Sometimes I come lurk here and read all the back posts. Was doing lots of that today. Then I went to McMurray website and pretended I could have chickens and buy some. I put Araucanas/Americanas in my shopping cart, then the Black Star and Red Star sex linked and last I put New Hampshires because I liked the picture and description. Plus I read all the customer reviews under each I am interrsted in.
I would only want them for eggs, not meat as I can't immage myself butchering and plucking chickens. Not that I couldn't eat anything I raised myself. Just not interested that way. Its the really fresh eggs that have the appeal. Chicken that I buy is almost always the pre cooked rotisiere kind that you get hot at out local supermarkets all around. I will just stick to that. Sure wish I could have fresh eggs though. So I was looking at the laying breeds, brown eggs and the Easter Eggs sounded great.
Of course I can't have them and am not really going to buy. Just wishful thinking. I can't immagine having to pick out 25 which is their minium oder anyway. If I can't have 5 or 10 I certainly can't have 25 just because they will not send any less. And it doesn't matter anyway. Its not as if I could have chickens here even if I could get only afew shipped. It was all just wishfull thinking.
Heres what I'd get if I could.
Are you sure you can't? You can have them in San Francisco, Seattle and I think Chicago...a lot of large cities allow a few for eggs (no roos).
Often it is the small, formerly rural towns that won't allow them.
LOL, Rita, could you really give up some of your beautiful garden space for chickens? I think you could and can even imagine how you'd decorate the coop. I really wish you could have some in your area, you've be an excellent Chicken Momma.
A big problem around here would be predators. This garden is full of racoons and possums that come visiting every night. Also we have red foxes here. Plus rats. Rats are very common. I am sure any of these would love to have chicken dinner plus help themselves to eggs. But the fox, possum and racoons only come at night. Rats don't mind the daylight.
I don't have room for a real coop, nor would it be allowed. City regulations. I would have to do something in the detached garage which I only use as storage for garden supplies. I am sure with some planning part could be closed off somehow for a chicken coop but it would be a big project. Still wouldn't make them secure. It would keep the racoons, possums and foxes away but there are rats in my garage every summer. Every summer I have to put rat bait in the garage.
You could keep Serama, the world smallest chicken...they lay nicely. Three Serama eggs equal one extra large standard breed's....and you can keep them very easily in the house....they were created in Malaysia as apartment pets. A rooster and two pullets can live in a 3' X 3' cage....I'm just say'n....
Last night I looked at the ones I posted about above. This morning I was looking at the bantam breeds thinking smaller might be better. I didn't know if anyone really kept them for eggs because I figgure those eggs would be really small. Looking thru the breeds I didn't see which were really toward egg production. They kept talking about showing sock and people winning blue ribbins and I could care less about that. I am interested in getting great egg layers.
I didn't see any Serama listed on McMurray's site.
If you want larger breeds, you could build an enclosure inside the garage. Half inch hardware cloth (rat wire) will keep out any of the predators you mentioned. The chickens you chose are all good layers - now you just need a few friends to share your order.
You can get bantams of most standard laying breeds...and most "true bantams" like Dutch and Serama (Serama are considered a rare breed, although it is easy to get eggs for incubation on eBay) lay very well.
Dutch bantams actually lay especially well, since they were originally bred to lay eggs for peasants (the lord of the manor got to take all the large eggs, so the crafty tenants raised birds that lay small eggs).
The problem can be that they may be very, very broody...meaning they will want to sit on and hatch the eggs they lay if you don't take them away religiously. A brooding hen is not a laying hen...so you can have gaps in your egg production. This can happen with any breed or size layer...but birds that are specially bred to lay, like Leghorns (and there are bantam Leghorns as well) are called non-setters and are very unlikely to go broody...meaning more eggs for you.
I have a Serama pullet who has just decided to sit on the 16 bantam eggs that my two Serama and one Nankin laid this week. That would be about half a dozen extra large eggs...so you can get quite a few eggs from them and they are exactly like regular eggs in every way.
Rita, the problem with predators is worldwide. You must lock the chickens up every night faithfully, otherwise, they will be somebody's meal.
DGer's in this section have been willing to share their knowledge with me, and I'm grateful to them all. I've made mistakes, but I really enjoy my chickens and would not give them up unless I absolutely had to. There is something really wonderful about having them, don't ask me what exactly, but it has something to do with entertainment and relaxation, plus the eggs are such a treat. Finally I have a pet that is actually useful.
I would like to say one other thing before I post this. If you get chickens, my advice would be NOT to order from the hatcheries. I did that, and the quality of birds are just not very high, at least as far as silkies go, not positive about the other birds, but I suspect it is similar. I would recommend getting two or three quality birds and let them hatch out some babies. They grow really fast and will be laying eggs in 5 or 6 months. What fun they are to watch too.
There are auctions online, or you might find someone in your area with nice birds. GBU
I never thought of looking on e-bay for hatching eggs, I just looked are there are lots to be found. But I don't have anything to hatch them with. No incubator and not a broody mother hen to hatch them for me.
And a rooster would definately be impossible around here. He would have to go in the stew pot for sure.
Many years ago I lived at another location but within the same city limits. My neightbor at the time one year bought 5 baby chicks for his kids at easter. They used to sell them at Agway each year. Well, all went well and he had grown chickens running around the yard during the day. I don't know were he put them at night. But it soon became apparent that he had some roosters as they begain to crow early each morning. Eventually someone complained and he had to get rid of ALL the chickens, hens and all. As I said they are against city ordinaces around here. I don't know why as he knew he had some roosters he just didn't get rid of them and he could have kept the hens. His backyard had a high fence and I am sure most of the neightbors didn't know before the noise about the chickens. They used to get in my yard sometimes but I didn't care about that. Didn't care he had roosters either. It sure wasn't me complaining.
I definately would need chickens I could hide. No free ranging alowed here.
Oh I see. Yes, my roosters live outside of town in a horse lot. I have them in big metal dog kennels and pens I built myself that are made with 1/2 inch hardware cloth.
Yes, I've experienced the crowing in town. At first I couldn't figure out which ones were crowing.
People need to contact their city commissioners and ask if they can have chickens. It's becoming a fad now. They are not nearly as loud and smelly as dogs.
I can say though, that sometimes my chickens are fairly noisy. At other times, they are quiet. People on my block know I have chickens. Several commented they liked the crowing, but I removed the roosters as soon as I could.
Egg shells and chicken manure... it would be so good for your garden! I've been admiring your garden pics since joining DG! Maybe there has been a change in your city ordinance in the last year? There are sites to check that since back yard flocks have become so popular. If you can have a couple chickens, check CraigsList for a used rabbit hutch for them to live in and reinforce it with rat wire. Crossing my fingers for you!
I put up another post asking about eggs by mail. But before I could get anything like live chicks or even eggs there are lots of housing issures I would have to address. Plus I just really don't know anything about raising or careing for chickens. I have had lots and lots of animals in my life but they have always been pet type animals. Dogs, cats and lots of different types of birds like parrotts and finches. Nothing farm animal type. I am a city girl but when I was younger always wanted to be a farm girl. Well, not a real farm, just room in the country with a barn were you could keep animals like chickens and a goat. Now I have gotten too old and set here to even think about moving.
Let me ask a really dumb question. Why don't people more commonly keep chickens in the garage? Even if its attached to the house. I mean like you just said you could keep them in a rabbitt hutch or one of those chicken igloos. Then all one needs is some sort of chicken run.
Nothing too complicated, food, water, shelter. If you've taken care of all those animals, I know you would do well with chickens.
It's never a good feeling to break the law. Best to try and ask permission for the chickens, or just forget it. IMHO
Thats why I never have done anything before now. But I haven't even bought eggs at the supermarket since the egg recall and then I come here to the forum and read about the fresh eggs. It just makes me want chickens even more LOL!
Speaking of breaking the law, I just realized I've been doing that for several weeks. I have a rooster and hen in a empty house in town. I know the rooster crows and if you are close by you can hear it. There is only one close neighbor, who I doubt cares. I want to show them in the fair this next month, and didn't want them at the horse lot. Doubtful anyone will bother me about them.
Yes, I've kept roosters in my garage too while I was looking for pens for them. You could definitely hear them outside when they crowed. Doubtful that anyone would hear a chicken in there.
Those wired extra large dog crates are great for my roosters. It gives them quite a bit of room. I stuck a 1X4 board through there and that gave them a roost. They seem to like it.
http://www.sella.co.nz/images/thumb/q/w/c/65dqwc-390x292.jpg
This is the crate I have.
If you don't want to click on that, which I understand, it is a "Pet Lodge" brand wire dog crate, for dogs up to 130 lbs.
This message was edited Aug 28, 2010 7:09 PM
Rita, if you can have chickens in your city there is no reason, other than the dust, that you couldn't keep them in the garage and attach a run. If you keep the feed & supplies in a metal garbage can rodents won't be able to get in. The reason I don't like the dog igloos is there is no way to "shut the door" at night.
Since critters are already a problem in your area you can do something before you get chickens to cut down the population.
The garage idea is for many reasons. Number one no room anywere else for a coop, not allowed to actually have a coop. Garage is secure from racoons and such but rats do get in. I have an infestation of rats in the garage each summer and that will go on forever I figgure as there is a very large rat population directly accoss the street.
We have a large beautiful park accross the street and the lovely beach and waterfront. It is actually an inlet of Long Island Sound. I just look out my picture window in front and I can see the water. But the rats live amoung the rocks in the multiple rock jetties down there and some always think of moving elsewhere locally. So each summer I have to put out rat bait until I get rid of them all. Then it usually is months but eventually more rats find my garden. For some reason they really like it here. Thats not the kind of wildlife I had in mind when I planted my yard to be be very attractive to wildlife and bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and backyard songbirds. Oh well. There really is no way for me to cut back on the wildlife night visits, I see them here every night and hear them fighting out there too. All I have to do is tun on the back lights and whatch the racoons. Possums too. Cats also, both ones live in the neighborhood and often ones don't belong to anybody. Plus the foxes that live in the woods in the park.
Sounds lovely Rita.
But you are allowed to have a storage shed around here. Lots of people do. So it must not be the actual structure as a storage shed and a chicken coop are both small outbulidings. It must just be the chickens, not the building they have a problem with.
Do you have the sort of neighbors that are likely to complain?
I have too many neighbors. Many I don't even know. Multiple family dwellings there. My immediate on either side I do know and get along very well. But the rest, well I am sure they would call if anything peeved them even a little bit. At least there is nothing across the street but a big park.
We used to live in London...people had chickens and foxes got them. London is a big city, but foxes are clever....:0)
Here is is more likely to be coyotes, although we have foxes. And I have lost pullets to skunks two winters in a row.
It seems everything loves chicken.
There are Cayotes in New Jersey but none on Long Island as far as I know. And definately not around here. But we have red fox. I know they would love to have chicken dinner!
Are foxes a threat in the daytime or do they hunt at night?
Around here only seen them at night.
There is some kind of red fox here. Apparently it is not native to this area. Some say it rode in on the train because that's where the first ones in town were seen, around the train depot. They have flourished since then.
It is interesting...around here everyone thinks of coyotes as night hunters...but apparently that is just a reaction to being hunted. They are actually diurnal hunters, and when they are not under threat of extermination by humans, they are very active in the day. You can see them in the fields and vineyards all day long.
I don't know if it is similar with foxes....
Foxes are hunted both in the day and at night - by two quite different types of foxhunters - so perhaps they are like the coyotes. I have occasionally seen foxes out in the daylight, but they are fairly rare around here, while I often see coyotes.
All the old stories talk about the midnight henhouse raids of the clever fox.
I looked it up and the site I found said red fox are are most active at twilight..."crepuscular".
As usual we can count on Catscan to get the facts. Thanks.