Pets chickens

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nicky

nicky

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Apr 13, 2005
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I got two chickens a month or two ago and I've become surprisingly attached to them although they're causing a bit of hassle.

With help i built a coup for them which they escaped from every day. Getting them to stay in the coup became an impossible task so i took the coup down and let them free-range and built fences around my veggies. This has worked ok other than the four boxes of rocket they managed to break into and demolish.

One day one of them couldn't be found and it turned out it had escaped through a small hole in my back fence and into the driveway of the ministry of housing flats behind my house. Someone had been feeding it bread crumbs because there were torn bits of white bread all over the driveway.

To get to the flats i had to walk around the block (down the main street where people were outside having a sunday session) to the next street. Get to the flats, grab the chicken and walk back down the main street past everyone outside drinking, smoking and chuckling at the person walking down the street carrying a chicken.

These chickens unwittingly cause comedic situations.

They're very friendly and not scared of humans, which is another thing i like about them. They're confident chickens.

Last night i realised one was missing. I decided the only possible escape opportunity was my neighbours and the only access to their place was in a lane way behind as they live behind a shop. When i got to their house there was a little girl on the balcony yelling "NAUGHTY CHICKEN". I asked her if her parents where home. Her dad appeared a few minutes later. It turns out they had barricaded themselves inside because the chicken was pacing up and down their court yard. He was perturbed at it's lack of fear of humans and it also pecked him when he tried to feed it. The dad also told me that every day his daughter comes home from kindergarten and feeds them rice bubbles through the fence and talks to them like they're humans. She's embellished the amount of chickens that live here by claiming there's 10 black chickens and 2 brown ones. It was funny to consider the life these chickens have that i have no idea about.

Tonight i got home and the same chicken is missing. I can't see it in my neighbours house and am worried that they got sick of the chicken breaking into their place and have let it out onto the street. I've put a letter in their mailbox in the hope they know where it is and it's safe.

When (please, please PLEASE god) i get it back i'm giving them to a very good home that i know of until i can build a proper chicken coup. I'm worried about foxes getting to them as well.

Anyone else got any chickens, or chicken stories?
 
I keep quite a few hens and a rooster, they are actually funny animals to have around. Usually have a few baby chickens running around this time of year when a hen sits on a nest but I hate having to take the roosters away for slaughter when they get big cause you sort of get to think of them as pets lol.

Only thing I hate about them is if they some how escape into the garden, can destroy a flower bed in minutes..

Actually completely given up eating it as a meat about 6 months ago because of the absolutely disgraceful way that they are farmed commercially, makes you feel a bit better about getting rid of the roosters because at least they lived a happy natural life for a few months like all animals should.
 

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Scotland said:
If you took down your coup then where do your chickens sleep?

While chickens like to roam around during the day scratching and eating and whatnot they need somewhere to roost at night.
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They sleep at the back door step and it's not through lack of a house; they have an old wooden bbq coup conversion. They just prefer the back door - which is completely annoying because they poop all over it. They don't roost where they sleep.

Still can't find the chicken and no word from my neighbors. Pretty upset about it tbh. :(
 
We used to have plenty of chooks when I was a kid and kept them locked in a little hutch thing at night.

If there is somewhere dark with a perch to roost on they'll get the hang of being in there at night. If you lock them in there by sunset then let them out in the morning they'll be safer from predators.
 
Scotland said:
We used to have plenty of chooks when I was a kid and kept them locked in a little hutch thing at night.

If there is somewhere dark with a perch to roost on they'll get the hang of being in there at night. If you lock them in there by sunset then let them out in the morning they'll be safer from predators.
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I know, I know. I just didn't build a coup that was good enough. I used star pickets and chicken wire with a bbq conversion as a coup but they kept escaping and then couldn't get back into it. Basically the area dedicated to them was fenced off from them due to them escaping all the time and not knowing how to get back in.

I'm giving them to my dad who has a good chicken set up and will look into getting them when i get the enclosure right.

I just hope i find the one that went missing.
 
Talk about pets with character, I had a kitten once that would run 'n fetch my squash ball bring it back to me and drop it at my feet, then wait for me to throw it again. Had to see it to believe it.
 

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tigers_of_old_08 said:
Talk about pets with character, I had a kitten once that would run 'n fetch my squash ball bring it back to me and drop it at my feet, then wait for me to throw it again. Had to see it to believe it.
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Sounds like you had a smart kitten! One of my cats brings me pens or sticks to play fetch sometimes. I had a whole heap of almonds a while ago (in shells) and he was taking them and hiding them under a cupboard in the corner. Strange cat.

We had chickens when I was a kid on the farm- it didn't matter how well built their coop was, foxes would always find a way in. One got my little lamb from the porch as well :(
 
Hendersloane said:
We had chickens when I was a kid on the farm- it didn't matter how well built their coop was, foxes would always find a way in. One got my little lamb from the porch as well :(
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Yep. Nothing worse, when I was a kid some dick head's dogs managed to get into our yard and slaughter my complete flock of black Orpingtons.

Annoying, not only were they pets but they were worth a few $ and I had been breeding them towards a goal of finally entering them in a show.
 
nicky said:
I know, I know. I just didn't build a coup that was good enough. I used star pickets and chicken wire with a bbq conversion as a coup but they kept escaping and then couldn't get back into it. Basically the area dedicated to them was fenced off from them due to them escaping all the time and not knowing how to get back in.

I'm giving them to my dad who has a good chicken set up and will look into getting them when i get the enclosure right.

I just hope i find the one that went missing.
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Found her!

There was a flyer under my front door about a chicken found wandering the streets of thornbury when i got home last friday. My good neighbour with a lemon tree that i pick from when i need lemons slipped it under my door. So i put a thank you letter under her gate telling her to come and get some chicken eggs as a thankyou.
Later that day my other neighbor with the little girl, and partially responsible for my chicken going missing in the first place, yelled out to me when i was in the back garden so he could also give me a flyer. The neighbors were excited to bring the good news about my chicken it would seem.
The flyer said that the chicken was being kept in a safe home and for the owner to ring the centre the carer worked at on Monday.

I phoned and was put through to a woman I'll call "Veronica". Anyway Veronica asked me to tell her the type of chicken it is as a way to prove i was legitimate. Then she told me that the chicken was malnourished which i argued that point. I get comments that my chickens are the happiest chickens around because of the massive open yard they get to do what they love doing eat, poop and dig. I also have a chicken feeder which feeds them pellets.
Anyway she asked me my plans for the chicken and i told her that it was going to my dads in ivanhoe until i'm able to build a proper coup for it. She insisted that she drop the chicken over. So i asked her when she could do that so i could organise a time for my step mum to be home. "Obviously I'm working now so it will have to be tomorrow". I asked for a time so i could ensure someone would be there. She was open to anytime. I rang my step mum and organised that she be there for 10am. Rang Veronica back to lock in 10am. Nope, she didn't like that time and wanted to drop the chicken back that night. "ok then, what time would you like to drop the chicken off tonight"
- "Well OBVIOUSLY I live in preston, so however long it takes me to get from preston to ivanhoe i suppose"
(how the hell should i know where you live)
Anyway we locked in 6 oclock.
I prepared my step mum for the psycho woman.
The report is she arrived at the house with her lesbian partner ready to judge and left with egg on her face because there is just no way she has a better chicken set up than my dad. He puts alot of effort into his garden and chicken set up. The woman carried on about being the oracle of chicken knowledge and my step mums friend pretended to be a Vet from the UK, pretty sure they had a good laugh over the drama.

It's win, win and win!

Veronica gets to assert her superiority on the topic of chickens, step mum and friend get to play pretends and i get my chicken back.
 
banksy-chicken-size-colour-faint-yellow-12328-18301_medium.jpg
 
Good thread.

My Aunty and Uncle have had chickens for as long as I can remember (and a pretty serious coup at that), and one of my favourite things to do was let them out and let them roam around the back yard. A few times they got into the house and would s**t all over the place, brings back good memories. Slowly the number of chickens has decreased, but I think at the moment they have one Rooster and maybe 8-9 Hens.
 
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