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Chickens!

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22:46 / 22.06.07

Well happy for you. Big chickens!

02:14 / 23.06.07

Chickens!

I, too, had homemade bread for breakfast. It's so humid here that between midnight (when it popped out hard and crusty from the bread machine ((yes, we has one))) and 8 am, the crust lost its crunch. But the toaster restored it!

Your ladies are elegant in their black dresses. Enjoy them!

12:05 / 23.06.07

Enjoy them!

Noooooo! Not the bad phrase!

20:43 / 13.07.07

i've finally joined the board so i thought i should wave to all in this thread. this is xk's friend the chicken lady. hi!

sorensen, i am so glad to see you have successfully procured yourself some chickens! they look lovely, and so does your yard.

grant, i store my feed in a metal garbage bin with the top secured with a bungee cord. no rats poaching feed!

however if anyone can tell me how to humanely keep my strawberries from being eaten by somebody with teeth (rat? mole? rabbits?) i would be very happy.

23:55 / 13.07.07

Hi Epona! Thank you so much for your wonderful chicken advice - it was very helpful. The girls are very happy, if a bit soggy - we've had rain for days, but they don't seem to care much. We're getting between 2 and 4 eggs a day, and they are so tame and lovely that it's ridiculous!

I only struggle with slugs with my strawberries, so have no advice I'm afraid - you could try little cages or a frame covered in netting over the plants...

00:07 / 14.07.07

I've got one of those feeders inside the chicken house, and sometimes there are leftover squash rinds and whatnot on the ground from the trimmings they get fed. That's what draws the rats -- the main bag of feed is in one of them big metal garbage cans (all shiny and new!), too, so that at least is safe.

It's them poaching from the feeder that I object to.

On a more affirmative note, now we are four:

The black one is a black sex link and the brown one is an Americauna - or so the feed store tells us. We lucked out by finding that breed there (unless it grows up to be something else, which could always happen).

And yes, that's a dog training cage lined with poultry mesh. It's on our front porch. We're suburban.

00:36 / 14.07.07

however if anyone can tell me how to humanely keep my strawberries from being eaten by somebody with teeth

Ideas:

1. cage them off. A cylinder of chicken wire should do it.

2. urine? Depending on the critter, peeing around the area will keep them at bay. I don't think it'd deter a rat that knows berries are there, and I have my doubts about rabbits, the demons.

3. Live traps are always an option, if you can put up with 'em.

I suppose borrowing an owl wouldn't really qualify as humane....

14:20 / 16.07.07

epona if you bring up the urine option I'm sure one of your housemates maybe happy to help you out!

Seriously though human pee has all sort of weirdness in it I'm not sure it is a great option next to food plants? Maybe the barrier method is a bit less risky?

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

14:48 / 16.07.07

You might want to get the urine from something that smells really scary, like a dog or a tomcat.

Also try a realistic looking snake. Maybe even one that wiggles around every once in a while or something? I know we used to put rubber snakes in our strawberry patch to scare off birds. Not sure how well it worked.

I've seen the live traps work well for big rats. We took them over the hill and dumped them off in the parking lot at some expensive condominiums. Probably a mean thing to do to rats.

Try the Gardenomicon thread?

09:13 / 17.07.07

You know, two years ago, I never thought chickens would comprise such a large part of my life.

And then I met my girlfriend.

With her having about 200 birds then and currently, it would've been impossible to keep these feathery monsters from becoming a happy addition to my life. ^_^ Before her, I wouldn't have thought of chickens as anything more than white-feathered things that ended up on my plate...

She raises mostly game breeds, but bantams comprise the brunt of her flock. She raises Serama, Dutch, Phoenix, and (proto)Onogodori, Polish, and Cubalaya. Her mother raises Faverolls, Cochins, and Hamburgs. My gf also has a group of button quail (not to mention a green-cheeked Conure and Lovebird).

Last fall, she picked up a Malay at the Ohio National show and crossed that with her Cuba's, and that's producing some really pretty birds; at least I think so, anyway. She wants to take the malay traits and get them back into her Cuba's asap, though.

Anyway, I would highly recommend Cubalayas. We've got a barn bird she named Fidel that is the friendliest thing I've ever seen. I can't sit down without him coming over, wanting to be picked up and have attention lavished on him. His kids are the same way.

18:56 / 17.07.07

Onagadori.

Show birds!

I'm fascinated by Malays (and even more by jungle fowl), but never thought much about raising them because I'm not gonna eat 'em or show 'em (or, in this area, fight 'em, but less said about that the better). It's those funky legs.

20:45 / 17.07.07

grant, I just may have found the basis for a tattoo in those beautiful boids. Thanks.

03:00 / 18.07.07

I'm building her (hopefully) a tomebako for her birthday. 'tis a special cage for keeping the onagadori in that allows their tail to grow out to maximum length without getting all mussed up in the coop. Hopefully I won't screw it up too terribly. = /

22:34 / 07.08.07

Chicken fundis! I need wisdom!

The chicks from the feed store are now pullets - the size and shape of adult pigeons, more or less.

I've moved the dog cage they're in into the oversize chicken ark to get them used to being out there, and to get the big chickens used to them.

Here's the thing -- I'm not sure exactly how to get them out of the cage and into the ark proper. I mean, sure, I open the door and they hop out and gobble what grass they can with gusto, however:

1. They still get pecked by the bigger birds. I have a feeling this will be inescapable until they just find their place in the order, but am eager to hear any tricks for introducing new birds to an older flock (of two).

2. I read that young pullets ought not be eating layer pellets. I have a feeder hanging in the middle of the ark. I simply can't conceive of a way to have all the chickens in one space and to keep the smaller ones out of the bigger ones' food. I can think of a way to keep the bigger ones out of the smaller ones' starter mash/pullet feed, but not vice versa. Is the extra calcium really that much of a big deal for the younger birds? Am I going to have to change my feeding techniques - like, remove feeder, have regular, separate feedings for big birds and small birds (that is, turn my life into a Major Hassle)?

Any advices?

18:01 / 10.08.07

Who will help the plucked mother's eggs?

15:13 / 20.08.07

Found an answer: a creep.

Essentially what I've been doing anyway.

lille christina

15:25 / 20.08.07

My parents got some chickens (which was the alternative to raising alpacca) in their yard. One of them just got a little baby (don't know the actual term for baby chicken). The chicken that got the baby has tried to become a mother several times without sucess (the other ones always destroyed the egg). Now it actually worked. According to my mother the little one has grown quite a bit over the last couple of weeks.

Unfortunately none of my parents know how to find out whether its a boy or a girl. If it's a boy it probably will start fighting the cock in a while...so then my parents'll probably have to slaughter the little one and have it for dinner...now everyone hopes that the baby is a girl so it can live a long and fulfilled life laying eggs and eating dinner leftovers.

15:50 / 20.08.07

I don't know how to check if a chicken is a boy chicken or a girl chicken.

I do know, however, that a baby chicken is a chick!

Here's hoping it's a girl for a long and clucky life.

19:43 / 20.08.07

Grant - that's ingenious. Sorry I was never able to think of a reply to your question. It fell into the advanced chicken-keepers category - I am still firmly a novice!

Our 4 Australorps are still very happy, laying between 1 and 4 delicious eggs a day. We had a scare a couple of weeks ago when a fellow from animal management at the local council turned up investigating complaints of a rooster on our property. I was shitting myself! I took him out the back though and showed him our lovely ladies, and he was pleased to confirm that as there was no rooster, we had less than 5 chickens, and they are obviously well cared for, that we were completely within our rights under the local council law and the neighbours would just have to live with the occasional squawks. Phew! It was an extra bonus for him that we welcomed him onto the property - I think he was steeling himself for a fight, poor fella.

22:21 / 01.12.07

We had to give our chickens away. This should really go in the miserable thread, I guess.

A friendly neighbour gave us a heads up that the not-so-friendly neighbours were going to complain to the council. And the thing is, we are mostly in compliance with the by-laws but not quite. So rather than have a war, we have given them to our very good friends who live nearby, and who already have chickens and can easily accommodate ours as well.

We are very, very sad...

11:46 / 02.12.07

That's really shit, sorenson. On the bright side at least they're going to a place that is friendly to chickens, not into a pie.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:18 / 02.12.07

Oh blah. What horrible boring people. I'm glad the chooks are okay though.

20:21 / 02.12.07

Pretty hungry now, however.

01:20 / 03.12.07

WRONG! Wrongness.

Mine are totally illegal.

Macaws are legal.

This is unfair.

18:13 / 06.05.08

I am hoping to get backyard chickens pretty soon. I am a novice at this, so I have many questions. A local rare breeds farm sells point of lay pullets for £12, which seems to be the going rate in the UK at present. I'm hoping it might be possible to get them home in a large cardboard box, rather than investing in any more complicated kind of carrier.

I've managed to blag a cute wooden wendy house via freecycle, which has been converted into a chicken coop by addition of a perch. It is 4'*5' floorspace, which is enough space for up to five chickens. How good are chickens at getting onto a perch? This perch is about 2' off the ground, they might need a chicken ladder to get on and off it?

I know I need to acquire the nest boxes (small cardboard boxes maybe?), some bedding material (shredded paper?), and a drinker to supply their water. I'm hoping that throwing a 100g/head/day of layer pellets on the ground whilst they are out during the day will do for feeding. Am I wrong, do I need a feeder too?

Anything else I need to know for starting out with backyard chickens? I've read about red mites being a problem - some people say diatomaceous earth sprinkled around will sort that out, rather than have to get anything more chemical. Is it true? Are red mites a problem everywhere?

21:02 / 06.05.08

I'm hoping it might be possible to get them home in a large cardboard box, rather than investing in any more complicated kind of carrier.

Yeah, they'll probably give you a box.

Be aware that "point of lay" isn't literally the point of laying - it can take three months for a point-of-lay pullet to actually lay an egg.

I've managed to blag a cute wooden wendy house via freecycle, which has been converted into a chicken coop by addition of a perch. It is 4'*5' floorspace, which is enough space for up to five chickens. How good are chickens at getting onto a perch? This perch is about 2' off the ground,

That should be fine. They'll let you know if they need a stool or something.

I know I need to acquire the nest boxes (small cardboard boxes maybe?), some bedding material (shredded paper?), and a drinker to supply their water. I'm hoping that throwing a 100g/head/day of layer pellets on the ground whilst they are out during the day will do for feeding. Am I wrong, do I need a feeder too?

I find a feeder handy.

Wood shavings seem to be the best stuff for nesting areas (they might eat the paper), and nesting boxes need to be sturdy enough (and enclosed enough) for the birds to feel comfortably secure and hidden in there.

Also, if they're "out" during the day, they'll likely be foraging for food, so be prepared for them to leave stuff behind some days and be totally ravenous other days.

Anything else I need to know for starting out with backyard chickens? I've read about red mites being a problem - some people say diatomaceous earth sprinkled around will sort that out, rather than have to get anything more chemical. Is it true? Are red mites a problem everywhere?

We battled bedbugs a while back, and the chickens seemed to be hiding them in the coop. I think it was a bale of hay we got from a church preschool Halloween party - they got on me and got in with the birds, and after the house was cleared, I'd still find them on me. Diatomaceous earth on the hay, inside the coop and on the birds' favorite dirt bath areas seemed to clear it all up.

07:22 / 08.05.08

Thanks for the hints. Good to know that about P.O.L pullets, I'd thought it more likely to be weeks than months!

14:51 / 08.05.08

"Likely," sure. But not guaranteed.

Have fun!

19:01 / 13.10.08

It's a freakin' chicken revolution!

Or at least an "urban chicken movement".

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