Hi DW, will there be a tape or transcript for the people that would love to go but can't, lol
jolana

Jolanaweb,

Well that depends. Do you speak chicken?

cluck-cluck-cluck

That sounds like a total blast. I've always wanted a few chickens. One of these days. The guy down the street from us has them. He has them penned around his greenhouse. We buy eggs from him.
Tally HO!
Brrrkk-brrk-bbbrrrkkk
(does that sound chickeney?)

Cockle doodle doo!! :)

LOL! Sounds like a hen house in here! Okay, who let the rooster in the pen?

This guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, 'Doc, my brother's crazy, he thinks he's a chicken.' And the doctor says, 'Well why don't you turn him in?' and the guy says, 'I would, but I need the eggs.' Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships. They're totally irrational and crazy and absurd, but I guess we keep going through it because most of us need the eggs.
-- Woody Allen (Annie Hall)

No, but it sounds like you do, HAHAHAHA
Will you make a tape for me? JK
jolana

Knock, Knock!
Who's there?
Omelette.
Omelette who?
Omelette smarter than I look!

Someone's going to start chunking chicken bullets at you guys.

Lonny

advice? We have been keeping three egg layers since my son's FFA project ended. We will have to remove chickens in a few months. We have loved having them and they are just like pets to us. My problem, is I want to keep them. We are not allowed "poultry or livestock" in our deed restrictions. I can understand, and i don't want someone keeping roosters or 10 smelly chickens. But my 3 chickens are not smelly ( I clean up ) and they eat bugs and are quieter than most of the barking dogs in the neighborhood.
I have been thinking of keeping a stealth coop /rabbit hutch in garage. But my question is: has anyone taken on HOA to allow 2-3 chickens on sort of a probationary period? Where could I look for a place to rent at someone's property to keep them? I really want to keep at home, so I am really looking into rabbit/chicken hutch.

"Cluck cluck cluts!"
Translation: "Y'all are nuts!" *snicker*

I've had friends in your situation, Yummykaz, and they just kept them anyway, bribing the neighbors with eggs. They researched their HOA's procedures & found that someone would have to complain first, then a "cease and desist" letter would be sent before any legal action or fines were involved. If yours is the same, you may get away with keeping them for years before anyone says anything. Btw, my friends had a privacy fence and it helped a lot.

Hi knittlin.

Was the class cancelled today due to rain? It was raining pretty hard here this morning so assumed so.

Yummykaz I agree with knittlin. I'd think it really just depends on the neighbors and the annoyance level.

I doubt they cancelled, Dragonfly. It was supposed to be over by 10, & I think that's about when it started raining here. Judging from the radar, the rain hit there later. If they did get caught in the rain, they probably moved to the big tent up behind the butterfly garden.

I bet they all had a blast. Lots of customers were talking about it all last week.

Yummy,
Our HOA in League City would drive around once a month and look for violations. But it seemed to be things they could spot from the road. I never heard of them looking over fences unless it was something they could see from the road. Without neighbors' complaints, you might be safe.
The HOA in Ft. Worth had problems enforcing anything because they had allowed so many things to slide by. Seems newer associations tend towards strict enforcement.
Lonny

Lonny...Kitlin..thanks. I do have the wood fence so they would not be able to be seen. i just worry about one neighbor cause he is always in the backyard and I just about had to go to court on him and his barking all night dogs(they since have died from his neglect and he had new quiet dog). But my other neighbors are super sweet youngins and I just took them over some brown eggs that they love... I just hate breaking any rules, even if I think they are outdated.

my gals...

Haha! It seems this conversation is a national one. NPR's - All Things Considered - had a story on this very thing this evening.
If you missed it you can listen to it online or read the transcript here:

Backyard Coops Make Chicks Chic

All Things Considered, May 21, 2009 · Chickens aren't just for farms anymore. That's right  urban hens are hip. Across the country, city dwellers  attracted by the idea of having fresh eggs, a new hobby or even unique pets  are keeping flocks.

Allison Adams, writer and avid organic gardener, has a flock of seven hens in the backyard of her home in Decatur, Ga., not far from Atlanta. A few years ago, Adams saw an article about raising chickens and then approached her neighbor with the idea.

"I love fresh eggs. I love having fertilizer production right in the backyard, so I thought, 'Well, if it's legal, I should probably investigate it,' " Adams says.

Continued

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104304441

Here is a link that might be useful: NPR - The new trend - backyard chickens

Oops. Meant to include this link in my last post -

"The Chicken Whisperer" of Atlanta (blog & radio show):

Here is a link that might be useful: The Chicken Whisperer

Northaven Gardens in Dallas is having one this Saturday,
May 23 3:00 pm
Chickens Dan Probst, Bageniece Farms
Wouldn't you love to have fresh eggs daily? Dan goes over raising chickens, care and more. You'll also have the oportunity to purchase backyard chicken supplies, chickens coops and talk to Dan about purchasing his chickens direct. This is a program you won't find anywhere else in town!

Here is a link that might be useful: Northaven Gardens

I saw that, Dragonfly! Can't remember if it was online or TV, but I do remember hearing about that same chicken whisper guy & thinking how cool that is. All across the country people are getting into self-sufficiency & I love it.

And guess what?! I've got three new chicks! Four of my hens started setting a few weeks ago & they're hatching! Exciting stuff. :)!

Awwww.

That sounds like so much fun, knittlin. And aren't Yummykaz's girls beautiful! I haven't yet begun my own chicken family, but hope to soon.

Like so many would-be urban farmers (although now I'm getting countrified in my rural home) I'm a bit uneducated about it all still, so do need to attend one of the many classes offered or just read up on it on the internet or in a book. Of course I learn best by actually DOING, so don't expect to understand it all before I start. But, for instance, I don't know whether ALL eggs laid are fertile or just some of them potentially could hatch chicks.
How can you tell which are fertile and which are not?
And if hens don't require a rooster in order to produce eggs, then what IS the rooster's function?

I love the internet!
I googled 'backyard chickens' and found these great looking
sites on how to raise backyard chickens. And there are many, many more. Some even get into the economics of selling some of the eggs at a farmer's market, etc.

Jane's Backyard Chickens
http://www.janesbackyardchickens.com/

BackyardChickens.com
http://www.backyardchickens.com /

_________________________________________________________

P.S. - In answer to my questions above (about the function of roosters and egg fertility) I found this info online:

-- Hens lay eggs, whether or not there is a male around to fertilize the egg. Most of the eggs purchased at the store are unfertilized. Without a rooster, none of your eggs will develop into chicks. --

-- After a couple of years of trial and error we've settled on 8 hens and 2 roosters as the right sized flock for our household. The two roosters are important. While you don't need roosters for hens to lay eggs, they provide an important role in the social structure of the flock, and if you don't provide a rooster, one of the hens will stop laying, and start acting like one! Again, a commercial operation would cull her, and cull the next one that did it, on down the line. But we like our roosters, they're colorful and have neat personalities.

Our roosters have defended the flocks from dogs, led them to safety in a storm, and are downright colorful little personalities. However, they do crow. Loudly, and with style. Something which might not be appreciated by your neighbors. We treat our roosters like pets, and our pet roosters stick around for quite a while. --

__________________________________________________________

And here's one more great looking site -

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Chickens

Yes, Yummykaz's girls are quite beautiful! YK, are they a couple of Ameraucanas & a Rhode Island Red? Do they lay colored eggs other than the brown you mentioned? Pretty, pretty girls.

Chickens are so much fun, Dragonfly! Definitely get some if you can. We're close enough that maybe you can drive over to see mine & talk chickens with me sometime. 'Til then, Feathersite.com's Poultry Pages are a fabulous info resource.

That's interesting about a hen taking over as a rooster! I heard that last week from amother friend - hadn't heard of that before or encountered it since I've always kept a rooster. I'll have to ask my girlfriend who used to keep hens-only if she ever had that happen. Wild.

Yes, Yummykaz's girls are quite beautiful! YK, are they a couple of Ameraucanas & a Rhode Island Red? Do they lay colored eggs other than the brown you mentioned? Pretty, pretty girls.

Chickens are so much fun, Dragonfly! Definitely get some if you can. We're close enough that maybe you can drive over to see mine & talk chickens with me sometime. 'Til then, Feathersite.com's Poultry Pages are a fabulous info resource.

That's interesting about a hen taking over as a rooster! I heard that last week from amother friend - hadn't heard of that before or encountered it since I've always kept a rooster. I'll have to ask my girlfriend who used to keep hens-only if she ever had that happen. Wild.

Hi knittlin,
Thanks for the invitation. I'd love to visit you and your chicken family sometime. We'll pick-a-little, talk-a-little.

Hehehe...a reference to that scene from The Music Man when the women of the town congregate to 'discuss' the unscrupulous misdeeds of Marian....madam librarian.

"Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little
Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more...
Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little
Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more..."

Am I aging myself?

Mother Earth news had an issue on them earlier in the year also. The guy down the street still has his, I don't know what he did with them during Ike. He's on the backyard garden tour so I'll ask him then.
Tally HO!
(I have chicken lust!)

yea! On Sunday we got our first green egg!

Knittlin..yes you got it right. I bought the RIR about two weeks before she laid 1st egg. Ameraucuna I got around Jan 25th as a few day olds at Wabash in Houston

Beautiful, YK! Congrats! I can't wait 'til my Ameraucanas start laying. Exciting, isn't it?

Great, Dragonfly! Would you email me through the forum so we can talk about it? I didn't see a link to e-mail you on your page. I'd love to pick a little with you. Ha!

YK - Oh boy! Green Eggs and Ham for breakfast!

Knittlin, not sure how people from this forum have managed to email me. I just assumed my page provided an email link or something. Anyway, I'll email you when it looks like a visit would be possible and see if it works for you and your schedule. I think it will be at least a couple of weeks. Looking forward to pickin and talkin.