My husband has been bugging me for a chicken. I was thinking of getting him a coop and a couple of chickens as a combined Birthday/Father's Day gift. I would like to keep it small, no more than two or three hens. This would strictly be for eggs.

Are they very high maintenance (as I see the responsibility for said chickens drifting over to me)? Do they smell? Can you just buy a coop and set it up in the backyard?

The coops seem to range greatly in price, but I found a nice one on Ebay, and the chickens themselves seem inexpensive. I was also thinking of checking the local animal shelter for a rescue chicken.

Any thoughts or advice?

I got a name for your chicken ..... Parmigiana.

You MUST see "The Egg and I". It's a wonderful, old-fashioned comedy (with Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray) as city folk who buy an egg farm in the country. Hilarious comedy shines with Ma and Pa Kettle.

SB, try a feed grain store or Western-type supplies store (if you can). One of the latter out here sells live chicks and has everything else. Tben again, I'm in rural Arizona...

Why do I hear the theme from "Green Acres" playing?..
SB - first of all, check the local city/town/county ordinances regarding the keeping of "farm type" animals on a residential property. Each province differs - also, neighbors may be bothered by the noise & smell even if it is legal. (Yes, there is a smell that comes with raising chickens... granted it is not as bad as having a pig, goat, etc. but there will be a change of air quality around your yard.) Also, hens are known to be, forgive the term; "bitchy" with other hens and could peck/fight to a point where one of them is tore up - warm up the deep fat fryer because sometimes they bicker to the point that one gets beat up pretty bad and needs to be put down. So, find a couple that gets along very well - you do want about two chickens... usually, more than 3 will promote the pecking/fighting.
The upswing is that my wife does buy fresh eggs from some locals with chickens around here and they are amazing! You can definitely taste the difference and the quality is outstanding. Like everything, they will require some TLC but pretty much chickens do take care of themselves. BTW - Mrs. Mark says that if a chicken is the ONLY thing your husband is bugging you for - she wants to know your secret!!! Good luck!

A good friend keeps about a dozen chickens on his property. He gets eggs and butchers them occasionally. His wife also makes sure they hatch some. They live on a busy suburban street and the chickens roam around the yard frequently, ignoring everyone around them. They seem to get along with the dog and cat too.

Contrary to popular belief, there's not much smell or mess (unless you neglect to remove the rotten eggs) from a small number of chickens, and you can raise them practically anywhere. It's not a money saver if you're raising them for meat, but you can save on eggs if you're willing to put in the work and you go through a lot of eggs.

SB, You might want to check with the Town of Clarkstown as to the ordinances related to livestock or the keeping of animals. You might not be permitted to keep chickens.

Are you saying that SB might run afowl of the law?

Yes, he might fowl-up.

Wish I could help you out SB but I know nothing about raising chickens. I love a great chicken dinner though; for the most part, dislike chicken shits yet I was around when they did the Funky Chicken. Other than that, I don't know nothing.



TIS

Apparently, it's perfectly legal to have a limited number of chickens. And we see so little of our neighbors that we're convinced they're in Witness Protection.

When I was about five, we had a chicken that I named Chicken Licken (yes, five people and a chicken in a four room apartment). When Chicken Licken got a bit bigger, she tried to peck my eye out, so my parents shipped her off posthaste. When I told my husband this story, he said that it was because I lived in the Bronx then, and had a city chicken that was probably in a gang and had tats and wore colors.

Anyway, my kids think I'm nuts for even considering this. When your kids think you're crazy, is it time to re-evaluate a decision?

True story:

Years ago my MIL went to an acquaintance house for some reason. She knew the lady, but not well and I don't recall why she went. However, she came back and told the family how this women had a pet Chicken loose in the house, not in a cage but loose like a house dog. LOL Kind of distracting trying to have a conversation with a chicken walking around. Far different than raising chicken.




TIS

I understand that Rise of the Planet of the Chickens is being planned.

I can't remember where we kept Chicken Licken. There wasn't much room in our apartment for the people, much less a chicken.

Thanks for all the input, everyone. I'll let you know if we go through with it!

Chicken Licken...great name!!

Good luck SB. Only advice I could give is get as much info as possible and make the decision.



TIS

Sage advice from our wise TIS (and sage is a great seasoning for chicken).

I am rather surprised to hear that keeping a few fowl is legal where SB lives; I thought the area wasn't considered "rural" enough. Just goes to show how little I know about such matters.

But, doesn't one need a rooster to eventually have eggs? City Boy that I am, I would imagine that one does. Of course the noise from said rooster will definitely not endear you to your neighbors.

Yeah, as the movie said, "I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no chickens!"

I'm probably more suited to... well, you can figure it out.

Signor V.

SV, Actually you don't need a rooster. You only need a rooster if you want more chickens. Since we want unfertilized eggs to eat, just hens is perfect.

When we first moved to California in Santa Ana, our neighbors next door (residential area)had a rooster. It use to piss me off cause it's start "cock-a-doodling" at daybreak and ALWAYS wake us up. No, I never reported but should have. It was annoying. Fortunately, they got rid of the Rooster, but kept the chickens. They weren't as hard to take.


TIS

Y'know, somewhere deep in the back of my mind, I thought that might be the case, but, honestly, I have to admit I wasn't really sure. Embarrassing to confess, I don't know much about chickens and roosters.

Except - I do have this rooster joke:

A farmer decided it was time to increase the number of chickens, so he got himself a rooster to handle the necessary chores.

However, after turning the rooster loose in the barnyard, he noticed that, after amorously pursuing every chicken in the hen house, it started turning its attention to all the other animals on the farm. The horses, pigs, etc., were none too pleased with this. The farmer warned the rooster, over and over, telling the rather overheated bird that he would wear himself out and fall over dead if he didn't ease up on his sexual escapades. The rooster, of course, ignored him.

Several days later, the farmer was walking near his barn when he noticed the rooster lying flat on his back, motionless in the field. Buzzards were circling overhead.

Walking over to the rooster, the farmer sadly shook his head. "Didn't I tell you?" he said, "Didn't I say that if you didn't stop, you'd kill yourself?"

The rooster opened one eye, pointed skyward and whispered, "Ssshhhh! Buzzards!"

Believe it or not, it was similar for me in Brooklyn! We first moved into Sheepshead Bay in 1955 when there were still a few farms around. There was one across the street from my co-op until about 1958 or so and my earliest memories include those of being awoken by a crowing rooster every morning.

Hard to believe that it was Brooklyn.

Ha ha ha ha!!



TIS

SC,

This rooster lost sense of time or something, after a while. After a while, he'd start up in the middle of the night or odd hours of the day. It was middle of night, early a.m. hours that pissed me off. Like you say, I thought OMG, A rooster, in the city?

TIS

All this chicken discussion prompted me to remember my dad telling me that one of his jobs as a teenager was to kill chickens. If I remember correctly, he told me he did it by breaking their necks.

I had a rooster and a steer, but I guess you don't want to hear a cock-and-bull story.

Ha ha ha ha!!! Very clever.



TIS

... and I thought lawyers were humorless.

Many don't know, but the real job of a geek was to bite a chicken's neck (in a circus act) until they were dead.

Or, bite the head clean off. (This was how I first heard it described.) Probably why I made it a point to avoid circus sideshows.

Geek

Signor V.

Well, I was gonna saw I'm a geek for not knowing what an "actual" geek was, but never mind. I mean what kind of a geek bites a chicken neck?



TIS

I never knew what a geek was either.

My friend with chickens kills the ones they're going to cook by shooting them in the head. Quick, efficient and painless. But I don't think it's saving them anything, The chickens are not as plump as afarm raised chickens, which are inexpensive, and there's a lot of work in skinning and butchering a chicken of your own.