Anyone else have CHICKENS?!?!?!?!?

I'm up to 7 Silkies, 6 Ameraucanas, 5 buff Orpingtons, 2 cochins & 2 turkens. Some of the silkies are going to live with a friend (from whom they originally came), but man oh man I am LOVING these birds! One of the turkens is SUCH a doll - her name is Petunia, she knows her name, and she will come when called. She is a chickie-slut for mealworms & will climb you to get them. :D I *heart* her.

Any other chook keepers here?

K~

Wow... you are making me want a chicken like never before.

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Originally Posted by Rapture

Wow... you are making me want a chicken like never before.

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I know... me too! Do you think the husband would notice a bunch of chickens in the backyard? :wuv:

lol... do you think my husky would notice?? :confused:

Well, there is that whole having to have a coop & run so nothing EATS your chooks, so yeah they might notice.

We set up the Chicken Shack today & yesterday. It's a BIG shed, insulating it this weekend...and building the run hopefully sooner than later.

If all goes well I should have 15 production females up to par next spring. I am SOOOOOO EXCITED about free range, organic eggs. They are absolutely necessary when it comes to making fresh, handmade pasta...store-bought eggs just don't cut it. ;)

K~

I used to raise a bunch of "exotic" chickens. Loved them. Cochins were just about the sweetest to me, with silkies being a darn close second.
Chickens that are fed scraps, and eat bugs and grass make eggs that cannot be beat. I really enjoyed letting people taste REAL eggs. Once in a while I'd feed one or two hens on white corn just to get those bland ones to torment people with.
Great pest control, as long as they aren't eating the plants the bugs are on as well. We had six chickens that suddenly developed a love for bean plants. They decimated 2 rows in about two hours.
Love them chickens, but where I am, I'm not zoned for them. I really loved guinea hens too.

I have guinea hens!!!!!! 5 (sadly down from 8, damn coyotes), and they are such CLOWNS! :D Fowl are FUN!

So far the turkens, cochins & Ameraucanas have been the friendliest. My silkies are all spastic & I can't figure out why...they seem anti-social compared to silkies I've dealt with in the past. My golden-laced cochin "Dakota" is such a sweetheart. She & Petunia are both on my lap right now...they are my computer birds!! :)

If all goes well, it'll be pea:cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: in the spring to boot! :D

K~

I know how much you've loved them since you got them! I hope I get to meet them soon! :D

Aww I love chickens.. wish I could have some. Silkies are so sweet, but my favorites are the polish. Cochins are so cute though.. little fatties.

Got any blue eggs from the amaraucanas?

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Originally Posted by KLG

If all goes well, it'll be pea:cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: in the spring to boot! :D

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LOL! I can't believe that got bleeped! So it'll be peac-o-c-k-s this spring, instead. ;)

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Originally Posted by rabernet

I know how much you've loved them since you got them! I hope I get to meet them soon! :D

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You will!!! Fresh omelettes for breakfast next time you come up! :)

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Originally Posted by Shelby

Aww I love chickens.. wish I could have some. Silkies are so sweet, but my favorites are the polish. Cochins are so cute though.. little fatties.

Got any blue eggs from the amaraucanas?

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Not yet...my 'canas aren't mature yet, but when they do start laying you'd better believe I'll be posting pics of their easter eggs!

Picking up some silver laced wyandottes & black Australorpes at the beginning of the year, too. :)

K~

Try some light brahmas! Sweet and HUGE. Eggs are HUGE.
Those were my mom's favorite.

Ooh.. I love silver laced.. and wyandottes tend to have nice lacing pattern.

Peac-o-c-k-s are lovely but they sure make a heck of a racket.. I prefer other pheasants like the goldens or lady amhearst. those are some pretty birds.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Try some light brahmas! Sweet and HUGE. Eggs are HUGE.
Those were my mom's favorite.

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Will do!! I've heard a lot of good things about the brahmas! There are SOOOOOOOO many chickens that I want to keep...but my coop is only an 8x10 (for now :devilish:).

K~

hmmm chickens huh?, worked with them before but never owned them, seems like fun..........Pictures?

I used to keep chickens years ago Kara though just plain ones for meat birds. I did find that keeping a mated pair of standard big white farmyard geese with them really helped. Once the geese matured (and had been raised in with the chickens) nothing but nothing got near my birds or their coop without the geese raising hell. Oh and my dog loved the occasional lightly cooked goose egg for a treat. Geese make great alarm systems for chickens. :)

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Originally Posted by KLG

Picking up some silver laced wyandottes & black Australorpes at the beginning of the year, too. :)

K~

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I really thought I was the only one planning out what chickens I want to get. :D
I really want the Austalorpes and the Brahmas for their size and ability to make it through tough winters. Love the feathery feet! I absolutely love free range eggs after my best friend made me eat some. It freaked me out with the dark orange yolk, but it was delicious!!! Way to go Kara, you just got some major cool points in my book for the love of fowl.;)

Ooooooh I loved having chickens!! I haven't been able to keep any for awhile, but mine were awesome as pets. I kept them back when I was living in the Philippines and when we had to leave my dad actually kept my rabbits in the same coop as the chickens and he said they got along really well (even shared their food although my dad said that the chickens would fight for the rabbits celery!! LOL). Unfortunately they were given to our housekeeper when he left and my pets were probably all turned into dinner :(.
(Not advocating for keeping them in the same cages, just commenting on a slightly amusing situation....they weren't kept in the same cages while I was taking care of them, my dad only did this out of necessity....the ash from the volcano wrecked one of my cages....they were all kept outside due to really nice weather!!)

And Peac-o-c-ks are beautiful!! I saw a pair of all white ones that some one kept in Jacksonville and they were absolutely beautiful!! Definitely on my list of must haves some day!! As well as a few more chickens!!

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Originally Posted by KLG

If all goes well, it'll be pea:cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: in the spring to boot! :D

K~

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Kara said pea:cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: :giggle:

Pics or ban :devilish:

Peafowl (see, there's an elegant workaround) are lovely. A friend of mine is breeding pied. They don't half screech though!

For anybody wanting to see some of the gorgeous breeds being discussed here (and others too) there is a great hatchery catalog here:
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/

I like the Mille Fleurs myself, but the silver-laced Wyandottes are fabulous too.

I like mypetchicken.com myself :D

AW! I had some when I lived on the farm!!! I had a Buff, an Production Red (My fav), a Bard-rock for looks, 2 Aracanna (sp)?, and a Banham (sp) Rooster that thought he was King Kong...

Buffy and Henny Penny the Red **I was a kid** :rolleyes:
Would lay the biggest BEST eggs in one of our stalls every day...
The others would just lay where they felt like it. But the eggs were off the chart good!

Henny Penny had a ton of personality... I could call her if I saw a wood roach or something, and she'd come running as fast as she could... sooooooooo funny!

Glad your loveing your Chickens Kara :) Now I miss mine.... :oops:

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Originally Posted by slartibartfast

I like the Mille Fleurs myself, but the silver-laced Wyandottes are fabulous too.

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Mille fleur is like the pattern of most Belgian D'uccles, right? Are there mille fleur Wyandottes you mean?

Yup-o!! We have
1 white "meat type" rooster
1 Rhode Island Red rooster
1 banty hen that we rescued from the abandoned house of rooster-fighters (she was never used; was probably a future breeder. We thought she was a he.. but she's a she..)

We are actually going to get a few hens tomorrow from our friend. She said "take whatever you want." She has silkies; Rhodes; more..
I will post pics in a few. I want to get some more hens, as the banty really hasn't left any eggers around, and I want eggs.. I don't eat eggs, but my hubby does.. and I will cook with them (like cake-baking, Shake n' bake, etc.) and eat them that way. I just don't like eggs as-is.. I can stomach venison heart, but not poacked omelettes!

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Originally Posted by Shelby

Mille fleur is like the pattern of most Belgian D'uccles, right? Are there mille fleur Wyandottes you mean?

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Oooo....Apparently so. I hadn't heard of Belgians, but it looks like Mille Fleur is the name they are known by in the US. Thanks, that gives me more pretty things to look at. :-)

Here are some pics of our brood in the past few months
Whiteboy and Red Man
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...ontfight-1.jpg

And Chipotle. Any guesses on her breed? I was told that the fighting strains that she comes from, are almost a breed within themselves. Poor things; I could never torture an animal like that. She's definately a bantam!

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...tyrooset-1.jpg

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Originally Posted by slartibartfast

Oooo....Apparently so. I hadn't heard of Belgians, but it looks like Mille Fleur is the name they are known by in the US. Thanks, that gives me more pretty things to look at. :-)

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Ah.. yeah I'm a banty fan, I like looking up all those funny little chicken breeds. If you want a fun chicken site to look at (well not just chickens, all poultry) check out feathersite:

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html

I'm glad to hear I've got some fellow chicken lovers among my snake brethren and sistren. (yes I know that's not really a word)

Before we lost our minds over Ball Pythons, we had around 150 chickens. Obviously we had lost our minds over chickens, huh?

Now that we have the snakes and rodents to take care of, we have a few for fresh eggs and just because we like to have them around.

Here's a website you might enjoy. It has a lot of pictures of the different breeds. It also has other types of fowl. Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html