# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Livestock and Animal Husbandry >  I got me some ChICkeNs!

## Willie

I finally bought some chickens. Ive always wanted some but my wife never did! Well this year we went to Tractor Supply for dog food and the wife said look how cute they are. She picked out the six that she wanted. They have grown alot since we got them. I had to build a pen 12'X12' 6' tall. And had to build a house for them too. Now I need to build some nesting boxes and atach them to the house. 


Willie

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## Rick

Well, hey! Willie Chicks. Be sure to put a bed in there ... just in case you wind up in the dog house...I mean chicken house.

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## crashdive123

Fresh eggs....yum.

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## jake abraham

fresh eggs & drumsticks yum

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## Chris

it is amazing how chickens have become more popular. I think there are like 6 houses on my block with chickens now. 

A few of them give them free range of the entire (chain link fenced) back yard, I imagine the wings are clipped? What about the neighborhood cats?

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## angelhelpreiki

Sure wish we could have chickens here.

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## finallyME

You got about 6 months to worry about nesting boxes.  My wife didn't want them either, until I took to the farm store and let her pick out the ones she wanted.  Of course, she wants the expensive Auracana with the colored eggs.  Anyways, great looking house they got there. 

Chris, domestic cats are too small for a full size hen or rooster.

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## shiftyer1

I've lost a couple hens to my yard cats.....not very often though.  I have lost pullets and chicks very often.  Becareful,  I started with 6 hens,  then I needed a rooster,  then 6 became 12 and 12 became 24 :Smile: 

Mostly because they make me laugh and I like to give eggs away or sell them.  In about a month or so my dog will be getting omelets pretty regular.  I'm starting all over from scratch after critters got all but 1 banty hen.

If you want to keep them in a fence for semi free range make sure you clip wings.

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## shiftyer1

Those brown ones look like production reds or maybe hyline.  I have some of them also and expect them to be THE most dependable layers,  from past experience.

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## LowKey

Always had RI Reds.
You are in for a world of hurt if the wife thinks they are "cute". 
Good luck processing those when their time is up.

Never lost chickens to cats. But the neighbors dogs were a different story. Had to finally keep the chickens penned up.

We're not supposed to have them where I live now. Neighborhood association crap. But I've started a rumbling with a few other like minds that perhaps the landowners not actually on lakefront should be able to have chickens. Give us a perk or two for the fees. They keep citing runoff polluting the lake. Maybe they should do something about the herds of ducks and geese living on the lake now. LOL.

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## shiftyer1

Yes dogs can be a problem,  I have a lab and sometimes something a chicken does just makes him go after them.  It's very rare because he's a very poor excuse for a bird dog or a retriever.  But sometimes it just clicks.  Around xmas I had a half dead half starved wiener dog kill 2 grown broilers I had for about 2 days.  He had to go thru hell to get here.  I think he also got my whole flock but have no proof.  He did have a good personality and I knew he was on his last legs so I didn't shoot him.  He did eat most of both broilers so I excused him because of hunger.  I kinda miss him,  he stayed for a couple months and got fat and spoiled and then disappeared,  I assume went off to die.

This early spring a couple bobcats erased my new flock.  So I started another with chicks,  It's addictive.  If you don't want to have to water them or feed them often you can make feeders or waterers with 5 gollon buckets with lids and an oil pan.  It's 85-90 degrees during the day and 60's at nite right now and I have 24 chickens.  The water lasts almost 7 days.  I assume when summer hits that will be cut in half.  Alot cheaper than buyin the fancy feeders/waterers.

After about three weeks all you need to attract or catch them is a 5 gallon bucket.  They come running from everywhere when the see you with a new one :Smile:

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## kyratshooter

I lost one last night.  I put 6 in the pen at dark and only got 5 out this morning.

Not a feather on the ground, no holes in the wire, just one less chicken than went in.

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## Rick

Aliens....Chicken eatin' aliens. Either that or an escape plan was hatched. Oh, brother! I slay myself. Get it? Escape plan hatched? Chicken?

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## crashdive123

Good thing you don't have cows.

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## kyratshooter

I got to scouting around latter in the day and found a couple of feathers.  Apparently the varmit crawled under the edge of the pen, removed one bird and left the others untouched.  

The girls have been in morning all day,  siting around dressed in black.

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## shiftyer1

Kyrat,  your birds look about the same age as mine give of take a week :Smile:   Although I have barred rocks, and reds.  I only got 1 black one and although I was after brahmas I don't think I got any.  Sneeking in and poaching one bird sounds kinda like a cat.

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## Cajunlady87

Chickens are a great asset if you're allowed to raise them.  I have a small flock of seven hens and one rooster.  Hopefully one of the hens will start setting on some eggs soon so I can restock the flock and butcher some of the older ones.  I'd buy more but only as a last resort as the price of one chick has almost doubleld since I bought these.

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## kyratshooter

> Kyrat,  your birds look about the same age as mine give of take a week  Although I have barred rocks, and reds.  I only got 1 black one and although I was after brahmas I don't think I got any.  Sneeking in and poaching one bird sounds kinda like a cat.


I have been thinking the same thing.  We have two neighborhood cats that roam freely and hunt constantly.  I am hoping that when the birds get a litle bigger the cats will not be such a worry.  I would really hate to have to take them out due to them also keeping the rodents of the area in check.  

I placed barriers over the place where I think the critter entered the pen and as of last night the baricade seems to have worked.  If it had been a coon or most other critter they would have tried to move the rubble I used.  A cat would just take a look and go away. 

I love to watch the birds.  Their instincts are so well defined even from the day they hatch.  These girls are 7 weeks old, big enough that they are roosting now.  They line up on their pole inside the chickenhouse with the little rooster standing guard next to the door.   

That picture was made while I was trying to work on th eporch project.  They wanted to be right under my feet the whole time.  The rooster, his name is Butch, he is the yellow one, has decided he is my buddy.  When I am working he wants to supervise.  I never had a pet chicken before.  I feel like Tommy Smothers.  I hope these girls get big enough to pull a cart before gas prices go up any more.

It will be August before I get any eggs.  Fortunately I have a neighbor that has chickens going at full capacity.  I am buying eggs from her and I eat a ton of them.  It is common for me to consume 5-6 eggs a day.  That is why I bought these girls.

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