<p>Maybe there is entrepeneur oppotunity in AI of backyard hens. Does any one have a breed with friendlier roosters? Maybe there is a downside in flock protection. Here in Chicago, there are storefront places that butcher live poultry. Perhaps the answer to the oops rooster mixed in with your pullet chicks. Or buy started pullets.</p>
<p>My brother has chickens - and a rooster, but they have lots of land. Our town recently voted against chickens. The proposed ordinance would have allowed six chickens per household - no roosters, but they chickened out. (Pun intended.)</p>
<p>Dad became a backyard chicken lover late in life. Had about 6 hens and 1 rooster (plus two ducks). Yes, the rooster was a terrorist. Fortunately, he only crowed once a day, at sunrise. The neighbors in our modestly dense neighborhood weren’t particularly happy, but they never complained [out loud, that is].</p>
<p>Like a lot of neighborhoods with nearby woods, our area became populated by at least one family of fearless racoons. One by one a particularly fierce raccoon began to mutilate the birds. Our yard was not fenced in but Dad secured the chicken coop and it was my and job to round up the gals and the rooster into the hen-house, which they thankfully marched into without a fuss every day at dusk.</p>
<p>I want some chickens for my backyard but my husband said he NO because he knew he would be the one cleaning the coop.</p>
<p>Back when I was in hs biology, I brought home a leghorn pullet one spring. I happened to get a pullet chick when the chicks were passed out, they were supposed to be cockerels. She learned to chase my Dad when he was carrying a shovel to spade his garden. Then she lived on my uncle’s north suburban farm and laid eggs for four years.</p>
<p>Key West has a bunch of feral chickens and roosters. When I asked about them, a resident laughed and said there is always someone up at dawn hoping to shoot a noisy rooster (they crow ALL day long!)</p>
<p>DH was an entrepreneur from an early age. When he was really small, he would collect coke bottles and cans and turn them in for money. He had a paper route. When he was about 9, he saved his money and ordered a bunch of chicks in order to start an egg business. It’s a family story-when he got the chicks, they ALL turned out to be roosters. Poor DH.</p>
<p>Can’t wait for coyotes to take care of the rooster that is keeping me awake at this late hour! </p>
<p>Nrdsb, what a great story! Darn roosters, ruined your H’s chance to become another Warren Buffett. ;)</p>
<p>Bunsen, I’m no expert but it seems to me that if there were more hens around your neighborhood there would be less crowing by that rooster. LOL</p>
<p>Expensive, but I think it’s adorable: [Eglu</a> | Shop | Omlet US](<a href=“http://www.omlet.us/shop/shop.php?cat=Eglu]Eglu”>http://www.omlet.us/shop/shop.php?cat=Eglu)</p>
<p>There are ferral chickens here & there on our islands. The roosters do indeed crow whenever they get the inclination & it is maddening, especially for those of us who are light sleepers. I am NOT a fan. Makes me glad that someone or some critter managed so silence the rooster that found its way to our neighborhood. The crowing is rather piercing and can get old very fast, especially when it’s pitch black out and you’re tired.</p>
<p>I would love to raise chickens. But the wild turkey and foxes that frequent our yard might bother them, also my jack russell. I had a neighbor with chickens growing up. Chickens are very cool animals. These neighbors also raised pigs and that was fun, too, except when they ate them.</p>
<p>We have a much to urban a suburbs to raise animals other than perhaps very small ones that fit into a cage. Most lots in our neighborhood are 7500 feet or smaller. A friend housesat a place on 40 acres – he had 2 horses, some chickens, ducks, cats and dogs. If we had 40 acres, perhaps it would be possible.</p>
<p>Enough about roosters, the thread is about hens in the city/suburbs. Has anyone had a hen lay eggs more than four years? Has anyone ordered hatching eggs and hatched them?</p>
<p>We have friends here in NJ with about 5 acres. They have chickens and goats. A bear killed one of the goats and one of their dogs. That was really tough. Our lot is 2 acres and we could have some livestock but we are in an area with a lot of wildlife that would complicate it. I really would love to do chickens. This will be our first full year here in NJ and I am just bowled over by the beauty of the spring. Am understanding the whole “Garden State” thing now. There were some drab bushes on the periphery of our back lot that just suddenly burst out in outrageous yellow blossoms and have kept on blooming for over a month now. My first experience with forsythia. So far the deer have left it alone.</p>
<p>^This year the forsythia is particularly good - it is not always so nice. I don’t think the deer eat it (like they do to many of the things I have planted -even deer resistant varieties). I remember someone telling me that there were restrictions on chickens in one of the towns in Union county (although when I first moved there, someone kept a horse on a bit larger property). There are a few “vanity” farms around where I live now, and they have chickens, horses, pigs, and cattle from time to time. I am glad that they are not my immediate neighbors. If I got some chickens, my neighbors would “have a cow”, as Bart Simpson would say.</p>
<p>There are some amusing books to enjoy, in the quagmire of backyard chicken lit. I really enjoyed these. Backyard Chicken Gardens perfect for the armchair chicken person, too, The Feast Nearby locavore book with many recipes and Home to Roost, the NYT restaurant critic enjoys a chicken he didn’t know he needed. The technical info seems best covered by the Storey and Ussery books.</p>
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<p>Yes. Mine are about 6 yrs old and still lay eggs, although not as many.</p>
<p>BTW, we also have wild turkeys, and they don’t bother the chickens. Occasionally a hawk makes a pass at them…so far, to no avail. Foxes, on the other hand, killed three in two days. But for now the foxes seemed to have moved on.</p>
<p>Having hens lay blue eggs seems really popular. That seems silly when eggs are so easy to dye.</p>
<p>Actually, they aren’t just blue. They are all different subtle and lovely shades of blue and green, with some peachy tones thrown in. And the Aracauna-mix hens are very pretty: the same general pattern of feathering, but in different colors.</p>