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Chickens!

Pfeffer

Pfeffer

I tried finding a topic.. though I can't find anything. Any of you guys are keeping chickens? If so..
 
What bred?!   How many?!  How do you keep them!?  The interwebz wants to know everything.
 
 
 
I currently have 10 chickens, though the roosters will soon be processed to beer can chicken and stir fry (don't tell them, they might get worried). I currently have 7 Araucana's and 3 unknown "Zwergen" (translates to dwarfs). The tiny guys are very friendly and don't mind getting picked up and are generally very slow/lazy but love to fly. The araucana's on the other hand have very strong legs and LOVE to race across the garden. As most of them don't have tails, they don't really like to fly.. though they can cover the garden of about 25 yards in about a second, so they don't really need to fly anyway. They just need to sprint once in a while, scaring the shit out of my yellow lab.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
They're not laying eggs yet, but these ones lay blue eggs. Just because they can.
 
Nice set up for 10 chickens. I keep a dozen Rhode Island Reds, and they do a good job of keeping me in eggs. I stay away from all the fancies, as I'm all about production and food. Later on you might want to raise your chicken house and/or boxes to prevent from bending over when collecting eggs. 
 
I don't keep them for the eggs. Offcourse I'll eat the eggs, but they're primary just there as garden pets. I like it when I sit outside and have some movement across the garden. Where the production breds lay 200-230 eggs a year, these only lay about 150-180 (statistically). They are very steady producers in season, though stop laying throughout the winter and resume in the spring again so the total number per year is relatively low.
 
Raising the coop is not nescesarry yet, picking will mostly be done by a 2 yo :)
 
I specifically choose this bread as they are quite active chickens, great foragers and they are physically active (they run a LOT compared to the heavier chickens). They are a real joy to watch while you are enjoying your "made it home from work-beer".
 
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I have 3.  My rooster just started crowing, and is actually sitting in a box right now waiting for someone to come take him from me.  I will pickup 2 sex links today to replace him.  This is our first real year having chickens.  Last year we had 2 for a month or so, but my coop wasn't secured enough and they got massacred.
 
Ill try to get some pics later as well.
 
it keeps getting voted down in our city counsel, we are a rural city, albeit 1.2million. i was always pushing the idea on my wife and the city girl just hated the fact that i love chickens. they don't stink if cared for properly. then she finally came around after all my stories of how friendly these little guys are, wanted to know when we could get chickens(since I already raise finches and canaries), had to break the news..........city bylaw....NO CHICKENS! my neighbours were sitting, waiting so they could feed them their leftovers.
 
we were in Honolulu, off the main strip and what did we see, chickens! she couldn't believe it. i pointed out all the features of a chicken and how friendly they can be. unfortunately our city council thinks we are a major metropolis and bike lanes and Costcos are what is important to our city. even though we host the worlds largest rodeo in the world, the Calgary Stampede, check it out on the internet, first and second week of July, live stock is everywhere including those smart dogs that do tricks. the city is full of free pancake breakfeasts running all day long, people come from all over the world to visit.  one of my best moments was watching the "Wailers, sans Bob Marley" at a saloon. it is a world class event! except for my chickens..................that i can't have!
 
had it narrowed down to barred plymouth rocks and new hampshire reds, but that dream is gone. the city we love to hate, Edmonton - another city of a million people, can have chickens! just not dumb liberal Calgary!
 
please post your pics, i adore chickens. as a boy my job was to go out every morning and retrieve the eggs from our foghorns. i tell my girls about my experience and how i had to outwit the rooster so he wouldn't attack me. they love the stories; Henrietta would wait for me every morning then fly onto my back as i entered the coop, of course i had to bend over for her to land but that was her thing - she had to weigh almost 20lbs and i was lucky to 100lbs.
 
and get a load of this.............i can have 150 pigeons, no problems, though i also raised pigeons as a young lad, i really don't want them now! but 6 chickens, is illegal.
 
I have raised chickens for years all different breeds. I've settled on easter eggers, they are very hardy come in so many different color combos and the egg colors are all slightly different shades of green/blue/pink, etc. 
eggs.jpg
 
Thinking about it. My 11 year old daughter has been begging for them. Composters/fertilizers/poppers & garden companions are my primary interests. when I was 12 & my brother was 4, we moved from suburbs to the country. My mountain folk grandparents brought us 4 bantam hens without asking us or my parents & said, "boys need some chickens to take care of." As I recall, my mom did most of the work. We had a huge St. Bernard/Golden Retriever mix who would gently round them up in his mouth if they got out.
Burning Colon said:
it keeps getting voted down in our city counsel, we are a rural city, albeit 1.2million. i was always pushing the idea on my wife and the city girl just hated the fact that i love chickens. they don't stink if cared for properly. then she finally came around after all my stories of how friendly these little guys are, wanted to know when we could get chickens(since I already raise finches and canaries), had to break the news..........city bylaw....NO CHICKENS! my neighbours were sitting, waiting so they could feed them their leftovers.
 
we were in Honolulu, off the main strip and what did we see, chickens! she couldn't believe it. i pointed out all the features of a chicken and how friendly they can be. unfortunately our city council thinks we are a major metropolis and bike lanes and Costcos are what is important to our city. even though we host the worlds largest rodeo in the world, the Calgary Stampede, check it out on the internet, first and second week of July, live stock is everywhere including those smart dogs that do tricks. the city is full of free pancake breakfeasts running all day long, people come from all over the world to visit.  one of my best moments was watching the "Wailers, sans Bob Marley" at a saloon. it is a world class event! except for my chickens..................that i can't have!
 
had it narrowed down to barred plymouth rocks and new hampshire reds, but that dream is gone. the city we love to hate, Edmonton - another city of a million people, can have chickens! just not dumb liberal Calgary!
 
please post your pics, i adore chickens. as a boy my job was to go out every morning and retrieve the eggs from our foghorns. i tell my girls about my experience and how i had to outwit the rooster so he wouldn't attack me. they love the stories; Henrietta would wait for me every morning then fly onto my back as i entered the coop, of course i had to bend over for her to land but that was her thing - she had to weigh almost 20lbs and i was lucky to 100lbs.
 
and get a load of this.............i can have 150 pigeons, no problems, though i also raised pigeons as a young lad, i really don't want them now! but 6 chickens, is illegal.
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Loved reading this. Brought a smile to my face.
 
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