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.
That’s cat territory!
Oh, trust me, I’ve tried to talk to him about it...
mmmmmmm turtle. Hard to get around here. Was thinking of finding a couple snappers somewhere and stocking my pond. I love turtle stew.
From the article, it seems they are talking about backyard pens. I remember back in the 60s, my grandmother in California raised chickens in her backyard. I always took the chore of wringing the chicken's neck because it was much more labor intensive to pluck the feathers after it had been boiled in hot water. Believe me, these chickens were not treated as pets.
LOL, good luck.
Used to have one that would retrieve rocks. You could throw one into the middle of the brush and she would bring the same one back every time. Great tracker, but shoot one time, and she was back at the house.
My dawg Arrow (half pointer, half lab) could fetch a rock that you threw in the river. The dawg would dive in and swim underwater to fetch the rock.
We never did figure out how he did it. Amazing. Smartest dawg I ever owned.
Mine could do that too! She was half chow, half lab and loved water.
She would go about five blocks to Mom’s and get in a fenced yard to go swimming. Mom would come home from work and call, “your dog is sitting on my cool deck.”
We never did figure out how she got in the yard.
I used to raise market hogs (Duroc, Hanmpshire, Berkshire, etc.), but I never had one of those little pot-belly pigs.
I can't believe that nobody else responded.
The trouble with guinea hens is that as funny as they are, they just end up being fox food. You can't really protect them, they just sort of vanish one by one.
It was goooood!!!.
LMAO!
fryer sized
Did you ever get your chicken coop up, yet?
I’ve been thinking of getting some rabbits for meat. Got any tips?
I’ve had chickens in the past, but the HOA here won’t allow it till the economy goes a lot further south. Yes, I did ask, and got a copy of the Murry McMurry catalog just in case.
If you are going to keep them inside, find a place to keep them that has good air circulation, but is not too cold or hot. If you have to accept one extreme or the other, default to the cooler end of the scale. Rabbits can keep themselves warm in cool weather, but can become lethargic in hotter weather. If you keep them outside, keep them in a secure hutch at least 4 feet off the ground.
Get as large a cage as you feel comfortable with. Don't cramp your rabbits, give them some room to move around, they'll be healthier, and it will be easier to remove the kittens (bunnies). It will also give you room for the nest box the doe will need when she gets near delivery time. You can also allow a rabbit to run around the house. They can even be trained to use a litter box. But whatever you do, keep the buck and doe separate until YOU are ready to breed them, because rabbits are rabbits and will breed whenever they are good and ready. Things can quickly get out of hand.
Feed rabbits raw vegetables, and even weeds from your yard (yeah everyone's got them), ours like dandelions, just make sure that they are not sprayed with herbicide. You can also supplement them with commercial rabbit feed, specially in months when it is hard to get fresh vegetables. Commercial feeds usually have vitamins as well which will help to keep your stock healthy.
Rabbits will be ready to breed by the time they are 6 or 7 months old. They have a 30 day (+or-) gestation period, and will be ready to rebreed about a month after a litter is born. We limit ours to 4 litters a year. Remember that you don't have to feed the kittens, they will live on mother's milk alone. You do of course have to feed the mother, because she needs to be kept healthy to provide you with healthy offspring. Harvest the kittens when they are between 8 to 1o weeks old. I know some folks who wait until 12 weeks, but ours are 4-5 lbs each by 8 weeks, and the meat just tastes better from a younger rabbit.
Rabbits are higher in protein, and lower in fat and cholesterol than chickens, and are easier to dress. The meat usually doesn't have as much flavor as chicken, but that lets you prepare it more to your own taste. Above all DON'T make pets out of the kittens, or you will have defeated your original purpose.
Another benefit to raising rabbits is that the quality of their droppings makes them perfect for use in the garden. They are lower in nitrogen than chicken droppings, and they release it gradually rather than shocking the plants or the soil, like an overabundance of chicken manure will.
Yeah, when I was in college I was acquainted with a guy who got in on the potbelly pig craze. He was renting a small cabin at the time and the pig completely wrecked the place and made it uninhabitable in short order. The landlord sued the crap out of him and won.
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