They came with the house.
The rules actually say no more than 6 and we have 7. We want some EE and some bantams but the friendly chickens will be hard to butcher. I'll probably get rid of the leghorns next spring and get 2 chicks. They have a pallet and wire coop that is a pain to do stuff in. We have the wood to build them a tractor.
-
- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1335
- Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2012 1:25 am
- Location: ranches in sierra nevada mountains California & Navada high desert
Greetings, Chickens are a good addition to your crop. Good idea to build a tractor or cage you can go in and clean or what ever. For years we kept a rooster and incubated our chicks, mostly leghorn. We have now Sex linked, that we've raised from chicks, they are the friendlies chickens we've ever had and great layers.
When you raise chick and are ready to add them to the flock, it will be a bit of work, we'll talk about that then. Have fun, enjoy the fresh eggs.
Richard
When you raise chick and are ready to add them to the flock, it will be a bit of work, we'll talk about that then. Have fun, enjoy the fresh eggs.
Richard
If you don't want a lot of chicks running around, then get rid of the roosters. The neighbors will appreciate that too. Hens will still produce eggs you can eat, they just won't hatch.
Speaking of mean chickens. Jungle fowl hens are fierce. The roosters are used to being handled but the hens will attack if you try to take their eggs. On the other hand it depends on the chicken. We once had a few chickens that were a mix of leghorn and jungle fowl and they made good pets, without a rooster, hens will not roam. They wait around for you to come home. One laid an egg a day on the sidewalk and it was easy to pick it up. Then one day the hen wasn't waiting by the gate anymore, somebody stole her.
Speaking of mean chickens. Jungle fowl hens are fierce. The roosters are used to being handled but the hens will attack if you try to take their eggs. On the other hand it depends on the chicken. We once had a few chickens that were a mix of leghorn and jungle fowl and they made good pets, without a rooster, hens will not roam. They wait around for you to come home. One laid an egg a day on the sidewalk and it was easy to pick it up. Then one day the hen wasn't waiting by the gate anymore, somebody stole her.
All our bantams were the tamest and nonviolent. I had a trio of blacktail white Japanese in the house as pets. There's no way we'll use eggs from 6 standard hens even with giving them away. We have 2 cartons backed up on the counter from one week. Bantam eggs are perfectly useful for scrambled eggs and dog treats. We did use them in recipes by weighing out the correct amount of egg and considering that there is more yolk per weight of egg in smaller eggs. We had about 2 dozen bantams, 1 dozen standards, and 1 dozen guinea fowl before we moved in town for a couple years.