Anybody have chickens or other poultry birds?
- Thread starter MoTappin
- Start date
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
Sure you want to ask that question in this forum?
there was a hen loose in our neighborhood last fall, it had either escaped or been "kidnapped" from a backyard hen house a couple blocks away - - I don't personally know the people whose hen it was, but a friend is a neighbor and she said they get eggs from them every once in a while
Thanks?
Are you drunk, Moe?
I've had ducks in the past and currently have chickens.
Ducks are less likely to destroy the yard but they are messy sons of a bitches! Every night they will hunker down on the warm cement (porches, patios, flagstones, anything that retains heat from the day) and by morning you will have a duck-**** slick that you will need to hose off before walking on said cement. They are good at pest control and will mow down grasshoppers like nobody's business. They even eat snails. If you have a garden they will molest leafy greens so lettuces and such will still grow they just won't look great.
Chickens are another story. They eat everything. Tomatoes, squash, most any vegetable plant, most any flower... OK, pretty much any plant. They also scratch to uncover food. You will have dirt from the flowerbeds all over your lawn and patio. They also tear the hell out of the grass and kill it. The upside is that just 3 or 4 chickens can be kept in a relatively small, contained area. They do also eat insects.
Both can be noisy but in my experience the chickens are by far the worst. Even the hens start "clucking" at sunrise and don't shut up until you feed and water them.
That said, we get anywhere from 6 to 9 eggs a day from the chickens so we always have fresh eggs.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I'll be happy to answer them.
No. I was being serious.
At any rate. I know of several local people who keep hens, and the fresh eggs are supposed to be better than anything you can buy. Like I said, one of my good friends is a neighbor of someone with a backyard hen house. The only thing she's noticed every so often is the rooster crowing early in the morning.
Hartsock
Banned
I can't tell a difference, but maybe I'm not an egg elitist.
The yolks are darker in color, larger and creamier. They are also higher in Omega-3's. That said, there's not THAT big of a difference in taste.
They do come in all sorts of cool colors. We get brown, beige, white, pink, green and blue eggs from our chickens. No need to dye eggs at easter!
They do come in all sorts of cool colors. We get brown, beige, white, pink, green and blue eggs from our chickens. No need to dye eggs at easter!
Very cool.
I don't eat eggs at all unless they're baked in cookies and stuff like that, so I wouldn't know anything about the taste. They're all disgusting to me.
But Scat, those in your picture sure are purty!
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
No problem with loose birds in our neighborhood: the coyotes and bobcats take care of them quickly.
Seriously, the eggs are better than what you buy in the grocery store, but people I've known who have chickens go to a lot of trouble with building an enclosure, feeding, cleaning up, etc. Seems like a lot of work and expense just for fresh eggs. We briefly discussed it in our household, but I knew ALL the work would eventually land on my shoulders, just as it has with every other animal we've had. We just buy all our eggs and any other organic food we choose to consume from Trader Joe's instead of regular grocery stores. Organic is very important for some items and not that much for others.
You'd be a cool neighbor, but all the same, I won't be moving to your neighborhood anytime soon.
Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
Haven't seen a bobcat since the people two houses down got rid of the last of their chickens. They're not too common a sight, so it was a real treat to see one run across our backyard. We're not in some remote place, it's just that our house backs up against a lot of hills. It's kind of a high desert climate where I live and the city charter calls for a lot of open space to remain untouched around each development tract. Coyotes are generally solitary scavengers...usually only see one roaming around late at night or very early in the evening. Rabbits are the real problem around here. Ironically, I remember one Easter morning we had 13 in our backyard (and our backyard isn't that big!). Had to chase them back through our fence in order to hide my daughter's eggs. I enjoy having a bit of wildlife around; just have to know what to watch out for (like an occasional rattlesnake).