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Amy Robach
By Amy Robach
NBC
You have chickens?
That's what nearly everyone asks next, after they find out about our family pets. They just need to make sure they heard me correctly. Perhaps it's because I don't come across to most as a rural loving farm girl.
But you don't have to live on a farm to have chickens, in some places, you just need a little bit of green space and a tidy chicken coop.
To me, they're nearly ideal pets. They feed us, more often than we feed them! We have 2 chickens, Goldie and Paprika, and they each produce 1 egg a day, sometimes more.
Because there are just 2 of them, the chicken poop is not too bad, and we just sweep it into our flowering beds for extra fertilizer.
And best of all, because my oldest daughter has several pet allergies, they can't come in the house - they have their own!
They're really beautiful to watch roaming around the yard and they both run up to us nearly every time we go outside. The kids love them and can't wait to check for eggs every morning.
TODAY anchor Amy Robach likes her eggs over-easy.
Leave a Comment:
Chickens are great. I'd like to have them as pets too.
boy everyone is getting with the victory garden program... next step.. raising rabbits for an inexpensive, very healthy and delicious meat!
I have 2 chickens for pets. One is called Original and the other is called Crispy !
Reminds me of the guy I worked with who raised his own cow for meat. Called it "Chuck".
Yea I remember growing up in jersey, my parents had chickens, rabbits, jarred everything in the garden. Best eats around growing up. Back then seemed everything was hush hush, cause I guess it was embarressing to say we grow what we ate. Now everything is gourmet what we ate and grow 30 years ago people pay big money for. It's all the mixxed cultures being from all over the world, bringing it to the table. Lets eat
If anybody has chickens in an urban neighborhood like this, I have a question. How do you keep them in your yard without fencing? I live in the same sort of place, and I want to get chickens but I can't put a fence up and don't want to keep them in a coop all day.
It's very simple if you have some type of fence of reasonable height. Clip their flight-feathers! Then, no matter how hard they try, they won't be able to jump/fly over the fence. Of course, if you have no fence, its a good idea to not get chickens because my experience has been, they like to roam. However, they'll return to the coop at sunset.
I speak from experience. My mother-in-law, a native of Mexico, taught me a few things about raising chickens. My children loved helping me feed them, collecting the eggs, and naming them. We had a total of eighteen chickens, including a Bar Rock rooster.
I keep 20 chickens in a dog kennel, 20'x10'. They do very well in there. It has a tin roof to keep out predators and to keep the rain and snow off of them. They have a coop and nest boxes. I made a self feeder out of a large plastic trash can and they have heated water buckets in the cold weather. I get about 12 to 15 eggs a day. I don't keep roosters because I don't want them to disturb the neighbors. I have a large fenced yard, but I don't let them roam around in it. We have hawks and other dangers and chickens can get over a four foot fence. I have a variety of chickens that lay different colors and sizes of eggs. Once you get set up with them they are fairly inexpensive to keep. If you just want two or three chickens you can find a nice small chicken "tractor" that has a coop and a small run that you can move around your yard. I've seen them on e-bay, or if you're handy you could probably make one yourself.
I have chickens and a pig, my boyfriend loves' them. We made our own coop and pen for the pig. It took awhile for the pig to get used to the pen. The yard is fenced in and let them out everyday. The chickens and pig enjoy the vegetables and bread we give them. We pick them up from our local supermarket. We know a breeder in upstate New York if you are interested in more chickens.
I love my chickens!!! Their eggs are much fresher than in the grocery store, and they are very entertaining too. My chickens don't wander freely around the yard because of loose dogs, coyotes, other prediters,,,they have an outside pen with flight netting above so they can't fly out. I have 4 comets I call 'The Lennon Sisters' and two americana's called Terri and Denise. And a Guinea named Jenny, she is starting to lay white eggs. Chickens are inexpensive to feed too.
And a healthy chicken is very soft and cuddly. I also loved their contented clucking and "cooing" (not to be confused with a dove's cooing!) I do miss having chickens as well as the rooster's crowing. I once had a rooster that was as good as a clock, would crow on every hour and sometimes the 1/2 hour too! The eggs and pest control are great. Entertaining, useful creatures.
chickens and other barn fowl are very smart.
Don't forget they are a great & natural bug control too! They eat many varieties of insects and depending on the variety of chicken - tick & yellow jacket control as well! Granted if in a confined pen their range is limited, but if they are able to free-range as mine do they can cover a lot of ground and decrease the bug population tremendously!
Having lived in Miami, a third world country, and there are those who live there and try and keep chickens, in the city , including roosters, need to enter the 21 century. They wake you up at all hours, and are very messy. They like to travel outside their living areas, fly over walls, and generally are NOT city pets or animals.