pet chickens? what!

MichaelAngelo · Feb 11, 2011

Hey guys,

Anybody know anything about pet chickens? I have one and she's a blast!

Here's a video to demonstrate a pet chicken with a diaper... my friends and I made it on Superbowl day!

(warning it has a little bit of censored swearing)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onVGWjLNTcY

Enjoy!

GreatGazukes · Feb 11, 2011

My girls Margaret and Leanne gathered 'round for some chookhouse blues

By the way, nice black silkie!!

MichaelAngelo · Feb 11, 2011

thanks! beautiful picture! What's that smaller bird? Is that a young chicken?

shwee · Feb 11, 2011

That's awesome! We have some chickens back home. They're mostly pets, and they're all tame enough to pick up (although we've never kept them in the house or in a diaper.

) Added that video to my faves. It was amazing.

MichaelAngelo · Feb 11, 2011

shwee said:
That's awesome! We have some chickens back home. They're mostly pets, and they're all tame enough to pick up (although we've never kept them in the house or in a diaper. ) Added that video to my faves. It was amazing.

Thanks! Where's 'back home'?? =)

GreatGazukes · Feb 11, 2011

MichaelAngelo said:
thanks! beautiful picture! What's that smaller bird? Is that a young chicken?

Nope, its a modern game bantam, fantastic personality, just loves to follow you around and keep you company.

Hippie Dribble · Feb 11, 2011

we have about 30 chooks. My daughter has a name for every one...

They're all totally mad. Crazy things they are but fantastic personalities.

And if you squeeze em hard enough they sometimes give you an egg or two for breakfast!

hoosierhiver · Feb 11, 2011

I've got about 40 chickens, alot of brahmas, some wyandottes, speckled sussex, hamburgs and a mix of other breeds. One of my favorite breeds is golden campines, but they can fly and get into my garden during the summer.

Dougf · Feb 11, 2011

We've had several chickens over the years, but my favorite was a barred Plymouth Rock we called Chick-Chick. She was the sweetest -- instead of running away like all our other chickens, if you approached her slowly, she'd just crouch down and let you pet her. She was an "outdoor" pet, never managed to house train her. One day she just disappeared, and we were heartbroken.

marymac · Feb 12, 2011

I have three lovely little hens in our urban backyard: Mabel, Millie and Myrna. I don't name my ukes but I do name my chickens! We call them "pets with benefits" (eggs).

brucemoffatt · Feb 12, 2011

We had three hens for a while. They were supercharged Australorps. We called them the henasaurs because they were so big. They used to follow us around the garden looking for something to eat after they ate every blade of everything that was remotely green yellow or brown in the whole garden. Great eggs from happy hens, but alas in the long term they did what all pets do and kicked the bucket. Ten years on we still talk about them.

marymac · Feb 12, 2011

brucemoffatt said:
We had three hens for a while. They were supercharged Australorps. We called them the henasaurs because they were so big. They used to follow us around the garden looking for something to eat after they ate every blade of everything that was remotely green yellow or brown in the whole garden. Great eggs from happy hens, but alas in the long term they did what all pets do and kicked the bucket. Ten years on we still talk about them.

Our biggest hen, Myrna, is an Australorp! What a beauty she is. My girls are about 1.5 yrs old now. I'm thinking when they're three years old I'll get three more chicks and raise them up to be the next generation, but we plan to keep them until they pass on. And since there's always someone who has to ask: NO we will not be eating them. They're pets! I won't be eating the dog or the cats either.

Regarding the garden: our three hens decimated every plant I had in the yard within months after we got them. I finally had to build them a pen at the back of the yard to restrain their depredations. I let them out into the rest of the yard for about an hour at the end of the day once or twice a week. That has worked much better and I am slowly rebuilding my landscaping, mostly using shrubs which stand up to chicken abuse much better than the plants I had before.

brucemoffatt · Feb 12, 2011

marymac said:
Our biggest hen, Myrna, is an Australorp! What a beauty she is. My girls are about 1.5 yrs old now. I'm thinking when they're three years old I'll get three more chicks and raise them up to be the next generation, but we plan to keep them until they pass on.

Our Australorps lived quite a long and happy life, and contrary to expectation they kept laying good big happy-hen eggs for several years. They well and truly earned their retirement when they finally stopped laying, and they converted all manner of stuff from the table and the garden into the most powerful fertiliser known to human kind. They were friendly, in a kind of mini-tyrannasourus kind of way, and I'm sure they would have loved the uke if I'd been playing back then. I think the snail population is just starting to recover after about a decade. We once had some ducks. They ate just like the hens, only difference was the amount of duck poo. Frightening amounts of it, everywhere.

marymac · Feb 12, 2011

brucemoffatt said:
Our Australorps lived quite a long and happy life, and contrary to expectation they kept laying good big happy-hen eggs for several years. They well and truly earned their retirement when they finally stopped laying, and they converted all manner of stuff from the table and the garden into the most powerful fertiliser known to human kind. They were friendly, in a kind of mini-tyrannasourus kind of way, and I'm sure they would have loved the uke if I'd been playing back then. I think the snail population is just starting to recover after about a decade. We once had some ducks. They ate just like the hens, only difference was the amount of duck poo. Frightening amounts of it, everywhere.

I'd love to have ducks but I don't have the space for them, or a pond! Our backyard is about 30 feet by 50 feet - and we don't want it to be entirely dedicated to livestock! - so our three hens are enough for now.

hoosierhiver · Feb 12, 2011

I've been thinking about raising some bobwhite quail this year just for fun.

marymac · Feb 12, 2011

hoosierhiver said:
I've been thinking about raising some bobwhite quail this year just for fun.

Quail are so adorable! I've though about raising them myself but I have enough to take care of already. I read (in "Backyard Poultry" magazine) that you can eat the quail eggs though I think they are richer and obviously much smaller. Send pix if you do decide to do this - I'd love to see.

marymac · Feb 12, 2011

Here's a photo of my back yard. The chicken coop is at the far back on the left (it's kind of hidden in this photo). The chicken run goes all the way across the back of the yard then up the side towards the cat house.

The structure on the left with the white doors is the cat house

that I built last summer. Our cats love it and we can sit out there with them when it's nice (like today). They have a cat door from the house to an enclosed tunnel that leads to the cat house so they can go in and out whenever they want to. In the past we just let the cats out but we've lost too many cats to cars to do that any more.

This is our chic-chic imported Eglu chicken coop

before I built the run around it. They only spend the nights in it (and go into the nest boxes for laying).

NatalieS · Feb 12, 2011

No chickens here but I just wanted to comment... beautiful chickens, everyone!

Season · Feb 13, 2011

What is it with uke players and chickens???? We built a coop and run and got our five girls a year ago and we love it! We got them as new chicks and they lived in the bathtub until we got the coop built. I'd sing to them and we handled them a lot when they were little and they are very tame. The minute they hear my voice now they start talking back at me. Pluckin' and cluckin' - Who knew they'd go so well together?

marymac · Feb 13, 2011

Season said:
What is it with uke players and chickens???? We built a coop and run and got our five girls a year ago and we love it! We got them as new chicks and they lived in the bathtub until we got the coop built. I'd sing to them and we handled them a lot when they were little and they are very tame. The minute they hear my voice now they start talking back at me. Pluckin' and cluckin' - Who knew they'd go so well together?

Hahaha - yeah, who knew! All three gals are now laying again (as of today). They were taking their winter break and we were so missing the eggs! They stopped in mid-November but Millie started laying again at the beginning of January - good chicken! Mabel started laying again last week and Myrna laid her first egg of the year today. Woohoo! Time for some quiches.

pet chickens? what!

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