Ch-ch-chickens!

[layla]

... ow. Arms hurt. Feeling very wimpy now.

We built a chickenhouse on Sunday, and today I drove into town and picked up two chickens (a rooster and a hen) from a co-worker of mine who had offered them to us. (He had to get rid of the rooster because of housing covenants where he lives.) Hopefully they'll be joined by another chicken or two before the summer is out ... assuming we manage not to kill these two.




The basic chicken house, nice and tight to keep them from freezing into chickensicles.


Added a roof and a coop.


The rooster and his lady in their new digs.


Lucky is intrigued. So far, the dogs are being very good dogs and, while curious, aren't causing problems. I had to yell at Izzy once (I have no idea what happened; all I know is that she vanished from my sight and suddenly the chickens were kicking up a ruckus in their pen and Izzy came scuttling my way when I yelled at her, looking guilty) but ever since that fracas, the dogs seem to have written off the chickens as "crazy human things" and are mostly ignoring them.


Their very first egg in their new home!

Comments

[pamola.livejournal.com]

My wife will be so jealous. She wants to raise chickens, but as we are in town, it is against the law to keep domesticated fowl. She will keep helping out at the Wildlife Rehabilitator (can you believe someone in town government tried to say that the Pelican run contained domesticated fowl?) to placate her bird nuturing fantasies.

[laylalawlor.livejournal.com]

I actually got the birds from someone who has been keeping poultry in defiance of their neighborhood's regulations. The neighbors have been willing to turn a blind eye to the hens (Alaska is often pretty cool like that) but the crowing rooster was really too much to ignore, and had to go before someone called Animal Control on them.

It would be awfully cool if you were able to figure out some kind of compromise! I wonder if you could get away with having a few chickens of an ornamental breed and raising them as pets?