Posted on 01/02/2009 5:07:49 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Pleasant Hills, CA (AHN) - While thousands of dogs and cats are being given up by pet owners across the U.S. as times become harder, chickens are gaining popularity as household pets in some U.S. cities.
The rising popularity of the feathered creature is due to the chicken's ability to provide eggs, pest control, fertilizer and eventually meat. To address zoning regulations, homeowners are working to amend local laws in areas like Fort Collins, CO, Bloomington, IN and Brainerd, MN.
One of the pioneers of raising chicken as household pets, Rod Lublow of California, even created the Website BackYardChickens.com to help the growing web community with 19,000 members throughout the world address issues concerning their poultry habit. In the U.S., the portal counts members from California, New York, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.
Some cities like New York, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle already allow chicken to be raised by urban residents, according to Longmont, Colorado city planner Ben Ortiz.
The proposal, though, to amend local laws is expected to encounter some resistance from other residents who believe the backyard chicken habit is an urban fad which will pass some day.
No you stand up grab it by its neck and twirl it around over your head!
Hey we’re talking over 200lbs of meat per year for next to nothing. :~)
One nice thing about having chickens in your yard, you will never have to worry about ear wigs. ;)
We lived where our kids could have animals. They each loved their pony, but we all hated the ear wigs, they were everywhere. We got a few chickens and in no time the bugs were gone.
El Pollo Loco?
I've had rabbit before and it was tasty, but I think that they fall on the wrong side of the "cute and fuzzy" scale for me to raise them for meat. Bunnies look more like pets than lifestock.
Third-worlders.
To me, it makes a lot of sense to have fresh eggs. I like eggs. I don’t like roosters though, so I’m not sure how that works!
But a few layers in the backyard, that can’t hurt anything can it?
Well, look at it this way. When times really get rough it would easiery to eat your chicken than eat your cat.
That’s the biggest problem for most folks. That’s why I do all of the rabbit processing myself. Rabbits are really better fore you anyway. They are not susceptible to many of the diseases that chickens are, the fat layer comes off with the skin so the meat is leaner, and I can process 5 of them in the same time it takes to process one chicken, and the space and cost required to raise them is practically nothing compared to chickens.
Chicken Cam! However, it’s 3am in the UK right about now. Not much action, so to speak, LOL!
I love my chickens, but they live outside, with a hen house and a yard.
Once, though, I has a black chicken that started to stagger sideways when she went through her molt.
It was almost like whirling disease. I kept her in the house at night, in a cat carrier, and let her out in the daytime.Whenever I walked by at night she would give a litttle coo.
She kept close to the back door, and began to lay on the porch doormat.
That chicken was a great pet.
I feel the same way about goats. I was free labor on my Aunt’s farm each summer and it was my job to tend the goats.
One whiff of goat cheese these days and I am ready to strangle someone. Blech!
How much does a weaned rabbit weigh?
The Return of the Killer Chickens or...Trouble in the Hen House...
Yes, some things stay with us. You can’t get much ranker than goats!!!
I raise up 50 chicks each spring. Husband made me this awesome brooder pen in our attic. Yes. The attic; a 3rd floor walk up.
When they have all of their feathers, they move to their own pen in the coop. When they’re big enough to defend themselves, they go in with the older hens.
Some I keep, depending upon what my mortality rate was the winter before, and I sell the remainders.
It’s a good little income on the side. One customer buys every egg we can produce. I don’t have to do a thing but gather them. He takes them from the fridge on the enclosed porch and he fills my fridge with cash.
Ya gotta love it. :)
The best way is to hang them upside down, preferably in a killing cone(see the Sarah Palin turkey video), and slit their throats and let them bleed out. Otherwise you end up with bloody meat.
Guinea Hens are fierce deer/wood tick eaters. And cute as a bugs ear. :)
ours average about 4.5lbs live weight.
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