BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Animal Life Raising Chickens - fun galore

It was something I heard about on a BBC Radio 4 food program and passed on to several family members who don't have chickens and have to buy their eggs

Very interesting Ian.

That's really what we need - a chicken revolution - better for us and the chickies as well.

The Bantams are a good choice if you don't have much space - the rooster's crow is not as loud as other chicken breeds.

It is a great feeling - to give an animal that provides us nourishment - eggs - as good a life as we can provide. I buy poultry of all sorts from the same place I get my live chickens and chicken feed - there is no way I can butcher something that I have cared for and named. They butcher on order, do so on the premises so the animals go from free-range to roaster ready without any stress at all. We just tried a turkey and it was the best I ever ate - the legs had as much meat as the breast which of course indicates that they actually used their legs to walk around their environment and it also did not stink up the house for days on end or make everything it came in contact with greasy - the store bought turkeys that I used to buy were very different.

Love that all of you are considering raising chickens at some point - I again cannot say enough good things about my experience so far.

cluck,cluck

In the book (I love to read it about once a year) "House of Seven Gables", the old lady has some chickens that live in the back yard gardens. The chickens are like seventh generation from the original rooster and hens. Off and on the narrator refers to the chickens and has a running history of their life. It is really quite interesting. It makes me want to buy a big old house with lots of gardens out back and get some chickens to care for. The attachment the lady has to the chickens is very endearing.

ah - chickens in literature - who knew?

Yup! chickens in literature. Here is a little excerpt from "House of Seven Gables" by Nathaniel Hawthorne:

"Nor must we forget to mention a hen-coop of very reverend antiquity that stood in the farther corner of the garden, not a great way from the fountain. It now contained only Chanticleer, his two wives, and a solitary chicken. All of them were pure specimens of a breed which had been transmitted down as an heirloom in the Pyncheon family, and were said, while in their prime, to have attained almost the size of turkeys, and, on the score of delicate flesh, to be fit for a prince's table."

Love it - thanks Phyllis

We have ducks, 6 females/2 males & chickens, 4 females/4 males. The ducks are free range all the time because s/o was lazy during summer & didn't coop train them & I can't catch them to get them in the coop lol. They aren't for food but they do provide us with alot of eggs. The chickens are about half grown, we traded the 6 laying hens & 1 rooster we did have off for rabbits (giants!) so we're currently in the waiting game. Their all in the coop now as it's cold & snowy, once the weather warms up they'll be freerange though. & when they reach maturity we're going to cull out 3 of the males for food & let the rest go for layers.

I grew up with chickens, ducks, geese, guinneas, and other barnyard foul. Diane and I had the hatchery here in town a while back. We hatched many thousands a month. It is extremely rewarding to raise them especially when they lay their first eggs. I wish we still had a few. Imagine, Seers, psychics and mediums all around helping us "pull" a hatch while trays of baby Rhode Island reds, Cornish Cross, and Barred rocks were picking out of their shells. Somehow though it all went together. Maybe the "life giving" perception was what it was. I encourage anybody to have chickens, if they are able to, as they are very intelligent and very spiritual little beings.

Oh I forgot the guinneas! We have a male & 2 females that have moved to our neighbors (on their own lol) but still come to visit us a few times a week. Personally they're too noisy for my taste but the neighbor & his wife love them so all is well :)

It is good for everyone - especially the birds - that you are raising your own eggs and poultry - bravo