In case anyone else is venting their repressed agrarian instincts in the form of sub/urban chicken keeping, I thought I would start a thread. Also, I expect the tags to be merciless.
What do you have? Where did you get them? Eggs, meat or just pets? Feel free to post predator challenges/solutions, as well as any other tips.
I'll get it started:
I currently have four remaining (from an original order of five) pullets, just under one year old. All brown egg layers from an order I piggybacked from a friend. He ordered a brown egg laying sampler, and I'm pretty sure I have an Australorp, white Plymouth Rock and then two fairly ordinary brown hens that I haven't been able to specifically type. I had them free ranging in roughly 0.15 acres in my backyard and never had a predator problem (despite living in hawk country).
They did a really good job of cleaning the yard and getting after the weeds, but wanted to pen them in to get back to gardening. Currently have them penned in a four-by-four-by-four cube of a henhouse attached to a 35 square foot run. Despite free ranging in my yard without incident for a year, I lost one to a hawk that found a week spot in the stand-alone two bird tractor I built (built to give them some relief from the same ground underneath their run).
What say you?
What do you have? Where did you get them? Eggs, meat or just pets? Feel free to post predator challenges/solutions, as well as any other tips.
I'll get it started:
I currently have four remaining (from an original order of five) pullets, just under one year old. All brown egg layers from an order I piggybacked from a friend. He ordered a brown egg laying sampler, and I'm pretty sure I have an Australorp, white Plymouth Rock and then two fairly ordinary brown hens that I haven't been able to specifically type. I had them free ranging in roughly 0.15 acres in my backyard and never had a predator problem (despite living in hawk country).
They did a really good job of cleaning the yard and getting after the weeds, but wanted to pen them in to get back to gardening. Currently have them penned in a four-by-four-by-four cube of a henhouse attached to a 35 square foot run. Despite free ranging in my yard without incident for a year, I lost one to a hawk that found a week spot in the stand-alone two bird tractor I built (built to give them some relief from the same ground underneath their run).
What say you?