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I'm curious about having chickens for their eggs. I heard they also make pretty good pets. What would I need to have them. Can I have one or do I need more. Are they easy or hard to care for? Would my neighbors complain?
I live in a rural section of town and have raccoons and other small animals in the area. My back yard has a pretty good fence without any large openings and lots of not-very-manicured grass. The climate here is mild: average high temps are around 55º winter and 64º summer. it might get below freezing a dozen times over the winter.
Anyone here have experience with them?
northern california coast
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I think you need a chicken coop. Then you need to clean the chicken coop.
Chickens are too stupid to be pets. On the other hand, it's fun to hauck a lunger and watch them run over to eat it.
Wait, I take that back. My father when a boy had a pet chicken. Eventually it ended up in the pot. And he refused to eat chicken ever after. He also wouldn't eat fish. I don't think he ever had a pet fish, though.
/Mr Lynn
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They're birds. In the Winter they need to stay dry and out of the wind. So you need a coop.
About 2 square feet of standing around room each.
Constant fresh water. 24/7.
Chicken feed .
Most can fly over a 6 foot fence unless you cut some feathers on one wing so they fly in a circle.
Idyllic pics of them happily chomping away at bugs and weeds in the garden might be charming but they'll just as happily eat your choice tomatoes and lettuce first. Otherwise protecting some things they will however eat anything that moves and they can swallow ...
Some roost and need a branch/rod to perch on at night.
Many 'burbs around here have a 6 per yard rule.
They'll come running trained for food and to be nosy and they'll quite readily poop on you too.
You don't necessarily have to pen them in as they'll come back to a shelter to roost at night ( unless one decides to camp out in a tree) but you will need an enclosure in most places to keep 'sporting' neighbor's dogs and predators like weasels and such out.
You generally get 5 eggs per week from a 5-24 month old hen.
After that - chicken soup.
Oh yeah, generally you have to clean the shit from the floor of the coop 4 times a year, then put a fresh layer of shavings down. Makes great garden manure if you leave it in a pile until it is no longer green and ripe.
Time this chore well so you are not doing it in July or August.
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You may need to sink the wire for their enclosure 1 foot down so the predators can't dig under the wire. Kind of sounds like the great escape movie to me, except they were trying to get out!
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In my rural little Podunk town, the township has an ordinance excluding any farm animals if you own less than 10 acres of land.
You may want to check with your local government if there is a similar restriction.
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Chickens are generally a PIA as yardbirds, ducks aren't as messy and still lay eggs.
When we kids would bring friends over to dinner, my dad liked to remark how fresh the chicken was,
"Just run over this morning."
I saw a specialty magazine about raising chickens at the newsstand, odd, since they only rated a column in Farm Journal.
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If you like to get up early (say 5 AM), a rooster is handy. Also for making new chickens.
/Mr Lynn
PS If you have neighbors, make sure they like to get up early, too.
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They're a PIA, but there's nothing like fresh eggs.
Old layers that are over the hill make for lousy eatin'.
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lost in space wrote:
They're a PIA, but there's nothing like fresh eggs.
Old layers that are over the hill make for lousy eatin'.
Coq au Vin... Google that there recipe
