# I've got chickens



## Burl Source (Sep 15, 2014)

We were renting a house where we had been living for the past 5 years.
Out of the blue the landlord said she was listing the house for sale and there would be people wanting to look at it fairly regular.
She said we would get 24 hour notice when possible.
I like my privacy and decided to look for a new place to live.
We found a nice home/mini farm that is way nicer and bigger.
Finally finished with the moving and a lot of the unpacking.

Now....I have 10 chickens and fresh eggs every day.
But, I think one of them is possessed.
I call him "Bad" Elvis. He looks like the photos of Elvis when he was old and wearing that sparkly white jumpsuit.
In the evenings the chickens all head for the chicken house except for Elvis.
He wants to fight. I usually end up laughing so hard that it takes a while.
He will jump in the air and try to kick me with his spurs. When I am not looking he will run up and peck my ankles.
Thinks he's a tough guy. So I bring in my guard dog (chihuahua/wolverine?) and have him chase Elvis around for a while.
Once he gets tired I put him away so the wild animals don't eat him before I do.

So far the animals I have seen around the house are foxes, coyotes, rabbits, ground squirrels (egg stealers), deer and a bear.


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## KimBronnum (Sep 15, 2014)

Ha ha, sunds like a great place  Congrats with the checkens - I would have loved to have those...


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## daveb (Sep 15, 2014)

You only need one "he". Hang a recipe for Coq au Vin around his neck and let him wear it a couple days. Wait till Sunday...


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## knyfeknerd (Sep 15, 2014)

I wanna see a pic of Bad Elvis......
.....I am a fan of Elvis after all, even chubby unhealthy Elvis.


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## Dave Martell (Sep 15, 2014)

I'd love to have chickens.....mmmm....fresh eggs.


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## Burl Source (Sep 15, 2014)

The chickens are kind of fun.
There is a fenced pasture where they spend the day chasing grasshoppers and eating bugs and whatever else looks good.
Then at sunset they line up to go into the chicken coop. Except Elvis.
There is one who sneaks out of the pasture (Houdini) and likes to explore in the woods.
The other day I heard Houdini squawking real loud. He was being chased by a hawk that was only half his size.
Reminded me of the old cartoons with the chicken hawk.


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## Burl Source (Sep 15, 2014)

Dave Martell said:


> I'd love to have chickens.....mmmm....fresh eggs.


I had forgotten that the egg yolks are supposed to be orange and shaped like a golf ball.
Ones from the store are yellow and kind of flat.

The other day I scrambled a dozen eggs with lightly seared walla walla sweet onion and seared black cherry tomatoes cut in half on top.
That was lunch and OOOOH Baby, it was delicious.


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## Mrmnms (Sep 15, 2014)

We can't have roosters due to local zoning. People are alway trying to pawn them off on me. I try to finds homes for some, others end on a kitchen table. They are very cool looking but I've had some young birds so loud I thought they were gonna shatter glass. 
We're "supposed" to have only 6 birds. I chat with local owners, some of whom have many more. It's remarkable when we all talk over beers at a party. " So how many do you have?" Always the same answer with an almost straight face. " Just 6". Yeah sure.
Love my girls


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## Burl Source (Sep 15, 2014)

No such thing as zoning here. We don't even have law enforcement. But there is a volunteer fire department.

Two of the chickens we have are roosters.
One is the stereotypical black with gold head and neck. Looks like an old fashioned cookie jar. He is well behaved.
Bad Elvis is some sort of fuzzy thing with blueish skin head and neck like a turkey and fuzzy feet. He never shuts up.
So guess who might end up as chicken and dumplings?


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## apicius9 (Sep 16, 2014)

Very cool. As an old Elvis fan, I definitely want to see a picture also! 

We had chickens when I grew up. Never had much love for them except throwing food at them occasionally as a kid. My uncle used to gross me out when he slaughtered them - I was fine with the killing and the headless chickens running around, it was always the half-ripened eggs that got me when he gutted them. Anyway, after we got rid of them back home, I could easily get fresh eggs from neighbors or the farmers' market. But overhere I really miss fresh eggs. What they sell to me as fresh over here I would have returned in Germany...

Your place sounds like a rural paradise, make the best of it. Nothing better than homegrown food. 

Stefan


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## Adirondack (Sep 16, 2014)

Sounds like a great place. Once owned a house in the country built in the late 1860s. There was a small chicken coop that was used as a storage/potting shed. The only thing living there was a skunk underneath it. I once set out a Havahart trap to capture a woodchuck that was getting into the garden and came out the next morning to find the skunk in it. Used a very long distance release. Looking back, a couple of chickens for eggs might have been fun.


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## scotchef38 (Sep 17, 2014)

we have 5 chickens at the moment,with the exception of one they are all nearly 3 and laying daily.They have learned to get as close to the bedrooms as possible in the mornings and yell/squack until they get fed.They also know the sound of the shower and yell very loudly if you have a shower before feeding them.Dont think I could go back to store bought eggs.


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## Clarence (Oct 1, 2014)

I'd love to have fresh eggs but I don't like having other living things depend on me and I don't think I could bring myself to kill and eat them. I'll just rely on factory farms and abbatoirs, I guess.


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## bear1889 (Oct 2, 2014)

Better keep Bad Elvis away from the hens or when you go to break those eggs in the skillet you might have some eyes staring up at you.


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## Burl Source (Oct 5, 2014)

Elvis is a trouble maker. And when it comes to the hens, he's into the rough stuff.
I am seriously considering his future as chicken and dumplings.
We lost a hen to a fox the other day.
I am in the process of changing the goat barn into a chicken coop with a covered yard.
Trying to get things ready for the winter.
Also working on the 50 x 100 garden plot. It had a 6 foot fence that the deer would hop over. Now I stretched another 3 feet in height deer mesh with streamers and it seems to be working.
So far I have a bunch of fall lettuce planted and am doing better at keeping the deer out.


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## Mrmnms (Oct 5, 2014)

The raccoons have been very aggressive lately. If I didn't have have heavy chicken wire fully covering the top and buried under ground, they all be good. I like yo let then run around the yard. The almost alway go back in on their own. We just have to make sure they're locked up before the raccoons and foxes are out.


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## Burl Source (Oct 7, 2014)

They have a fenced pasture that is just over an acre where they chase bugs during the day.
At sunset they line up to go inside the coop.
I have almost finished the new coop but they keep wanting to go to the old one.


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## Burl Source (Nov 1, 2014)

Elvis disappeared the other day. My guess is the local foxes got both of the roosters.
But......egg production has almost doubled.
Today the 6 remaining hens laid 8 eggs.
Yesterday there were 6 eggs.
And the eggs are bigger too.

So dinner tonight will be left over prime rib diced and scrambled eggs with honeygold baby potatoes.
Looks ugly but it tastes great.


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## Mrmnms (Nov 1, 2014)

My chickens have never laid more than an egg a day. 5 or 6 a week for my good layers. They seem to slow down some as they get older, but the eggs are huge. This time of year, very little production while they molt, even under threat of being turned to soup.


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## Burl Source (Nov 1, 2014)

I was surprised. Didn't know it was possible to lay more than one a day.
Most of the eggs are the size of the extralarge ones at the store.
But there have been a few even bigger.
My guess is the giant ones are coming from the racing chicken.
That is what I call the big black one.
You hear load squawking and then you see the black chicken running the fenceline.
She is pretty fast for a chicken.


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## knyfeknerd (Nov 1, 2014)

Will Elvis get replaced by someone?
Neil Diamond?
Wayne Newton?
Tom Jones?
RuPaul?


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## Burl Source (Nov 1, 2014)

In the spring I plan on getting a couple dozen more chickens.
Between now and then I will be doing improvements on the chicken coop.
Will probably just get one rooster but they tend to be trouble makers.
My stepson (who takes care of the chickens) wants me to get an aracana rooster in this color pattern.





I think "Bigfoot" would be a good name.


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## knyfeknerd (Nov 1, 2014)

I'm disappointed. RuPaul is an excellent name!


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## daveb (Nov 1, 2014)

Ron Paul might be an even better chicken name. He would only chase chickens in your yard and would legalize candy corn for all the farm animals...


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## Zwiefel (Nov 2, 2014)

daveb said:


> Ron Paul might be an even better chicken name. He would only chase chickens in your yard and would legalize candy corn for all the farm animals...



Hahahaha....I see what you did there. Nice work Dave.


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## mc2442 (Nov 2, 2014)

Sorry, that is one ugly chicken.


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## Lucretia (Nov 2, 2014)

Sighted near Kalamazoo:


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