chickens anyone???

cokehead · By: **cokehead** On: Sat Jan 14, 2012 2:00 pm

Here some of my black chicks all grown up. They ain't posers, but the real deal. They believe in natural law.

ceccil · By: **ceccil** On: Sat Jan 14, 2012 7:33 pm

My boy with his buddy at his Aunt's. He just sits in the yard and she will come strolling right up to him and lay there with him.

cokehead · By: **cokehead** On: Sat Jan 14, 2012 9:08 pm

ceccil wrote:My boy with his buddy at his Aunt's. He just sits in the yard and she will come strolling right up to him and lay there with him.

Where is Norman Rockwell when you need him.

Chickens have more personality than I ever realized. My wife's youngest daughter's daughter gets off the bus and the first thing she does is find the chickens. She says with enthusiasm, "They are the cutest things!" She was AnGrY when where talking about eating the duck and chicken eggs. She was saying we where eating her babies!!!! She would go as far as taking them out of the fridge to protect them from US! Well she still doesn't like it but accepts my wife and I eat the eggs now.

Forget about eating the chickens. My wife (and I :oops:

) have made pets of them. We have more eggs than we can eat and my wife is giving them away. She says here chick-oes are spreading good will.

They are in the basement now. My wife insists if it is going to below freezing. She cleans up after them so who am I to say no.

ceccil · By: **ceccil** On: Sat Jan 14, 2012 9:40 pm

He does well with the hens but the roosters are another ballgame. He avoids them at all cost. Truth be told so do I if possible. Got myself cornered by one last year and bout got the snot kicked out of me. Strong legs for a small bird. Luckily I had jeans on or I would have been in trouble. Hurt pretty good even with jeans but I think they kept me from getting torn up.

cokehead · By: **cokehead** On: Sat Jan 14, 2012 9:53 pm

ceccil wrote:He does well with the hens but the roosters are another ballgame. He avoids them at all cost. Truth be told so do I if possible. Got myself cornered by one last year and bout got the snot kicked out of me. Strong legs for a small bird. Luckily I had jeans on or I would have been in trouble. Hurt pretty good even with jeans but I think they kept me from getting torn up.

OK,.....so lets eat the roosters! :lol:

Well all but one anyway. My wife is very disappointed with me right now. :roll:

She says, "That is their nature. Leave those roosters alone!" :bop:

cabinover · By: **cabinover** On: Sat Jan 14, 2012 10:21 pm

We managed to get one rooster out of twelve birds. He's a barred rock and thinks he rules the world if my wife or daughter are around. The wife will only go out towards the coop if she's got a stick about 8' long.

As for the rest there are 6 red sex link, 4 black sex links, and 2 barred rocks. We manage between 6 and 10 eggs a day. It seems to help that I put a 100 watt light bulb in the coop. When I go to work at 6:30 I check on them and turn on the light.

They certainly do have personality and are very relaxing to me just watching them. Must be nice to have your only worry be "Hey, is that food and can I eat it?" :lol:

cokehead · By: **cokehead** On: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:09 pm

cabinover wrote: I put a 100 watt light bulb in the coop. When I go to work at 6:30 I check on them and turn on the light.

Before my wife decided the chick-oes must be in the basement on below freezing nights, I had set up a reflector light in the outside coup which I put on at night for warmth. I let them run if we are around and the weather permits. They seem to like the fallen tree top that came down next to the compost heap during the last big blow. Now that they made it home, I can't cut it up for firewood.

SMITTY · By: **SMITTY** On: Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:49 pm

I think chickens are illegal in MA .... :lol:

cokehead · By: **cokehead** On: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:03 am

SMITTY wrote:I think chickens are illegal in MA ....

See if you can find your town Smitty. http://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/3/Laws/tag/64470/

SMITTY · By: **SMITTY** On: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:43 am

Hey FRED - you know there's a chicken ordinance in FREETOWN???? :shock:

http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/freet ... -ordinance

I didn't expect to see my town on there. We're a minority in this sea of brainwashed sheep - THANK GOD.

cokehead · By: **cokehead** On: Sun Jan 15, 2012 2:45 pm

The chick-oes have been inside all day being it is so cold and they are complaining. This one decided she was going to make a break for it. She tried going over the top. :lol:

david78 · By: **david78** On: Sun Jan 15, 2012 7:47 pm

Now those are some pampered chickens. :lol:

We have 15 Barred Rock. They lay big brown eggs and are very hardy. Also six mallards that one of my kids saw in the Tractor Supply store and just had to have. They're interesting to watch. They stick closer together than the chickens; anywhere they go they really are ducks in a row. Oh, and one rooster that our neighbor gave us because she thought if we had chickens we had to have a rooster. He came at me one time soon after we got himand i booted him across the yard. We get along fine now :box:

cokehead · By: **cokehead** On: Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:18 pm

david78 wrote:Now those are some pampered chickens.

You don't know the half of it. I'm not even going to talk about the vet bill. My wife buys bananas just for the chickens. Sometimes I can get one or two out of a bunch. They got carrots, the ends off pea pods, and shrimp tails tonight with their grower pellets. My wife won't feed the layer pellets because she says they don't like it as much. Normally they get a lot of bugs and stuff when they are out so I don't think they are calcium deprived. The shells on the eggs are fine. Usually the egg shells end up in the compost and that is a regular hang out for my black chicks. Something tells me it might be cheaper to buy our eggs at the store. :roll:

rockwood · By: **rockwood** On: Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:32 pm

cokehead wrote:They are in the basement now.

The first batch of chicks we got we kept them in the house until they were about a month old but not since. Because of the dust and smell we just keep new chicks in the garage (keep doors closed if there's cats around :!:

) under a light until they're ready for the outdoors.
We have 7 hens now and if it gets below zero out we turn on a 100W bulb in the hen house for them. Egg laying slows down in winter but it kinda gives the hens a break from laying an egg per day.

david78 wrote:He came at me one time soon after we got himand i booted him across the yard. We get along fine now

Yep, gotta show them who's boss;)
We've had 2 roosters in the past but not now...not needed unless you want the meat or hatch your own.

One thing to keep in mind...If you keep chickens in a heated environment and then expose them to freezing winter weather without time to become climatized they'll be in big trouble.

cokehead · By: **cokehead** On: Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:35 pm

david78 wrote: Also six mallards that one of my kids saw in the Tractor Supply store and just had to have. They're interesting to watch. They stick closer together than the chickens; anywhere they go they really are ducks in a row.

Here are my "dumb quackers". :lol:

I sent this photo in a PM to a fellow coal burner but I think he might of failed to see the humor of it. The sound of silence. Good thing I have a good well. They use so much water for their daily bath and my wife sometimes brings them WARM water from the house. Good thing I heat my water with Harmony anthracite. Only one female. The rest are along for the good time and boy do they have a good time. :oops:

Hard to explain to the young ones what's going on. Sometime you just have to break it up with a hard spray from the garden hose.

chickens anyone???

Black Chicks

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