's present location. Please tell me your experiences with chicks.
 
I have two incubators full of eggs and we have had chicks in the house since march! I understand about the cat food. I went out to my coop today, that i thought was as tight as Ft. Knox, and the only thing that had been eaten was my 3 month old serama chick out of 15 chicks!! It is so depressing when that happens. You but alot of time and energy and emotions in them and then some dumb cat eats them. I would bring them in at night and then finally thought they would be fine out there at night with a heat lamp.. I wish i had left him at night for a while longer. We have brooder box that the bottom slides out and we can spray off so it dosent smell so bad, but i get the same comments from my mother....but she always wants fresh eggs!!!
 
My brooder is in my dining room.
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http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-k-s-chikin-channel ~Ally
 
Have no fear you are not alone!
We've had ours (18 banties) in our second bathroom in a large cardboard box since April 14th. I added a second box onto the first when they looked like they could use the room.
Love having them, but am ready for them to be going outside. For myself and for them... I know they must be thinking that there must be more than what they have.
 
I had 11 chicks in my bathroom until just the other day. Today is cleaning day and I dread cleaning up all that dander and fluff!

(And I'm crazy enough to have ordered some guinea keets to put right back in there this weekend).
 
I incubate in the house, have 2 seperate brooding areas-1 for newly hatched, and 1 bigger one for growing in their feathers. Then they move outside. I have done this for 2 seasons and love it. I odn't however love all the dust and the smell when it's time to clean the brooder! It's mainly the food that stinks in my opinion, not the birds or poop so much. The kids were actually crying last night because I said that pretty soon all the chicks were gonna be outside! But I have had chicks since February this year, and am ready for the last batch to be outta here!
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But I don't think its nasty or anything like that, or I wouldn't have them in the house. I am actually a "neat freak" and our house in only 980 sq.ft. so if there's clutter or dust-I go kinda cuckoo
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I think the key is to just keep it clean, no smell, no dust-no big deal.
 
Aside from incubating or brooding chicks, some people HAVE "house chickens". We did for a while, it was a trip! and I still belong to a house chickens online group. She'd sit on the couch and fall asleep while we watched TV. I miss the sound of her chugging after me when she thought I had something to eat in my hands. If you have carpeting, I would definitely go with a chicken diaper. But we have hardwoods and everything is already covered by sheets and towels because of our parrots so, it wasn't a big deal for us. Either we'd clean up the poop, for one of the dogs would beat us to it...gross.

They really aren't any different than any other bird in the house and people don't have a problem with parrots/parakeets/canaries, etc.

Tell your inlaws to lighten up. Life is too short to be narrow minded. If they don't like chickens in the house, they don't have to have them in THEIR house. You enjoy having your babies close to you while they're there.
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Sonally, I *love* your chicken cam! My 3.5yr old viewed it with me and requested... no.... DEMANDED to see the "baby birdie computer, please mama"! And what is that water thing? That would make cleaning so much easier, seeing how they love to mess in their water!


We have a medium sized cardboard box with high sides (something normally used for books) and it's sitting on top of our dryer! We have a high shelf in the small laundry room so it was the perfect place to slip the light and we just moved the box around underneath the light to find the "sweet spot" for heat. We haven't had any issues with mess outside the box and the smell isn't really that bad, especially as there's nothing in that room to absorb the smell. We were going to put them in front of our now unused fireplace but the animals and toddler were getting too distracted. The laundry room we can close and lock the door for 'out of sight, out of mind'.
 

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