I bought a paint ball gun for the ones that malinger around my house. My wife actually scored on one while I was last gone working on a ship. Pegged one right between the eyes with a rubber practice ball. Woot!
SFR Chickens..
- Thread starter Bhudda
- Start date
Sorta fishing-related
When I was a kid, our neighbor down the alley raised chickens and ducks for eggs and to eat.
I was down at their place one day goofing off with their son.
We went into the garage just as Norm, the old man was lopping the head off a chicken on a wood block. It escaped his grip and proceeded to flop around the garage floor headless for just a bit before it died, blood spurting all over.
Haven’t had an interest in raising chickens since then.
SF
I was down at their place one day goofing off with their son.
We went into the garage just as Norm, the old man was lopping the head off a chicken on a wood block. It escaped his grip and proceeded to flop around the garage floor headless for just a bit before it died, blood spurting all over.
Haven’t had an interest in raising chickens since then.
SF
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Banned user
Steelhead
When I lived in Washington, we kept chickens, and it was just about the funnest thing we ever did. Each chicken has its own personality, so it was like having 9 pets in the back yard. With 9, we got a half-dozen or so eggs daily, and those eggs are only distantly related to the eggs you buy at the store. the yolks are firmer, and more orange than yellow. I usually let them range freely in our small back yard, except the garden area - I only let them in the garden when the season was done. We had a big blackberry bush hanging over from the field behind us, and in the summer, while up on the ladder collecting blackberries for cobbler, jam, etc., I would give the chickens about half - they would scramble around to get them! they would eat the rind off a watermelon or cantelope until only a paper skin was left. They got most of our leftovers, vegetable peelings, etc., I retire in 3 weeks and we are going to move to a smaller place with a big enough yard (and zoning) to have a half-dozen chickens.
And something for the invasive mongooses to eat!
Breck
The Whisk(e)y Dick
We have 11 laying hens and a rooster (mixed breeds). Raising & keeping chickens has its challenges, esp trying to keep them safe from predators here in the hills of NW Montana. (Black & grizzly bears, cougars, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, wolves, weasels, birds of prey, skunks, etc). We managed to avoid loss due to predation so far, but lost 18/20 of our previous flock due to our neighbors' 2 dogs getting out and raiding our coop when we weren't home. Long story, but our neighbors are good people and made restitution arrangements, both monetarily and cleanup/disposal. It gets down to well below 0 here commonly in the Winter too. Keeping chickens alive when it's -30 can be tough. Despite all that, they're entertaining and endearing. Free range, farm-fresh eggs can't be beat either. I can't even eat a grocery store egg anymore. With 11 hens, even in the winter, we are up to our eyeballs in eggs. We've been pickling/canning the extras lately.
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DanielOcean
Fart! : )
My wife and I dream a lot about having our own chicken's one day.
Paige
Wishing I was fishing the Sauk
It was a special treat to help dad slaughter the chickens when I was young, I got a kick out of chasing headless birds around! It also got me out of going to church that I dispised having to go to!
When I was a kid, I was helping Grandma process chickens one time - I held them by the feet as Gram lopped-off the heads. One slipped out of my grasp and ran between the freshly-washed sheets. Gram shouted things in Croatian that I had never heard before . . .
B
bennysbuddy
Guest
that explains a lot
Gyrfalcon22
Legend
Someone dropped (abandoned) a young Bantam rooster a couple years back here on our rural road in the heat of summer. I fed him on the road, left water for him. I tried to catch him. He could fly as well as any forest grouse. I tried everything. If I tried a smelt net he'd fly off deep into the cornfields. He would be gone for many days and I would give up hope and figured a predator got him. Plenty of birds of prey here. Yet, he somehow kept showing up alive!
He eventually sort of moved in close to the food source-me ! He was near the garage safely, and avoiding the cats. He is tiny. About the size of a small a pigeon.
2 plus months trying before I finally caught him in late Fall with bad weather coming. He got stuck on my windshield wiper of my car with his spurs. He used to hop on the car and then fly to his favorite night perch.
Now, a couple years later, he is still here. He comes in every night in his nice size cage and spends his days in a large covered safety pen with doghouse and heat lamp. I feed him all sorts of vegetable treats. His favorite snack has turned out to be oatmeal cookies! He cackles with joy when I crumble some up.
Like others have said, they can have great personalities. This one is one tough bastard. He lives to attack me. He will fly to my arm if I slap on it. Like a falcon to a handler. He then bites me. I like his tenacity! He is a feather molting machine. Look at his spurs !!! Before I found he would fly up to me he nailed me with those sharp spurs when I would corner him. He is a little more docile..barely. Trimming his beak is getting easier.
I have tried to re-home him with no luck yet. If I cannot by late Spring I will give in and get some hens and let him live his life out.
Have not eaten chicken in 2 1/2 years since his arrival and may not again-although I never cared too much for it anyway.
Above: Spurs !!!
Below: his Jungle months, free
Below: Imprisoned and calling me out, or into his pen to battle
He eventually sort of moved in close to the food source-me ! He was near the garage safely, and avoiding the cats. He is tiny. About the size of a small a pigeon.
2 plus months trying before I finally caught him in late Fall with bad weather coming. He got stuck on my windshield wiper of my car with his spurs. He used to hop on the car and then fly to his favorite night perch.
Now, a couple years later, he is still here. He comes in every night in his nice size cage and spends his days in a large covered safety pen with doghouse and heat lamp. I feed him all sorts of vegetable treats. His favorite snack has turned out to be oatmeal cookies! He cackles with joy when I crumble some up.
Like others have said, they can have great personalities. This one is one tough bastard. He lives to attack me. He will fly to my arm if I slap on it. Like a falcon to a handler. He then bites me. I like his tenacity! He is a feather molting machine. Look at his spurs !!! Before I found he would fly up to me he nailed me with those sharp spurs when I would corner him. He is a little more docile..barely. Trimming his beak is getting easier.
I have tried to re-home him with no luck yet. If I cannot by late Spring I will give in and get some hens and let him live his life out.
Have not eaten chicken in 2 1/2 years since his arrival and may not again-although I never cared too much for it anyway.
Above: Spurs !!!
Below: his Jungle months, free
Below: Imprisoned and calling me out, or into his pen to battle
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When you buy chicks, even when they have been sexed, the sexing isn't 100%. We have ended up with a few roosters. Usually we give them away. When my kids were little they insisted on keeping one. It was a barred bantam cochin. When he grew up he got mean, especially in the spring. It got to the point that nobody would go into the chicken yard except me because he would attack. Normally he would leave me alone but sometimes he would rush me when I turned around and get me in the leg with his spurs. They went through levis no problem. We still have a hen that is one of his offspring. She must be about 11 or 12 now which is a record for me. She still laid an egg now and then up until the past year. When the rooster died she kind of took over his role. She started crowing and bossing the other hens around even though they are twice her size.
Breck
The Whisk(e)y Dick
We got lucky with Kobe. There isn’t a mean bone in his body. (He’s a good protector for the ladies though). If he does turn mean, I’ve got a stock pot with his name on it.
My mother in law had a pair of geese. They were fierce. She had a mulberry tree in the yard where the geese were. The geese were white and when the mulberries were ripe their faces would be stained purple and they would rush at me hissing with their tongues sticking out. She kept a stick by the gate to fend them off but they were wily.
