My Hubby's Chicken Hobby (we call him the chicken whisperer)

[nicky]

Get some Worth! They aren't hard to care for, as long as you can let em out in the morning & shut them in at night... Do you think your wife could take care of it when you are up North?

Some people actually keep the Silkies as house pets. They sleep on cat beds & have litter boxes!

I don't think mine would leave the cute coop to come in with us humans!

[Worth1]

My wife is scared of chickens.

Worth

[nicky]

Show her the silkie - maybe she will change her mind! They are more like rabbits. Plus the eggs are lovely!

If you ever come up in our direction you can hang out with the chickens as long as you like!

[Worth1]

I hate to say this my biggest problem would be when they quit laying eggs.
I would have to keep them around as pets in their old age.
I could never kill a pet.
Been away from the farm too long I guess.

Worth

[carolyn137]

No place here for chickens but it was one of my jobs when I was a kid to go get the eggs and get pecked by those nasty protective hens.

I get my chicken kicks from reading the poultry section of the Sandhill Preservation catalog. Glenn was Prez of the America Association of Heirloom Poultry, or some name like that and has close to maybe 200 breeds that he maintains and sells eggs for, I guess, I mean not for omelets.

And he describes each variety in detail and often discusses the genetics of a specific breed and what to select for.

So I lust after so many exotic ones, well, I do, but not here, not now.

Glenn was asked to write a book about heirloon poultry by Storey Publications, got the proof pages and by now has sent them back so that book should be out soon.

Finally, Ilove that upscale chcicken coop, I really do and I hope the birdies know how lucky they are.

[nicky]

I'm with you Worth. Our plan is to build more coops. There will be the retiree coop, the layer coop, the chick coop, the rooster coop... Don't laugh - its true!!!

Our biggest - and only - problem came from a mink farm 30km away. Apparently when mink are collected to be gassed there are always a few escapees. Escapees travel up to 20 miles a day in search of a food source. Unfortunately the mink found it in 2 of our original 3 regular brown layers. The first lady had a heart attack. The other 2 were killed by the mink. It was devastating. I don't know if my poor husband would have continued except that he had just bought 3 new hens a week before that were inside the coop at the time of the attack. The others were outside free ranging. The mink was caught a couple of weeks later, but it will still be a long time before any of the new ladies are allowed out to free range. So, this winter I will be doing pots of chicken greens to stick in the enclosure! Hopefully they will grow Ok in my laundry room! So, if anyone has any extra chicken green seeds let me know! I was collecting dandelion seeds a week ago to try to grow over the winter. If someone had told me that I would be trying to purposely grow dandelions a year ago..... I would have thought that they were crazy - like people who keep chickens

I will have to order some Italian Dandelions from Remy @ Sample Seeds. Lucky little chickens get to go gourmet!!!

[nicky]

Carolyn, we had NO idea of the cultivars (oops not tomatoes) breeds of poulty that existed before the chicken coop was built. Some are absolutely amazing! The newest white Silkie is a pure breed (we don't really care - we just needed a friend for our other Silkie). She has the proper 5 toes & her skin is blue! The toes are as long as my fingers. She is still pretty skittish, so I didn't want to scare her with the camera quite yet - but I will try to get a pic of her toes! Sounds a bit odd - but they are fascinating!

That is great to know about the book! I have actually ordered one of the Storey poultry raising books for my husband for xmas (hope he doesn't read this)!!! I have also checked out the Sandhill descriptions. Unbelievable all that they do @ Sandhill! Thanks for the info on the new book. I will keep a look out!

[salix]

Nicky - could you use old seeds for your greens? I know I have lots of old lettuce, mesclun mix, and others of that sort. The germination might not be great, but some would grow. Let me know by PM if you think it would be worth your while...

[gnol]

Posh looking house there.
Something the ladies love, I'm sure. Mine would be confused at such finery. Awesome job your husband has done.
Sorry you lost chickens to the mink.

[nicky]

Thanks for all of the nice comments. My husband is really pleased that everyone likes it. I think that the hens & rooster know how posh their home is too!

Thanks Salix, that's very kind of you! I think that I have enough old seed to get me through the winter. They also get our veg compost before it goes to the other compost as chicken manure! If I run out before the spring I'll send you a PM. I'm currently planning a little flower bed that will surround the entire coop. I'm going to use poultry friendly plants like Calendula, Flax, comfrey, sunflowers, and a few herbs! That way the hens can stick their little heads through the fence & have a snack!

Cheers,
Nicky

[Zana]

Great looking Chookhouse, Nicky!

Love the fact that your hubby made it out of recycled pallets. Great idea.

And I'm with Worth....although Rod is probably closer in looks, Debbie or Harry probably works better for a name. Great looking chooks. Can't wait to see the 5 toes and blue skin.

Have a cousin in Ayrshire, Scotland who raises Silkies. Think he had about 50 of them running around free range. They had to worry about foxes not minks there. And one of my cousins in Launceston, TAS has a few different ones too...including a few Silkies, various Old English bantams, a few Ameraurcana (sp?) - love the colour of their eggs, and more that I don't remember the varieties. He runs about 100 or so most of the time...almost all free range. Got pecked big time while I was trying to feed them...or when I helped retrieve eggs. Looked especially nice having peck marks when wearing a dress for a wedding about a week later in Sydney....lol....sighhhhhh. At least in Scotland I borrowed a pair of wellies as protection.

I'd love to raise them here...but have a feeling my neighbours in the condo complex would go spare!....and toss me out on my ear. They're already of mixed opinions about my container garden in the driveway. And with moving on the agenda in the very near future, I'll have to keep it in mind when I finalise where I'll end up.

May the minks stay far away and the eggs be plentiful,

Zana

[nicky]

Thanks Zana! That must be quite a site at your cousins places, all that hair blowing in the breeze! If you ever need eggs, just give us a ring! Over run (:

[Worth1]

Whats up with the silkie feet??
I Googled silkie feet and they are some kind of weird.

Worth

[remy]

Love the pics! tHey are all great looking birds and I love the house,
Remy

[lakelady]

I just went to pick up some chicken manure today from a lady who has 280 of them! Oh they were just all over the place lol...some had a little barn in the pasture where her goats and sheep were, and then she had different coops around the upper portion near the house. Funny how social they are, she told me they have their own little social groups and once in a while, a chicken will leave their group and suddenly, go join another group permanently. LOL...they are a lot like people, huh? The one with the polka dotted feathers really got me. She had lots of those silkies too! The babies were so cute!