Raising chickens.......

[babibelli]

I'm thinking about getting a couple to raise as pets and for eggs. A friend of mine said it is necessary to get a rooster to keep with the natural "pecking" order. Is this true? I was thinking about just getting a couple of hens. Any tips from other crazy chickin' raisin mamas??

[Arduinna]

you don't have to have a rooster, although they do serve more than one purpose Your neighbors may not appreciate a rooster though, depending on where you live??

[dharmama]

We have four hens...no rooster. They seemed to establish their pecking order with no problems. We recently ordered another 8 chicks so we'll have an even dozen (we're hoping to start selling eggs).

Chickens are SO much fun to have around. Our's have free-range of our yard (and our adjoining neighbor's, who luckily don't mind) and they run up the hill to greet me when I pull in the driveway.

Very cute!


Good luck! It's lots of fun!

~Erin


PS ~ One word of caution...when we first began our chicken-raising endeavor last spring, we got WAY too attached to our "ladies." I named them all and was way into them. But they are fragile creatures with many predators (which I'm assuming is why they attempt to reproduce every day). Last spring we started with six chicks and we only have two left from that group.

[dharmama]

Ugh.

We had a chicken attack last night. I forgot to close the door to their pen and something got in and killed two of my chickens.

I'm so sad.


It's really hard not to get attached to them.

[babibelli]

i'm so sorry...

[dharmama]

Thanks. I'm so frustrated with myself for not closing the gate (I didn't exactly just forget....I remembered but was too lazy to go outside and thought nothing would happen). We will be MUCH more careful from now on.

It's so weird that I was just writing about how fragile they are and how they have so many predators yesterday and then this happened.

I would still encourage you to start raising chickens. They are so great to have around...just know, especially if you have little ones, that they tend to come and go fairly rapidly, which can be hard.

Good luck!

~Erin

[myrrhmaid]

We LOVE our chickens! We have them all named and little wooden plaques with their names painted on them because we put them in the fair every year. One year we made $26. in premiums and many ribbons from 'our girls'! We also have a turkey(she just started laying & is so proud!) & a pair of ducks. They are so entertaining & follow me all over the yard. I bring the hot air popcorn popper outside & pop up batches of corn for them. They love it! We didn't have a rooster for years & the girls did just fine. We now have a banty rooster, which is a miniature version and he also has a mini crow so he isn't as loud & disruptive as a regular rooster. He sounds like a toy rooster. We had lots of trouble with predators, I have some awful stories of nature in action. Last labor day weekend dh made me a brand new 'Ubercoop' and as long as we remember to close it at night we have no problems. They really are lots of fun for us. If you raise your chicks by hand they will be tame enough to jump up on your knee while you sit in the yard and we get a kick out of that. And of course the delicious eggs can't be beat. Sorry to hear you lost some girls. We are diligent about closing the coop-we have to be! We have had mountain lions, skunks, raccoons, neighborhood dogs and god knows whatever else feed off our girls!

[mnnice]

I would recommend not getting a rooster. When had chickens when I was a child and I was scared to death of the rooster(named "The Guard"). He was very aggressive and tried to peck us. He knocked my little brother down and pecked him on the nose. He still has a tiny scar 28 years later. My mom butchered "The Gaurd" and gave him to a neighbor she was so mad she didn't even want to eat him. Sorry for the strange but true rambling.

[rebx]

I'm so sorry to hear about the lost chickens! I still get sad thinking about the chickens & ducks we lost to our local dog pack about 25 years ago...

Regarding roosters, I'm with mnnice! We had chickens when I was a kid, and my sisters & I lived in fear of the roosters. Feeding & watering the chickens was like a trip to prehistoric dinosaur land (the other thing we feared) - We did have 1 nice rooster, Henry, but pretty much all of the others were feisty ankle-peckers - and strong, too.

Still, we loved our chickens, and I'm so glad they were part of my childhood. I'm looking into the chicken regulations where we live, hoping to keep a few hens when dd is older (roosters aren't allowed in city limits).

[sohj]

You don't need a rooster, but I know quite a few old-fashioned farmers who think that it just isn't RIGHT without a rooster.

edited to remove something off topic...I gotta control myself.

[momto l&a]

Banties

We have had them for years, such good layers, each has such a nice personality, they are beautiful and not as distructive as full size chikens.

We had one Bantie that crowed each morning for years but ALSO layed an egg most everyday.

Our chickens have free roam during the day but go to their coup at night to get locked up against preditors.

Did I mention that we Banties?

[myrrhmaid]

The banties are extra special aren't they? They seem to be so much more Motherly and are diligent nesters. Our banties will sit on anyones eggs so I slip some duck eggs under them. They also lay the pink, blue, green eggs too. We have the cochin banty chickens and they have the silliest cluck it cracks me up everyday! They sound like some kind of squeeky toy being jiggled. So a crower that lays also? Thats quite the talented chick! Put that one in the fair for sure! Does anyone else show their chickens? It really is fun.

[Avonlea]

I have Chickens !!!!!!!!


I love my chickens.They live in a fenced in yard now as DH hates chicken poop in the garage...but they still get plenty of fresh air and sun in thier little yard.

I have Two bantam hens and three bantam roosters and two bantam chicks with no ideas on sex or even breed.

Then in the Big coop I have fourteen gals and one gentlemen. He is a decent rooster, not very nasty or aggresive at all. This may change as he gets old and crotchety..but so far so good.

I did have a rooster attack me before..I was bending over weeding my flower bed and the rooster flew up and landed on my back and pecked and scratched the crap out of my arm....he did not live to see another day!!!!I had my husband kill him when he got home.I did not even want to go near that darn thing, so my husband got to have the pleasure of chicken murder.

Certain breeds of chickens are known to have gentle roosters, and some are just mean.

Has anyone here ever ordered chicks from Murray McMUrray hatcheries???? I love looking at the catalogue and fantasizing about the breeds I wish to own some day!

I ordered the rainbow layers bacth twice and both times got really unique birds.

I also have two ducklings and a baby turkey right now, and two new pullets that are white egg layers.

I have : Barred Rocks

Aracaunuas

Minnesota markers( don't ask..it emans a mixed up genetic mess bred at PSu)

A leg Horn..and boy is she mean!

Buff orpingtons

An astrolorp

And a few others. I love my chickens


I realy love to just sit and watch them be chickens, and I call them Ladies when i go to feed them, and I wish I had the time to enter some in the fair this year but I don't.I will be rehabbing it when the fair comes, and will miss the poultry exzibits.

I like chickens.Did I mention that????


Wanna know what breeds I used to have ??Huh huh, do ya??????

Help! I am a chicken woman!!!!!

[owensmom]

Avonlea, we need to hook up! I love my ladies too! We have 4, down from 7 (dog and some mysterious illness). Three are Golden Sexlink and 1 Golden Laced Wynadotte. We just got 5 more, 3 Barred Rock, one Rhode Island Red and 1 more Golden Laced. The integration went smoothly, thankfully.

Chicken poo in the garage! :LOL We always have it on the front porch. And they stand on the back step and look in the sliding glass door...

Owen always wants to look out the window for them, he points and says bok bok!

edited for basic math skills... :

[dharmama]

Has anyone here ever ordered chicks from Murray McMUrray hatcheries???? I love looking at the catalogue and fantasizing about the breeds I wish to own some day!

We did!! My SIL and I split an order of 30 chicks. I haven't seen the babies yet...they are at her house but she says they are doing great!

I have two black sexlinks and an injured Plymouth Rock right now (used to have more but see above - recent attack ) At SIL's I have:

Rhody Reds
White Rocks
Plymouth Rocks
Araucanas (very eggs-cited to get some colored eggs) and a couple of others that I can't remember!

My 3yo Godson was over a couple of weeks ago and he went out with me to get the eggs. He was very interested and asked a lot of questions. Later in the day we were baking and needed an egg so I grabbed one of the eggs that we had left in the dishrack earlier and and he got SO excited and ran to find his mom and said...Mommy, mommy, EGGS COME FROM CHICKENS!!

It was the cutest thing to see him making the connection of the chickens in the yard, the eggs in the hen house and the eggs that we were using to make our cookies.

~Erin

[noodle4u]

Are banties the same as bantam? I had a little bantam rooster once. I loved him to death, but he would attack all visitors/strangers. He would hide in the bushes when ever someone came by, then he would leap out at them and stick his little spurs into thier leg, and beat them whith his wings and peck them. What a cocky little guy :
What does everyone feed thier chick(ens)? The only stuff sold at the feed stores contains antibiotics as a preventative, and I dont want to get chickens unless I can feed them natural organic food.
When I do I would like to purchase some bantam hens, and maybe a rooster. Preferably free range/organic. Any ideas?

[kazmir]

I want chickens

I was a total chicken geek growing up. I was in 4-h for 10 years and raised very type of bird imaginable. Loved my chickens tho. I really want to put in a small hutch and get a couple of bantams(bantys, same thing). I had so many breeds when I was young, barred rocks, white rocks, sexlinks for eggs, cornish x for meat, then I got into all the exotics like langshans - hugh black chickens, parakeets, finches, doves, quail, (okay - alot).

Now I have none, and want to get a couple of antwerp belgium quail bantams, very cute and good layers. Our area is a racoon, coyote, rat playground and I have to make sure they go in every night or no more chickens!!

I think that there are organic foods out there, you can ask at local feed stores to order it for you if they don't carry it. My mom works for a hugh pet/animal food distributor in No Cal, I can aske her if you can't find it locally, she may know of one...

Have fun with your birdies

Robin

[adventuregirl]

We just got chicks! They are the cutest little things! We have 3 Americaunas and 3 Buffs (Buff Orpingtons I think). We've had them for a week and they were just a couple days old when we got them. They have their wing feathers now and are just getting itty bitty tail feathers. I've never had chickens before, but dh grew up with them, so this is all new to me. I got a couple books from the library and they are educating me. I love to watch them. They go bonkers when they see bugs, I drop in a live ant whenever I find one, and they are so funny, ripping around their box to catch it, then parading it in front of the others before chowing it. I know this is going to be a fun adventure. Hee-hee.

[lapinagile]

Wow! I'm so excited to see other chicken-loving mamas here! I don't have any right now. Haven't been able to talk dh into it but I really want to get some bantams. I've had aracaunas, featherfooted chochins (granny birds with petticoats, lol), silver spangled hamburgs, speckled sussex, egyptian fayoumis (I don't think I spelled that right), rhode island reds, and a 'something or other' rosecomb. Then my dad and I built an incubator out of a 5 gallon spackle bucket and turned out some pretty interesting little birds. That was alot of fun!
Unless you plan on breeding I would strongly advise against getting a rooster. My big auracanas were getting sliced and diced by the big rooster. His spurs would actually slice them open. Poor things. I ended up putting wire caps on his spurs. I think that just made him mad, lol.

[friend of mine]

babibelli,

Can you really have chickens in Seattle? We were just there and I was so surprised to see hens on someones front lawn in my Grandma's Ballard/Greenwood neighborhood. I thought they must have escaped from the Zoo.

I would love to have a few hens, but I'm quite certian that they would not be allowed within city limits (Pocatello, ID).

Fun reading this thread!