Congratulations Lisa on becoming a new chicken owner. Beware...they're VERY addictive. I started off with 6, and now have 850! Like you, I also started as a shepherdess, and still maintain my mixed flock who do great with the chickens. Anyway, stuff I wish I'd known when I first started..... Make sure your nest boxes are on your DARKEST wall, and put some kind of screening/curtains in front of the nest boxes (make sure they can still get in and have air). I just went through my drawer of old dark t-shirts, and cut those up, and stapled them to the front of my home-made nest boxes - worked a treat! Make sure your roosts are HIGHER than your nest boxes, and try and construct your nest boxes so that they can be closed up at night AND so that the chickens cannot roost on top of them at night. I did NOT do this, and my chickens roost on top of my first "efforts", AND inside them, leading to constant cleaning of nest boxes, to avoid filthy conditions. In another area, the nest boxes ARE slanted, but there is a ledge of 2 x 4's behind the nest boxes which they roost on, and somehow, poop lands in the nest boxes from the back - NASTY! Don't buy the expensive "Little Giant" water fountains - the "o" ring goes out rather quickly, so they leak out, leaving the chickens without water, until you figure it out! I've had better success with the one you flip over to fill, and screw on. Easy to fill, and no "O" rings to break. Put your waterers on blocks to keep them above the litter. Hang your feeders but make sure you buy ones that the chicks won't outgrow. Plus, make sure that your chickens have GOOD ventilation/air-flow to prevent ammonia build-up, disease, etc. Free-range when safe - but be sure to lock them up at night. It's so much fun watching them catch their first bug, etc. Good luck

. what more do you need? Well, according to some members of the city council and some people who have complained in the press, we also need to prevent our "itinerant population" (students) from raising them and to address the supposed problem that they're going to be abandoned en masse without care, and that they're going to bug neighbors and lower property values. Just because their complaints are unrealistic doesn't mean we don't have to deal with them :( I'm just concerned about what we've seen from the council so far. Of the 7-member council: ------------- Correia I don't know. My sister lived in a small town in Illinois and her neighbors across the street had chickens and they were kind of friendly, but I don't really see it in Iowa City. I'm sorry O'Donnell No. Champion I don't know. (several talking) ... Lombardo Where do you stop? What regulations, I mean, in terms of just legislating how to keep them(several talking) Wright The fact that it's relatively common, I think there are plenty of models that could be used out there. Um ------------- Then, from one of our local papers... Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey who said her grandmother owned chickens said she was not interested in supporting such a move because supporting local business leads to a more dynamic economy, but she is interested in hearing what others have to say regarding the matter. We have a weak mayor system, so Mayor Bailey is basically just another vote on the city council. The other two members of the council haven't really said anything that we've been able to track down that indicates his views. We have Wright seeemingly in favor; Correia, Bailey, and O'Donnell seemingly opposed; and Wilburn, Champion, and Hayek unknown (Lombardo was the city manager). That's not a good starting point, and we don't get to "negotiate" with them (at best, we'll get to speak our peace in front of them the session before the vote). Then they'll either vote it up or down. So, in our position, what would you do? It might not hurt to have educational workshops at your County Ag Extension office Hey, that's a good idea. We should give the ag extension a call and see if they'd be interested in that. I think that'd go over better than just requiring that applicants read a pamphlet.

As a person owned by 4 cats 7 cats if I count the neighbors cats (outside) I can attest to the truth of the Cat Rules. The only one that the cats have not done is drinking water from the faucets. But I do have a tabletop fountain that they love to play in and splash water all over the couch from. Tube mouse and hampering reading is a favorite of 2 of the cats.. one in particular does not stop with just capturing the tube mouse when he gets to the tube mouse he then turns his attention to shredding every tiny piece of TP all over the bathroom floor. Never a dull moment around here. I have some hampering going on right now..the TP attacker is walking back and forth in front of the monitor. Oh yah, it's time to feed them. SEE they have me well trained. :-) If I am a bit slow with the feeding he will go and recruit the "head butter" to climb in my lap and start with the head butting under my chin... OK OK... time for food, rubbing my chin,Pat

RachelEllen, I know you didn't ask me, and Maria's description is wholly accurate, but there is an easier way to pluck chickens if one is plucking several at a time: Put a steel drum full of water on a brick platform and arrange a torch burner beneath it so the water comes to a rapid boil. Grab a (freshly killed) chicken by the feet with some loooong tongs and dip it in the boiling water for a few seconds, then fire up your plucking machine! There are different configurations for plucking machines, but ours was a motorized horizontal cylinder with soft rubber fingers protrubing from the drum. One holds one's scalded chicken by the feet above the spinning cylinder and it ever-so-gently pulls all the feathers off as it rotates quickly. It's the only really fun part of the process to be honest. More than ten chickens can be plucked this way in the time it takes to hand pluck one. As for slaughtering your own chickens, it can be done quickly and with dignity by just about anyone. Your best bet is to ask someone who has several (get a referral from the place that sells you your chicks) that need dispatching and ask to come help/learn.