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 Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:07 am 
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Thinking about raising chickens. Looking into prices and breeds, as well as possible costs for putting up necessary fencing and long term care needs.

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 Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:18 pm 
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I had bantams growing up. They are fairly robust, have a fairly laid back disposition, don't take up much room, and their eggs taste pretty good. I would not recommend emus however.

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 Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 10:00 pm 
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Chickens aren't hard to care for. We used to raise them.

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 Post Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:06 pm 
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Apparently Bantams make fine pets for disabled children. How different are bantams as a species from other chickens? Could they interbreed with hens that aren't bantam? Because if a bantam rooster is more laid back and less aggressive than roosters of other breeds, I figure I'll get one and have it nest with hens from an assorted variety of species.

Currently trying to figure out how much square footage of fenced in area I'll need per chicken. Too many dogs and cats (not to mention foxes) in the area for me to let them roam free and forage for themselves, but I do want them to have enough land so that they'll be able to forage for at least some of their food on their own.

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 Post Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 3:28 am 
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OK, y'all had some different experience than I did. My grandmother had chickens including a bantam rooster. That rooster would attack given the least provocation. Such as turning your back on it.

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 Post Posted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 4:59 pm 
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Bet it would have made a fine dinner.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 12:56 am 
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Kajin wrote:
Bet it would have made a fine dinner.

Might have, that was many years ago, I don't remember.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 1:23 am 
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After further research, we had rhode island bantam chickens. I suspect lobos' rooster was some other breed. The big reason we went with rhode island bantams was because they can fly reasonably well, and so predators were less of an issue. If something carnivorus showed up, they booked it for the trees and rooftops, and so less fencing was required. They do tend to wander however, so of you're in the city, you will need to keep them under lock and key so they don't pillage your neighborhood for food.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 2:30 am 
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And that reminds me. If you have any greenery that you want to keep, keep the birds away from it. Chickens will destroy a lawn simply by eating it to death.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 12:36 pm 
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Okay, so I have to share a story from my dad's childhood. He grew up on a farm, and like many farms, they raised chickens. Being animals of little brain, they'd lay their eggs wherever they happened to be standing at the time and leave them there, so it was my dad's job to go around and collect them. One day, he came across an egg that was smaller than most of them. After examining it, his mom said that it was fertilized, but being so small, she didn't think the chick inside would survive. My dad offered to take care of it, so when it hatched it got special treatment. The chick grew into a small bantam rooster which my dad named Rufus. Despite his diminutive size, Rufus the Rooster was full of attitude, and the other animals on the farm would give way when he came around, even the cows.

One day, my dad was working outside when he noticed a chicken hawk circling in the sky. The other chickens quickly ran inside the hen house, but not Rufus. The hawk dived and struck Rufus, knocking him unconscious, then circled back, picked him up, and started flying with him over the cornfield. My dad ran after them, sobbing and crying out for Rufus.

Then suddenly, Rufus woke up. The chicken hawk went down in the field, and the corn stalks shook and loud squawking could be heard. My dad arrived on the scene to see Rufus standing on top of the chicken hawk, pulling out its feathers and pecking at its eyes. And then...

...then Rufus made the chicken hawk carry him back.

...

Okay, yeah, the story's bogus. Well, the end is. Rufus really did exist, he really was king of the farmyard, and he really was carried off by a chicken hawk, but he never woke up. My sister once shared the story as part of a storytelling activity in her second-grade class, and she had everyone (minus the teacher) believing that the story was 100% true.


Last edited by AlternateTorg on Mon Jul 15, 2013 5:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 1:09 pm 
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A similar thing happened to my Dad apparently. He saw a small hawk try to carry off an Opossum once, but the hawk ended up dropping it. Of course, we just live on a suburban cul de sac. I was happy for the Opossum, but Mom loathes the critters... (I have a rooster anecdote too, but it boils down to 'A rooster showed up on our street for about a week, then disappeared.' I say Rooster only because it crowed in the mornings. But Chickens crow too I guess, so I can't be 100% sure.

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