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Originally Posted by Nancy1999  My dentist's assistant, (who I see quite a bit of) has told me about her chicken adventure. She started with I think three, and her son built her a coop. It takes a long time before they lay eatable eggs and in the meantime, you have to spend a lot of money on food and antibiotics and all sorts of stuff. Then she got another hen and found out that they are very territorial and they pecked the new hen to death. I guess you have to get them all at the same time and one becomes the alpha and any new hen upsets the balance. Also, her dog killed another one. So far, the eggs are costing her about 200 dollars apiece. I haven't talked to her in the past few months, but last time I talked to her she wasn't as enthusiastic as she once was. If you had your own yard and the chickens could be "free range", I say go for it, if you have to hide them, I think you'll end up regretting it. Are you sure you just don't want to have a baby? You won't have time for anything else. Lol, it sounds like you internal clock is insisting on a bird. |
You about said most of what was on my mind after watching my daughter have 13 chickens, and she even had a nice coop in her 2 acre yard. She had several different fancy kinds, some laid blue eggs, most were brown. I was shocked at how much chickens eat.... all your scraps, peelings, and expired fruits and veggies, PLUS tons of food pellets. They must have plenty of clean water daily, which means you have to clean the container because they poop in it. Have you ever smelled chicken poop? It almost made me not want to eat eggs. Fun when they get bird mites, and you have to give them a bath in a 5 gallon bucket of treated water. And if you don't get rid of the mites they can get on you, in your house, your bedding and make life miserable. One hen got a scratch on her leg from the wire, and the others proceeded to peck her to death.
The grand finale in her chicken experience was when the neighbors dog broke into the coop and killed all by 4. Luckily her boyfriend discovered it and cleaned up the massacre before anyone else saw it. Oh, and guess what, she realized she didn't need 13 eggs a day, couldn't even give them away fast enough, and wow.... Costco sells beautiful organic brown eggs for much less than the cost of chicken feed.
Wow..... that was a rant. Guess you know what I think about chickens
