The Chickens are Restless- anyone else keep chickens for fun?

Hi, I have six girls that I am hoping will start to lay eggs soon so I can start enjoying home grown eggs for breakfast! I have three australorps (Sister Robert Anne, Eponine, Miss Hannity), 2 ameracaunas(Alice and Millie) and a sussex (Janet Van De Graff)- I also have a daughter in musical theater! LOL Anyone else have pet chickens?

Tracey

Ohhh another chicken lover!! We had 3 Buff Orpingtons but unfortunately 2 were roosters and we can't keep roosters where we live. The farm we got them from took them back though and they're currently ripping and running on tons of acreage! In exchange, we have 2 black sexlink hens. I don't have a good picture of them but I do have a pic of buffs!

Will post a pic of our new ones as soon as we snap one. Would love to see a pic of your birds if you have some! We don't have any eggs yet but they are almost to that age and we can't wait. Chickens are such wonderful companions. My favorite hen is Bessie (my buff, pictured in the foreground below) but all of our birds are precious. We are talking about getting some copper Marans and a Dominique!

*raises hand* Chicken lady over here too! We had 5, down to 4 now thanks to a murdering hawk this spring (the carnage was awful ). 2 Buff Orpingtons (Ethel and Marmalade), a Rhode Island Red (Lady) and a Barred Rock (Rocky). We've had them for almost 2 years now. Never would have thought myself a chicken person, but the birds are fun. And funny. Greedy too - they love treats as much as any dog! If you haven't tried giving them blueberries, it's pretty entertaining. I've yet to find a food they like better. I'd post pics but *shakes fist* I'm still under restriction - have to be a member for 7 days. You both should get quite a few eggs once they start laying. We pull in 2-4 each day, far more than we can eat. If you have a good egg recipe - please share.

I'm so sorry for your loss bongbunny. That is so incredibly sad. Have you had all of them for about 2 years?

I've tried blackberries and watermelon but never blueberries!! Will have to give that a shot.

LOL at your Barred Rock named Rocky! That is so cute. One of our Buff Orpingtons was named Buffy before we realized "she" was a rooster.

I don't have any good egg recipes off the top of my head but if I come across any winners, this is the place I'll be posting them.

My girls all love watermelon and strawberries but blueberries are indeed their favorite, well, aside from cockroaches! LOL We are in Texas, so the giant tree roaches tend to get into their feed tub now and again (it has a lid, but you know how that is!) whenever I find a roach in their bin (or roaches!), they get a whack on the head (roaches) to slow them down, then they get scooped up along with the days feed and thrown in to the girls pen and they chow down on them- chasing each other to see who will end up with it.
I will send a pic or two when I get home. We are visiting NY right now (my youngest is performing at NYMF).

I don't have a ton of space for the girls, they have a large pen on the side of the house (urban chickens) and they get to come out and wander around the whole yard throughout the week. It has been so brutally hot this summer that they were loose most of the summer but they amused themselves by decimating my entire yard, all my annuals and ferns have fallen victim to "the girls" but they have managed to stay cooler in the under parts of the yard so that is what counts!

Tracey

We have been entertaining the idea of keeping Silky Chickens. It is a matter of transforming the old shed into a coup. We have good friends that keep us stocked in happy-chicken-fresh eggs. Looks like fun!

There are Two Wild turkey hens that hang aroung my property. I feed them bird food that they
seem to enjoy. I call them Thelma and Louise. Just before dusk they fly on my roof and then
fly off to roost in the redwood trees. They are so adorable!!!

Apparently, I just learned you can keep chicken in the city I live in, even downtown, as long as you have them 50 feet away from other buildings, which negates about 80% of property here, but if you had the space, you could keep chickens in a city of a million people right downtown.

Or goats. You can have 2 goats and 5 chickens.