Does anyone own chickens?

[elephantnose3334]

Just asking to see if any of you own some chooks.

 

[madmark285]

Well this is a sad story but...

My neighbor owned chicken, quite beautiful. Some animal was able to dig under the chicken coop and had a feast, killed and ate all the chickens (3 of them).

So if building a chicken coop, put rust resistant wire mesh under the coop.

 

[Colin_T]

I used to own chooks, ducks and a goose named Charlotte. I also had finches, parrots and quails.

Chooks I like, roosters I hate. They are awful noisy little turds that crow all night and all day and even when I set the dog onto him he was crowing.

The ducks were great. We had Khaki Campbells and Muscovies. The Muscovies were called George and Pinky. George was terrified of water (yes, a duck that was afraid of water). He would only drink out of a small container and stayed out of the pond and rain (yes, he hid under the shelter when it rained). Meanwhile Pinky would be splashing about doing what ducks do in water. They bred and had 13 babies. When the babies were about 3 weeks old, mum said one of her work mates was willing to take them to his farm to live long happy lives. Mum lied. They went to his farm but he ate them all including George and Pinky.

Charlotte was a young stray goose that appeared in our backyard one day. We kept her for a bit over a year. One day someone said they had lost a goose fitting Charlotte's description about a year before. Mum and dad gave her to the people and we never saw her again.

I miss my birds.

 

[Colin_T]

Well this is a sad story but...

My neighbor owned chicken, quite beautiful. Some animal was able to dig under the chicken coop and had a feast, killed and ate all the chickens (3 of them).

So if building a chicken coop, put rust resistant wire mesh under the coop.

That would have been a fox. They kill all the birds and then take them back to a larder to keep for later use.

 

[GaryE]

As a city boy, I used to think the sound of roosters was exotic. On my recent trip, from Turkey to Gabon those ^%^%$#$#s were howling their rooster song all day long. They're like drunks in a karaoke bar. They think they can sing, but they are the most untalented birds out there.

 

[Back in the fold]

Don’t turn your back on a rooster . They will get you !

 

[Waterbabe]

As a city boy, I used to think the sound of roosters was exotic. On my recent trip, from Turkey to Gabon those ^%^%$#$#s were howling their rooster song all day long. They're like drunks in a karaoke bar. They think they can sing, but they are the most untalented birds out there.

In Greece they compete at every hour of the day or night! Some have sore throats and seem to croak. They compete with all the dogs too! they can drive you slightly bonkers.

 

[Uberhoust]

My neighbors feed the local predator populations with their attempts to keep chickens. We have a lot of mink and weasels with the occasional racoon, who now scope out the chicken coop on a regular basis.

 

[Myrkk]

We used to keep Welsumers, Barbu d'uccles and Geese. The geese were a nightmare and we rehomed them, never had foxes until they arrived.
The welsumers were great, got them as day old chicks and they were super tame as adults. We ended up with three cockerals and killed 2 for the pot (you can't keep more than one cockeral easily). The Barbu d'uccles we got as they were super broodies, used to hatch out the welsumer eggs for us.
The only ones that attacked people were the d'uccles (bantams). You'd hear the cockeral (Old father time as he had a white beard) run across the yard, a squeal from my Mum and then see the cockeral fly past the window as she flicked him with her foot.... then you'd hear him run across the yard..... etc etc. Very funny at the time.

We're currently eyeing up Silver Appleyard ducks and I'm deffo getting more Welsumer Chickens. Both are friendly and good utility breeds. Sadly we have neighbours so no cockeral for the chooks but the ducks will hopefully give us an occasional feast.

I quite like the sound of a cockeral but we only ever had one at a time for each breed. I think more would be irritating as they try to compete with each other.