I also got 2 chickens a few weeks ago:
[img]http://puu.sh/2EySs.png[/img]
Got 2 more yesterday, not chicks though.
[QUOTE=PieClock;40370911]I also got 2 chickens a few weeks ago:
[img]http://puu.sh/2EySs.png[/img]
Got 2 more yesterday, not chicks though.[/QUOTE]
What made you decide to use a white heat lamp instead of red? I hear it makes it difficult for them to sleep.
[QUOTE=Mr. Bleak;40371065]What made you decide to use a white heat lamp instead of red? I hear it makes it difficult for them to sleep.[/QUOTE]
It's not actually ours and being completely honest didn't know about that. We've lent it off a family friend who raises chickens and had a spare one until we can afford one after getting the coop.
Ah, right on. The red lamps are around $5 at a hardware store and my chickens never have trouble sleeping. Plus, it's awesome checking on them in the middle of the night with an eery red glow permeating the door.
And pictures:
[t]http://i.imgur.com/ZxVqRB9.jpg[/t]
^ The "barn" AKA small shed in my backyard
[t]http://i.imgur.com/sQ3xLqJ.jpg[/t]
^ Feeding time!
Sorry for the quality, all I have is an iPod touch to take pictures with.
D'awww
[QUOTE=Mr. Bleak;40371065]What made you decide to use a white heat lamp instead of red? I hear it makes it difficult for them to sleep.[/QUOTE]
I overheard someone telling my brother that using a white light makes them go blind as opposed to a red light, but I didn't hear the details so I dunno.
Might be something worth checking on though.
i took my baby chickens n threw them at dogs so they would get eatin
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[QUOTE=Mooov99;40374980]i took my baby chickens n threw them at dogs so they would get eatin[/QUOTE]
That's horrible.
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[QUOTE=Mooov99;40374980]i took my baby chickens n threw them at dogs so they would get eatin[/QUOTE]
So ~edgy~
I've wanted to raise chickens, especially as a child. Free eggs!
I had to look @OP's photo more closely, at first glance I thought that was a motherload of pot the chickens were eating.
This thread has entertained me more than any other in the past several months. My friend had a bunch of chickens on his dads farm. He had some spike platform used for some farming equipment, anyway, he went on the roof of a shed next to it and kicked the chicken off of it and it fell on the spikes and died.
I bet that wasn't a very fun mess to clean up.
The Rook has already gotten noticeably larger, and freaks out the most when I pick it up. I'm assuming all of them are females, so I'll just refer to them as her and she from now on.
One of the black chicks lets me hold her without so much as a squawk and she pecks at my fingers. Ia wish I'd have gotten a picture of it.
I raised chickens back when I lived with my family.
4 chicks.
3 of them died in very suspicious circumstances, the first escaped somehow and got eaten by a fox.
The second died from what we assume was eating poisonous plants in their cage (so we uprooted every plant)
The third died from small wounds across it's body.
The 4th, who eventually gained the name 'Stinkyhead' was a monster of a chicken. Hyper aggressive, fast as fuck and with a thirst for human blood. He didn't care who you were or what you wanted, you brought him food? He'd still try and attack your legs.
Eventually when we moved away, nobody wanted Stinkyhead, so we borrowed our neighbours rifle and shot him.
Fuck Stinkyhead.
[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;40394455]I raised chickens back when I lived with my family.
4 chicks.
3 of them died in very suspicious circumstances, the first escaped somehow and got eaten by a fox.
The second died from what we assume was eating poisonous plants in their cage (so we uprooted every plant)
The third died from small wounds across it's body.
The 4th, who eventually gained the name 'Stinkyhead' was a monster of a chicken. Hyper aggressive, fast as fuck and with a thirst for human blood. He didn't care who you were or what you wanted, you brought him food? He'd still try and attack your legs.
Eventually when we moved away, nobody wanted Stinkyhead, so we borrowed our neighbours rifle and shot him.
Fuck Stinkyhead.[/QUOTE]
Loled while reading this, you should of threw stinky head at a mortal enemy and let that person be pecked to death, Also maybe that 3rd chick died by stinky head dun dun duhhhh
Fucking piece of shit stinkyhead
Had it coming
To this day I still wonder what was wrong with that chicken.
I swear I saw the fires of perdition burning behind those cold black beady eyes.
I have a couple silkies, myself. Unfortunately with my last brood, one of the chicks had a leg he couldn't walk on, so I had to thump him. Sad, but I saved him from dying of starvation or something of the sort.
Reading this thread, it seems that baby chicks have a high mortality rate.
Plenty of things can go wrong. They can break a leg, wrestle their way out of their enclosure and get eaten, catch one of the fairly common diseases that are fatal to baby chicks, etc.
Apparently, using newspaper as bedding is also very hazardous to their health because they slip and get bowed legs from it.
[editline]26th April 2013[/editline]
On the plus side, most non-exotic breeds of chickens cost around $2-4 per chick.
A single laying hen is likely to provide enough eggs to eat to where you don't have to buy them anymore, too.
[QUOTE=Mr. Bleak;40434246]
A single laying hen is likely to provide enough eggs to eat to where you don't have to buy them anymore, too.[/QUOTE]Don't buy single chicks, always get at least two. They will keep each other company and won't make as huge of a racket if there were only one alone.
My rooster was raised alone without any contact from any other of his kind so I'm pretty sure he's a psychopathic retard equivalent in the chicken world.
my neighbor has a pack of fifteen chickens, leaves them outside unfenced quite often, I wonder how the hell they just stay in the yard by the tree rather than running onto the street.
[QUOTE=JayFeather1337;40439256]my neighbor has a pack of fifteen chickens, leaves them outside unfenced quite often, I wonder how the hell they just stay in the yard by the tree rather than running onto the street.[/QUOTE]
Because they're chickens.. They're a flock animal and have no real defense against bigger predators. They've got food, shelter and protection (in both numbers + high places (ie in the coop) to hide) - why would they want to go anywhere?
have a dozen (well.. had a dozen.. 11 now) hens out back. just a bunch of loud, mean shit machines but they're cool to watch and fun to have around.
always have so many eggs in the fridge, we give them away by the dozens to just get rid of them before they get too old.
roosters suck. little fuckers will crow from BEFORE the sun is out until AFTER the sun goes down, all day every day. they just don't shut up (or, at least, the 2 to pass through here didn't)
[editline]28th April 2013[/editline]
[QUOTE=Mr. Bleak;40434246]A single laying hen is likely to provide enough eggs to eat to where you don't have to buy them anymore, too.[/QUOTE]
Not really.. I mean, assuming that you live anywhere with more than one season. Hens will lay one egg a day (on average) in the warmer Spring months, Summer and warmer Fall months but as it cools down, they can and will lay only one egg every couple days. We usually get a dozen eggs a day in the summer, that number can be anywhere from 5-8 eggs a day through winter.
Plus, they're much more suited to living with other birds. Chickens are just one of those animals not meant to be solitary. It is funny to watch what happens when a threat approaches - when dogs first met chickens, they went after one.. until all 12 were all up in the shit squawking and pecking.
Well, I didn't mean it was a good idea to buy a single hen for eggs. I bought 4 myself, and I'm planning on getting 4 or 5 Rhode Island Reds in a few months. My point was that, unless you and/or every person you lives with eats an egg every day, you could subside on one hen's eggs.
I mean, I only eat an egg for breakfast once or twice a week. Making things like cakes regularly would be a different story though.
Anyone know what the deal with "hairy" feet is? One of my bantam hens has super feathery feet and stuff gets caught in them all the time. I forgot to ask the breed of it, and I think it might be a silkie, which would explain it.
Oh man I need to start a thread like this.
My Dad works for a school which has its own Farm (It was his and the School Headmasters Idea too).
[B]So far they have[/B]
Water Buffalo
Chickens
Goats
Sheep
Pigs
Geese
Sometimes when the animals are ill/We get new animals to add to the collection we have to keep them in our garden so we can feed them look after them before they are ready to merge with the rest of the animals. I have had 2 sheep (one of which was a cute little bugger that had to stay in our living room) Chickens, and one goose.
The whole idea behind it was to teach younger kids where we get our food from, as well as teach them of other wildlife that we have depended on in history. where the Water Buffalo stay is actually one of the largest bronze age sights in the whole of Britain and maybe Europe (If I remember correctly)
But yeah. Related to the Thread - I remember when I was like 4-5. My dad bought up a ton of little cute ducks, I remember the smells and the day they actually hatched, cutest little things ever. We had this one with a stubbed leg we called Eric. During the summer times I would get my Swimming pool out and Swim with them, and once they got to adults we let them go. But we gave Eric a little tag on his foot. Just so if we ever spot him ever again, we know its him :)
Little update: One of our black chicks died from unknown causes. I'm thinking it's because my father put our lawn mower inside the shed we hold our chicks in, and the gas fumes got to it.
I think I'm going to build a better brooding enclosure out of plywood with an actual bottom. The starter kit I bought is a joke; the walls are made of corrugated plastic and it has no floor or lamp holder.
I seriously thought today "I want to buy a chickie and raise it." Then I stumbled upon this thread. How convenient
Do it, it's very rewarding. You could build a pine box and have it in a closet somewhere.
The reason for not having chickens in a house is not because of the smell, but because of their bedding. I was always told that chickens reek, but mine smell fine. The problem is that they shred their bedding into what is essentially poopy sawdust that can irritate the lungs and such.
[IMG]http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma52ryD6ax1qhwfbuo1_500.jpg[/IMG]
so we just bought six chicks, and for what ever reasion im in charge of building there coop and run. not that big of a deal if all coming along great. but we dont have enough wire. so we decided to get it from an old family friend today... well wile pulling apart there old coop i trip on said wire and try to catch my balance... well were i decided to put my foot, there is a nice broken pallet with three long rusty nails sticking out of it, all three nails... go right into the front of my foot... so i cursed for a couple minutes and went about tearing apart the coop. i get home and i can barely move my foot let alone walk on it.
i have decided to wait a couple days to finish the coop....
Update!
my foot has almost healed, and i have decided to finish the coop.
[IMG]http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a545/dax364/photo8_zpsb93f190a.jpg[/IMG]
its not perfect but it fine for who its for.
[IMG]http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a545/dax364/photo7_zpsd252bd74.jpg[/IMG]
first ones out.
Pretty sweet enclosure you've got there.
Someone somehow managed to leave the door to our enclosure open and my 4 cats got in and messed it up pretty good. Thankfully, the chickens are alright. The two bantams were huddling under our now-huge rook.
The food was completely filled with bedding, as was the water. I hadn't been back there to check them in over a day so I hope they aren't starving.
this guy in one of my classes says when he used to live in sacramento that he was forced in his illegal farmhouse thing inside a private school and he was forced to slaughter chickens when he was like 8
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