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Well I finally gave into the kids and my H. We are getting chickens.

DD bday is next Sunday, so for Fathers day and her Birthday we are building the coop. Spent the entire day yesterday getting it framed up. Another day worth of work and the coop will be done, and then H has to clear the area that he wants to place it, but I have a sneaking suspicion as soon as the thing has a roof and doors, we will have chickens wandering around the front yard.

Lord help me.

Just wait.

My husband talks tobthe chickens, drinks his coffee in their company, calls them his "ladies". He's obsessed.

Yah, I have concerns, he already does that with the honey bees.
I'm not sure what this whole female harem thing is all about.

Seriously though, my DD wants them just as badly. I figure wth, we can give it a whirl. It may be fun.

My niece with chickens says she can't eat store-bought eggs anymore, because the fresh ones her hens lay are so, so much better.

I hope you had the 'livestock responsibility' talk with your husband because you KNOW your DD is going to get bored/busy with school/busy with life and neglect the chickens sooner or later. It's a really good thing that he wants them, because they're going to become his responsibility.

I've always wanted chickens, and I think they're a wonderful addition. Fresh eggs are unbelievably good. Chickens are also good pest control if you can give them some sort of free range. If you have the space, I'd suggest you look into a 'chicken tractor' which is basically a movable chicken coop. That way they can be moved to different areas in the yard to take advantage of bugs, shade, etc.

how cool!

Ain't nothing better than a yard egg!

Amen on the farm fresh eggs been getting those of years. Have a few friends that have chickens so that was part of the pull. After having bees we are told chickens are easy. We shall see.
Oh and Sazy you bet I had that talk! I had threatened to move out of we got one more thing that ate or shat. But life is a little calmer now.
As far as the tractor goes we are actually building a stationary coop but will also have a moveable pen as well. We have a huge yard and lots of room.
My biggest concern is the fox, coyote, and raccoons that are around.
Oh and the owls too. Did you know an adult barred owl can eat 8 large chicks at one sitting? Yah neither did some of our farmer friends. Until he got stuck in their brood coop last week.

I'm so jealous!! My kiddos and I want chickens, but we live in the burbs and have a tiny lot, plus a HOA.

We're looking to move to a neighboring county, more rural, but the only house we have found in our price range, and that we like, has a HOA! They have very few rules, basically no commercial trucks and no chickens.

I hope you love having chickens! Keep us updated, so I can live my chicken dreams through you.

That's awesome!

my neighbors had chickens in their fenced in yard. the rooster would crow each morning. Everyone loved those chickens!!!

everyone that is except for that one cranky old man who complained. and one day almost a year later the chickens went away.
the neighborhood still misses those chickens and rooster all these years later. We still talk about them...

so yeah for your chickens, I'm jealous! please keep us updated on your chicken adventures. I enjoy reading about your honeybees too.

I think you'll enjoy chickens.... at one point, we had over 2 dozen of them. They were delightful! McMurray Hatchery has some really cool breeds: Buff Orpingtons & Speckled Wyandottes & Araucanas etc. etc. My favorite are the Araucanas; they have a wonderful 'personality'.

If you can let them 'free range', do it. Hawks and raccoons and such are a risk, but they're happier chickens while they're around.

Definitely go for sex-selected chicks...you'll still wind up w/a rooster or two and that's bad enough...

We plan on getting 5. We figure that is a good number to start with.

My H wants a different breed for each one. My Daughter and him have hatched (pun intended) a plan to name them all after the characters in Orange is the new black. The buff Orpington being Pieper, the Rhode Island Red - Red, the Blue Marans - Tastee, etc.

Dameia - we went to get some craigslist windows for it last night, and the guy had chickens in his back yard, it was a small subdivision yard, and he built a chicken habitrail for the them all along his fence line. It was awesome. He had 6 birds, and they were perfectly content with the room he had, and his neighbors don't even know he has them, because he is rooster free.

I want chickens, too! When I was a kid, I loved when my aunt would go on vacation and put me in charge of her laying hens. The eggs were then MY eggs. That was a lovely thing to me.

because he is rooster free.

Well, he must take his chickens on a dirty weekend now and then, or he will have no new chicks!

[This message edited by lynnm1947 at 9:39 AM, June 17th (Tuesday)]

Found you a chicken tractor ....

Snork - Thanks TR.

Of course at our house it would have to be a 1940's Farmall.

We've had chickens for 3 years now, I just got a new flock of 4 that won't be ready to lay until September/October.

You will love having chickens. I think they are one of the easiest things to maintain compared to say, a dog. My current flock are kind of rowdy. I used to have 3, a buff orpington, barred rock and a rhode island red, they were so calm and docile, and smart. I now have 2 Americaunas, a silver laced wyandotte, and a speckled sussex. They are loud, pushy, and I hate to say, not very bright, cannot get them to roost or stay off their feeder.

I can only eat fresh farm eggs, we get them from our feed store since ours aren't laying yet. I can never go back to store bought eggs. You will love the eggs you get, I swear! Good luck! If I lived not in the city, I'd have as many chickens as possible.

Hardware "cloth" rather than chicken wire, at least under the coop and perhaps a foot or so up the sides. I wanted it for all of the wire sides but it was too expensive. Totally worth it having it under and up the sides a bit. Predators that we have in our semi urban backyard: raccoons, possums, cats, red tail hawks, owls, rats (they are in fact under the coop but can't get into it), the occasional dog, coyotes and foxes in the neighborhood tho I haven't seen any sign of them. Mice, voles, snakes can get in but are not a problem. Snakes are going after the rats, in fact, bully for them! Chickens will eat a mouse if they can catch it, he heheheh.

Lots of ventilation, especially if you have warm or hot or humid summers. Also, get galvanized pails with locking lids for storing feed.

I do the deep litter method and clean the yard part of the coop maybe every four to five months. I clean the house part every week or two. Nest box, only as needed. The girls keep it very clean.

I love my chooks! They will learn to come when you (or whoever feeds them) comes out. Mine will run back to the coop when I call Time to go home!

Oh I wish our town would let us have chickens! I have some friends who raise them and we eat nothing but farm raised eggs. I've often said I should get some land in the country and start a small farm. We found that farm raised hogs also taste SO MUCH better than store bought. Bacon in the stores is a JOKE when you have raised your own!

(I am SO sorry but I have to Tush!)

You know what you call a chicken house with 4 doors????
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A chicken sedan!!!!!

(god I make me laugh!)

[This message edited by MissMouseMo at 7:54 AM, June 20th (Friday)]