Chickens

[blank]

I am now the proud owner of 2 Rhode Island Red hybrids. My daughters are absolutely over the moon about them and cannot keep from hand-feeding them tons of oats. They are originally intended as layers but if the girls keep fattening them up...

[Zombies!]

Bump for interest.

I'll be getting some chickens for Christmas from my mum. This house actually came with a chicken run & coop when we purchased it, but the feckers got rid of the chickens.

I need to pull the coop down, and build another one. It's currently got a pretty ratty looking grape vine growing over it, so I'll be pruning that back and training it to grow up the new coop.

I'll be starting with layers, but I'd love to grow a meat bird or two as well.

[Sapo]

Originally Posted by blank

They are originally intended as layers but if the girls keep fattening them up...

Bwahahah. Talk about love that kills.

[Islander]

I'll be getting 6 meat chix in early June. I let them free-range all day. You'd think it's hard to love a chicken but when they get big enough to hop up on the deck and peek in the screen door at me, well, they are kind of fetching. Having to dodge their droppings all summer keeps me from getting too attached to them, though.

[GreyCloud9]

I have been trying my best to convince Hubby that I need a breeding pair of meat rabbits. I don't think we are allowed chickens. Hubby is SO not convinced, so I pared down my request to a pet rabbit for the wee one,that I can use the waste for the compost heap. He MIGHT be wavering.

[schnuckiputzi]

Chickens are da bomb. Mine always knew their names, and came when called. I would step out on the back porch and holler, "Babies! Where are my babies!" Yes, I'm sick. But they have personalities, and my kids would carry around banties like baby dolls.

[WednesdayAddams]

Originally Posted by blank

I am now the proud owner of 2 Rhode Island Red hybrids. My daughters are absolutely over the moon about them and cannot keep from hand-feeding them tons of oats. They are originally intended as layers but if the girls keep fattening them up...

Fun! Don't let them name them. Tell them it's hard to eat anything that used to have a name.

[Foghorn_Leghorn]

Originally Posted by blank

I am now the proud owner of 2 Rhode Island Red hybrids. My daughters are absolutely over the moon about them and cannot keep from hand-feeding them tons of oats. They are originally intended as layers but if the girls keep fattening them up...

If you're looking, ah say, if you're looking to breed these fine fowls, y'all jus' ring me up. Ah'm in the book.

[sub]dadadadadadadaDOO-dah, doo-dah...

[SmartAleq]

It's okay to name your chickens, as long as you name them things like Lunch, Next, Soup, Drumstick, Nugget and HotWing. Keeps things in perspective, y'see.

GreyCloud9, ever seen Pets or Meat? Just don't turn into that chick, okay? 'Cuz she's crazeh...

[GreyCloud9]

no I haven't, lol.. but no I don't think I will ever be a crazeh about growing animals for meat. I just think it is good to expose your kids to the idea that meat does in fact come from animals. Gorden Ramsey has segments on his show "The F word" where he takes his kids hunting, and raises turkeys with them, and then later cooks them for dinner. (He doesn't expose his kids to the actual slaughter, though) I think this "meat comes in plastic trays at the grocery store" mentality is unhealthy.
While we didn't raise it, I grew up eating rabbit occasionally from either from a relative hunting, or bought from a farmer's market.

[mlerose]

Originally Posted by schnuckiputzi

Chickens are da bomb. Mine always knew their names, and came when called. I would step out on the back porch and holler, "Babies! Where are my babies!" Yes, I'm sick. But they have personalities, and my kids would carry around banties like baby dolls.

We had chickens when I was growing up (some Rhode Island reds, actually, among other breeds, including some of those South American ones that lay blue and green eggs. But I digress.) and I carried them around like dolls, too, especially when they were younger. Eventually our entire flock got picked off one by one by predators (mountain lions, bobcats, possums, etc.) and we never got any more chickens. And then we moved to town.

[Ramsey]

Back in the early spring we bought 10 Rhode Island reds and an Araucana (that's all the farm store had left the day we went to buy them). They were originally my idea as I hate my snooty asshole neighbors and wanted a bunch of them running around in the yard when they have people come by to purchase their bazillion-dollar dogs. I figured it was a perfect passive-aggressive move, especially if we added a rooster. Turns out Mr. Ramsey actually likes the chickens. A couple of weeks ago we saw a fox darting across the road, and he became worried it might get under a gap in the chain-link fence, so he had a buddy help him with a nice coop.
He has been looking around the area for some other breeds and has decided against a rooster. I don't eat eggs, but he and the kids do, and I cook with them, so I guess it will be a nice bonus.

[teela brown]

I've always wanted to keep chickens, but I was born and raised in the suburbs and never could. I do like to visit the lucky country folks who can keep chickens, though, and purchase eggs from them and visit with the biddies.

One such egg-seller loved her chickens, too, and called them by their names and they came a-running to visit. I remember that one was called "Ducky", because her cluck was long, low and raspy and came out more like "quaaaaaack" than "cluck".

[blank]

My 2 have settled in really well. The dog went ape-shit crazy when they arrived but then ended up zapping herself (she has an electronic collar) when she tried to get at the back of the coop and it's right up against the "invisible" fence. Now the dog thinks that the chickens zapped her with some form of poultry psychic power and now she keeps a respectful distance.

Also Mr Fox has not made a nuisance of himself. I have hung stockings filled with human hair around the coop so it looks like it's working. I don't want to scare him away as he will keep the rats and cats at bay.