Does anyone here keep chickens?
 

Thinking about getting one or two hens. Any advice appreciated. I highly doubt my HOA allows it but I think I have a few places to "hide" them if I do end up doing this. I know our city allows it bc there are a lot of homes here with farms, animals and horses. Just think our association may not. We were thinking about getting a parakeet but if I'm going to the trouble of keeping a bird and cleaning bird poop I may as well get some eggs out of the deal. ;)

I saw a coop at Costco yesterday for $150 I think and it says up to 4 hens.

My neighbor had chickens.....I think about a dozen of them....thinking a dozen eggs a day!.....I think the MAJOR mistake was when he got the ROOSTER!!!! We are smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood with a strict HOA....that rooster would get out and visit all over the neighborhood, crowing at all hours.....I LOVE crwing roosters, but someone did not! and all the chickens and the rooster is history! I USED to have chickens...you do not need a rooster to make eggs! That is what God put chickens here to do....make eggs!! Now if you want biddies, you will need a rooster to fertilize those eggs.....but just the hens and you should be able to "hide" the chickens....if you have nice neighbors that wont see them in your back yard or in the coop, and report you! Good luck! When I move up to my brothers property, I want chickens....there are chickens that lay low cholesterol eggs....healthier eggs....cant think of the name of the breed of chicken, but I KNOW someone on here will know!!! They are a funny looking, fancy chicken....Chineese or something, I think!

Just "Googled" those chickens...debunked theory about less cholesterol higher protein! I want chickens that lay JUMBO eggs....I need to investigate THAT!!

Well, forgive me.....but I have insinuated myself all up in the middle of your chicken idea!!! Looking at chickens, Australorpe chickens are supposed to be really great laying chickens and they apparently lay "jumbo" eggs more often than not. I am just reading all this, have no idea if it is true! But I think I will get real familiar with this breed and perhaps gravitate towards them when I get my own!

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.

Hey!! This fits right in with the rest of my great ideas and attempts to live with Mother Nature!! $200.00 eggs, my "huge hamburger size tomatoes that MAY grow to be a littless in size than a tennis ball and cost me about $75.00 each, my $150.00/pound cucumbers, my 20 yellow squash plants that yielded a total of 3 squash, the largest being about 4 inches long, etc, etc, etc....I soooooo want to be a "farm girl" and a "rancher" with cattle and those adorable little tiny pigmie goats (sp is wrong!!).....except I already know I can not kill my stock for food.....I just need to give this dream up.......including chickens!!! I did read about those particular Australorpe chickens..."Pros:
“Very sweet temperament, lovely color, great layers ”
“Great layers, great with other birds, very human friendly, nice to look at, hardy, long term layers”.......... ??? maybe ??? give it a try ????

My boys raised chickens one year for 4H. They received 25 chicks each because they are supposedly hard to keep alive. We must have been pretty decent at it because all 50 made it. We had all the eggs we wanted. It really was not an expensive adventure for us. Speaking of chickens, I had to share this video, one of my all time favorites. Jay Leno interviewing an Arkansan who gave a chicken CPR.

https://vimeo.com/22942977

A baby?! Hell noooo! Never! I want chickens for the eggs. It's all about food for me. I didn't want a parakeet. Bf wants one but I know I'll end up taking care of it. If that's the case then I want a bird that will give me food in return.

There are ppl on craigslist that give away chickens all the time. I think I would look for egg laying age hens. No chicks.

this WAS HALARIOUS!!!!!! I could sit and watch Bradshaw all day long and what a wonderful video this was....I killed myself laughing!!!! Thanks for this!!!

My neighbor has chickens and when they go on vacation I get to go watch them. They have a fenced in yard so during the day the chickens are allowed to roam that. They got 6 last spring as chicks, their dogs got one of them while they were still little.

They bought a coop for them that they sleep in at night. They will go into it themselves as it starts to get dark and you just close the door and then open it up in the morning to let them out.

Feed is cheap and they don't need any medications. They give me about a dozen eggs about twice a month in the summer (extra over what they can use) and then in the winter about a dozen every 6 weeks, again after they use what they want/need.

As far as "hiding" them they do make noise. A rooster is very loud and as said on here, you do not need a rooster to have eggs. The hens make really cute noises in my opinion but some neighbors might hear them and report you, it really depends on your neighbors. Our rules are they can't be running loose and no roosters. I think there is a limit on how many hens you can have too, but it is like 12 or something here.

Good luck if you get them. Having a fence is good so they can't go anywhere and then just put them in the coop at night for safety and let them out in the morning. Their's lay about 1 egg a day on average. I think they are cool and trying to talk my husband into letting me have chickens here. My neighbors are talking about moving and said I could have their coop and chickens if they move, so who knows, I might get some yet.

Ok that was freaking funny :sidesplt:

I have thought about getting a couple of hens but my neighbor is a complete ass****! He reported me to our HOA and the city complainting about my "exotic birds" the were kept INSIDE my house. There is no way I could get away with hiding chickens. I do wish I could.

I want chickens, but when dad told me they do this to each other, and I read here about Michele's experience, it turned me off.

I have a neighbor behind me in another complex, they had a rooster, don't know if they had chickens, the rooster would crow all day, I loved hearing him through the woods, my neighbors hated it. I would LOVE to get geese, they are like watch dogs, but to much wild life here, I would faint if one morning I found it dead in my yard.

From what I have read you have to get the hens at the same time, or buy them from someone who raised then at the same time otherwise they fight.

So far all the neighbors are fine. Many have dogs who are outside all day and night and bark non stop so I doubt they would even hear my chickens. There are a few places I am thinking I could put the coop. One area the trees are growing like crazy and soon it will be totally covered from above. Since our houses are all three story, the neighbors can look down from above, esp from the roof deck to see down, but if the trees are covering them, you won't be able to. I am also thinking to gate off the chickens side so they are near my small garden (bug patrol) and the dogs can have the other side. Also on the garden side we are thinking of putting up another wall and gate to make a small courtyard. This won't be done until they start building on the lot next to us. It's still unsold. Once that goes up there will be a lot more privacy.

There's still a lot to learn. I probably won't be getting any for at least a few more months if not a year. Also thinking I will build the coop myself. I went to look at the Costco one again and the footprint seems big.

Geese are so huge! There is a park here that has tons of them. Their poop is so big LOL. I would love a duck to get er eggs but they make too much noise and I would imagine would want to fly around.

At MIL's house, for years every summer a Mr and Mrs Duck would come into her pool and splash around. They did this for years but haven't seen them in at least five or so years. I always wonder what happened to them.

My neighbor, three houses over, has chickens. They often roam free and end up coming to visit. They are what I think of when I think, chickens, standard big birds.

My cousin lives in a little house on a lake, and she has four chickens. She's had them for two years now, and they are still small. Less than half the size of my neighbors chickens. They produce smaller eggs too, but my cousin has no problem cooking with them. She says, she never buys eggs anymore. Her basement is a walkout, and has a deck above. She has her chickens under that decking area, and as the steps from the deck are on the side where her neighbor is, no one can see the chickens. She had her coop built for her by a local woodworker, and it has wheels on the bottom, so she can roll it around, and roll it out into her side yard on good weather days.

Yep, Geese make poops as big as my Cody, I wouldn't let them use my entire yard, I would fence off a large area for them, IF I would get them. I also love little ducks, years ago when I lived on Long Island for Easter my neighbor's husband got her 3 little ducks, she let them splash around in her bath tub :eek: it was the guest bathroom lol, in the summer she got a little kiddie pool, by this time they were grown, beautiful white friendly ducks. It was so cute and relaxing watching them jump in and out of that pool. I like Geese cause they are fresh lol, are like watch dogs, but I won't get any, there are to many predators that kill fowl where I live.

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 :thumbdown:eek::D

Why did she get so many?

OK...my brother just arrived for his week visit....we were talking and laughing about our chicken conversation on here, and since he lives in the country, the neighbor next to him has a couple of horses and a donkey....I think a calf for meat, they are raising....chickens, ducks, guenny (sp) hens for "guard dogs".....

He has a guest house that he rents out to a lady with 4 Yorkies....this woman is driving me crazy...she lets these Yorkies run all over that property, with hawks, owls, snakes, coyotes, etc....plus the fence down the side of the property where the horses are, is electrified to keep that cow from going thru the fence....I am loosing my mind over these little Yorkies, and worried sick about them running into that electric fence....NOW he tells me one of the Yorkies came running over to him for a visit, cute, adorable, friendly little thing....then it ran over to the pasture where the horses and the cow and donkey are.....wanting to visit with the livestock.....well, the horses and the donkey tore after that baby dog....ran its ass all over the pasture....my brother ran to the fence, yelling and hollering and trying to get that terrified little Yorkie back thru the fence...he did manage to get it to come running for its life.....and the donkey didnt get it, but it was REAL close.....my brother never says anything to people...anytime I have told him to tell that woman anything about those Yorkies, he reminds me she is a farm girl, knows all about critters running and flying in the woods, and he isnt sticking his nose in her business. She already had a beautiful boxer that got bit by a copperhead and died.... This woman is KILLING me with her stupidity and her Yorkies....

Well Sandy that took care of me wanting Geese. Mites :eek: I had baby robins fall out of their nest a few years ago, momma made her nest in a planter right at the front door, every time I came out a baby got pushed out, one day 3 babies plopped out, they were able to walk I was running all over the front of the house picking them up, putting back in the nest, then other were plopping out, every time I got them in the nest others were getting out, there were 5 baby robins, I realized my arms were covered in mites:eek: I ran in my bath room and scrubbed my arms, tore off my clothes threw them in the washer and jumped in the shower. I will never again pick up a wild bird, when I see a momma making a nest at the front of my house I take the nest down using a plastic bag, I never thought about geese, duck and mites. Just lost all desire for geese. Thank you Sandy lol

She wanted a variety of fancy colors, and the supplier ships them from the mainland by FedEx when they are only a few days old (hard to believe), and they ship extra in case some don't make it. They all survived.

chickens
 

I raised chickens in a large coop. Had a rooster named Bill. I love the rhode island red chickens. They lay the brown eggs. One problem with chickens mice and rats. It does draw these animals. They go after the chick feed at night. So if you don't mind a few of those, chickens are really cool to keep. Friendly and they will toot around and lay eggs for you! Have to coop them up at night or coyotes get em.

Ha ha, it sounds like something you really have to be committed to before you can really do it, kind of like owning a Yorkie! One of my best friends in high school, lived on a chicken farm and I helped her wash eggs, so yes I smelled a lot of chicken poop. They washed them in something like cascade dishwasher detergent, at least that's what it smelled like, and that mixed with the poop was very unpleasant. Does she even know what a good friend I was? :D Raising chickens is definitely not cost effective, antibiotics, worming medicine, lice dusting, straw, food, it all adds up.

LOL, We raised geese growing up, even incubated our own eggs (in the house). I played with those baby goslings a lot and we never had a case of mites that I remember. They were a lot of fun, and become quite attached if you spent the time with them, but they were definitely mean when they were laying. I got attacked by one that left a pretty good bruise on my behind where she clamped down. :eek: Best guard dogs we ever had. LOL

Martha Stewart made it look so easy and wonderful to keep chickens. :rolleyes::p:D I see now that she wasn't giving the whole story.

It is easy for Martha because she has a whole staff to do all the dirty work, haha. Just like how she makes cooking look so easy on tv, her crew behind the scenes does all the prep and clean up.

I will admit that my daughter and granddaughter did have some fun with the chickens, but after a while the fun wore off and it was all work..... lots of dirty work. Forget ever taking a vacation or getting sick, tending to chickens is a daily chore, and not many people are willing to assist. Of course I had to help many times, which is why I was so glad to see them go. We paid someone to tear down the chicken coop, and the funny thing is that a whole patch of grape tomato plants popped up there and was thriving because of the chicken manure.

That's funny, I heard that chicken poop is the best manure in the world.

It is the best, and they sell it at nurseries, and even that stinks. Have to say though that the 15x10' patch of grape tomatoes were the best ever, and there were thousands, started from feeding leftover tomatoes to the chickens. I'm surprised that watermelon didn't pop up, as that was their favorite.

I do have to giggle as it was cute to see my granddaughter at about 6 years old walking around with a big fat hen under her arm.