Okay, I am not the only one who really likes chickens. There are people who keep chicken pets permanently in the house and they wear chicken diapers...which you can buy. I am sort of freaked out at some of the chicken people I've found on You Tube, and this is from someone who spent a whole night sleeping out in the coop to see what the chicken world was really like. (It's not too bad, actually.) These people are seriously freaky. Can you imagine changing chicken diapers forever? I have found out that this new breed I have are not as stinky as the first ones I got. They are very different. I had no idea there was a big difference in growth, waste, intelligence and behaviors that vary between breeds. I should have done more homework, I guess, but, I'm learning as I go. The one thing they all have in common is that they consider me their person. They're naturally curious and fairly friendly, but, they don't particularly like everyone else, so it makes it hard to convince some people that they're 'cute'. They can be downright rude if they take a dislike to someone. I like them more than I should, but, I am not buying diapers. Nope. Not gonna be quite that crazy.
23 comments:
I have heard of chicken diapers, but have never actually seen them. I did have a saddle for one of my birds (Sassy), because she was being picked on and losing so many of her back feathers. She didn't like it, but she wore it for a long time.
I don't recommend chickens as house pets.
There is a huge difference between meat birds and layers. I researched all breeds, read the entire Storey book, and took a chicken class before we got our birds. I tend to be a little obsessed when I tackle something new. :)
I chose all of the birds in my flock for specific reasons. There are those who are epic layers, those who have interesting eggs, or whose eggs would just be pretty, those who are just beautiful, or very old breeds, and those whose personalities would be fun. I have never had a meat bird (I am sorry to keep calling them that) but know a number of people who raise them to sell. At the Farmer's Market, when you can find them, they are expensive. Probably close to $20 each. They are not usually fun pets, though. I think your Sunny and Cher are the exception.
Christina
Sunny and Cher are spoiled brats and Sunny hates the new babies. She gets so jealous of them she actually hyperventilated once. It was so fucked up. She tried to get them several times, but, I've finally gotten her to stop charging them and let them in the pen. I don't leave them alone with her though. No way. She can be very mean and she's quickly getting huge. I don't know how big these new ones get. One is bigger than the other by a good bit. The more I learn the less I know. Every day they do something new or weird. The learn shit really quick. And aren't they a pushy animal when they get something in their heads? They crack me up.
PS, I'm a dumbass who chose mine based on cuteness. And I think there's a chance that Cher may be a rooster. And wtf is a chicken class? Also are yours attached to you like mine? Do they fight over who gets to sit on you? I spend a lot of time with them.
The bigger ones are always hard on the babies, unless the big ones are broody. I have one broody who has hatched out four or five sets of chicks for me, and I am convinced she is as good as they come. When she has been brooding, we can actually reach under her and take the eggs out for candling or development checks, etc. without getting pecked. She does this weird, high to low pitched growl, but doesn't peck or try to hurt us in any way. I also have introduced other, small chicks to her, once she hatches her babies. Every time, she has taken them in like she hatched them. I love her, and she will always have a home with me.
Why do you think that Cher may be a rooster? It is possible to see signs when they are young, but I am just curious what you see.
As far as the little ones, if they truly were hatched within a day or so of each other, and one is getting significantly bigger than the other, I would wonder if that one is a roo, also. They sex chicks with 90% accuracy, so you do have a chance of having a roo anytime you buy. I have had 4 so far. One of them was sexed as a female, and he was a huge, glorious orange-yellow, irridescent buff orpington named Buck. We gave him away to a guy my husband knows who had about 50 birds with lots of roos. He took over the flock. The guy had him for a good 6 years before some hawks moved into that area and started grabbing chickens. Buck went down in a blaze of glory, defending his flock. We then had a black silkie, named Zeus, who was a rooster, and we found him a home on a small, local farm. We also had a Naked Neck roo that we hatched (man, he was ugly!) and I found him a home in a breeding program for naked neck birds on a farm, (his sister, Zsa Zsa, is black, and as it turns out, has a frizzle gene, so that makes her interesting and pretty, so we kept her---she also a little mean, and keeps Mr. Rooster-pants in check) and then we hatched Angus who is a beautiful, multi-colored, irridescent orpington. I guess we had a few other roosters that we hatched in between, but I gave the whole lot of birds to a friend from work, who wanted more birds. They were blue laced red wyandottes, and I just didn't care for them once they hatched. I have a silver and a gold, and they are pretty, but stand-offish. None of my birds really sit with me, but they follow me around, and if I so much as crack the back door as quietly as I can, they come running. My beautiful wheaten easter egger Dora would sit on me. I miss her, and Sassy. I am losing them to old age now.
Christina
You could be describing me here...especially the part about being downright rude if I don't happen to like you. Maybe I was a chicken in a previous life?
TJH
I think it's sweet that you have favorites who are so old. You know a shitload more than I do or ever will. I think cher is a rooster because she/he walks like a boy. LOL. Serioulsy, I just think cher acts very male, but, I have no idea. I probably shouldn't have made them such close pets, it's almost weird. Today is cold and I've been out there with them every hour, checking, talking to them. These little ones inside are so fucking different. They can't even figure out how to go up and down a tiny ramp. I have to get the little fuckers out and put them in the feed area ever hour or so and then put them back to bed. It's fuckin' nuts. But, they did sleep all night, or most of it. I sure made it hard for myself with chicken pets. I really did. I've almost bit off more than I can chew, but, I do enjoy them. I just haven't been well at all, but, I can slack on everything but the care of living things.
..and yeah, I know exactly what you mean by that crack the door comment. I can't do anything, they know. They watch and even cry for me outside. They have learned the alert/predator call and they cry wolf. They're sort of assholey.
People have warned me about my raccoons, (like I don't know raccoons!), but, do you know, I feed a shit load of coons and not one has bothered them yet.
Chickens are complicated.
So are you, but, we keep you.
Yeah but I don't poop everywhere.
Do we know that for sure?
A friend of mine kept chickens and ducks in his backyard for a few years. One day he told us they had all had their heads bitten off. Eventually he was told that that's what owls do! So he couldn't ever know for sure but that's what he came to believe. He put a wire roof on the coop and as far as I know, hasn't had any attacks of any kind since.
What I meant - typing while doing 5 other things - was that we all were unable to think of what creature would leave the bodies and bite/eat the heads. Really gruesome and wasteful in nature.
I love reading about your and Christina's chickens.
lol Jane, indeed.
Actuallu owls do not kill like that. I've raised and watched owls. Owls kill by grabbing and abducting. If the prey is too big to steal, they take them up and drop them, killing them in the fall. Then they descend and dismember. What kills by biting the head off is coons and usually female nursing coons craving protein. Male coons are seldom hunters, though they will steal eggs.
Foxes kill too, but, they kill and take the chicken away to eat in private usually. Nature is weird though, just when you expect something, they do the oppostite. You know, that kill sounds sort of like feral cat kills. They're sickening and kill also for sport when they're full.
Feral cats sounds like a realistic possiblity now that you say that. There would be feral cats in his neighbourhood since he lives near a large wild park area and some other unpopulated lots.
I don't remember how feral cats kill, but have heard that possums eat the heads and leave the rest. Raccoons will pull pieces of the bird through the fence. A really sad mess when you find it. Ferrets, Fishers or Martens, etc. will kill everything, and line them up, side-by-side, is what I've heard. I think that dogs will kill for sport, and sometimes kill everything. They also sometimes kill for revenge. Someone I know had her dog out with the free range chickens she kept, all the time. She and her husband went on a trip for a week, or so, and when she came back, the dog had killed all the chickens, the day before she got home. The dog was well-fed and cared for by her adult daughter, but the dog was upset at her going on the trip, as far as she could tell.
Christina
Also, I don't know what that upper bird is, but the feathering on the body, and the head looks similar to a Brahma. It doesn't have the feathered legs, though.
The bottom one is a Speckled Sussex, which is supposed to be a wonderful bird. Their personalities are supposed to be very easygoing and sweet. It is one of the few birds that I really wanted, but never got. I went to Wilco a couple of days ago and they had them. It was so difficult to step away from that pen.
Christina
P.S. The other breed that I really want is Sumatras, but they need to be out and about more than I can manage, here.
Maybe it was an owl but it wanted us to THINK it was a cat.
Melvin, you may be on to something. Owls are crafty.
And I have never seen a possum kill anything. They only eat other animals that something else has already killed. They're scavengers, like vultures. Any thing is possible though. Personally, I love Possums and I appreciate them, I call them natures little garbage men. They eat the crap that stinks.
Seriously... this is too weird! The birds in my backyard like to come into my kitchen for a bit of a food fossick. That's fine with me, I love my backyard birds, to date they haven't pooped and bonus, they clean up any crumbs on the floor. But if they do... watch out! Lol.
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