tbred wrote:
...Okay, am I the only one wondering how a chicken works out in a trailer? Don't get me wrong Dutchmen, I have a few hens myself but can't quite envision taking them camping :@
OK, I'll go off topic here and try to answer your question.
When my daughter was about 10, she wanted a pet chicken. She used the excuse she wanted to join 4-H. So we ended up getting this little chick. We had no clue what (it) would turn out to be. You can't tell their breed and you definitely can't tell their sex either until it starts crowing, or not crowing.
Well, this chicken became the "pampered checken. When she was little she was in a bird cage. The bird cage turned into a dog kennel. The dog kennel turned into a dog run (chain link fence type), I built a cover over it. But in the winter, she was in the house. I used a big horse water trough from TSC and kept it in the mud room between the house and garage. She lived in the trough with the rabbit.
She ate at the table with us. She went in the bath tub with my kids (and me a few times too). She ate everything we ate, she went every where we went.
She grew into a fine lady, and started laying some mighty fine eggs too.
She did finally make it to the Indiana State Fair where she won 4th for Golden Lace Wyndott.
She went swimming with us, rode bicycles with us, she'd sit on my shoulder and we'd go for walks, we even took her to Dairy Queen (sat outside).
We carried her in a pet taxie when traveling. We put a cat harness on her, over he neck and under her wings and then attached a leash. I give her 20 feet of rope and let her scratch around the campsites, wherever we were at.
Mostly she'd want to sit on a low hanging tree branch near us and just sit and roost. She was very affectionate, very smart, very lovable. You'd never expect this from a chicken, but she really was much better than a dog (no barking, and no crowing!)
We put a premie diaper on her and let her free range in the hosue. We did this with our rabbit too. If she traveled with us outside the pet taxie, we always put a diaper on her.
She'd watch television, bump and and down to country music (really), she was a great watch dog. When she went into a panic, she'd flutter around. She was a good a watch-dog as our, dog nothing slipped by her.
She lived just a few days shy of her 5th (hatching), (birthday)? We did have a few other chickens after that, but they just never made the grade after her. "Shake" and "Bake" ended up go to my in-laws far because "Shake" started crowing and the city zoning officer pinged us for breaking the noise ordinance when he'd start crowing at 5:00 am! (really).
"Lucy" and "Ethel" (they were black silkies). Ethel had a head trauma which retarted her. Lucy was her companion and would help her around. But we left them outside in their pin one night and "Ethel" didn't know how to get back into her roost and literally died of exposure. Lucy went into deep mourning. That's when we got her "Shake" and "Bake" as baby chicks. She took right to them and she became quite the little mother, until "Shake" discovered he was a male and reached puberty, and then the crowing started too.
"Lucy" lived for about 6 years. She was old, frail, and wobbly. She just laid down in the grass one day and died. We were out of the chicken business then.
Freckles in her diaper:
Freckles 4th birthday:
