Last Updated: 5/22/22

I have divided up the information on my chickens into these sections:

My Chickens Part 1:

• Starting Failures
  
• Salt, Pepper, and Henrietta
  
• The Death of Henri Number One
  
• Clarice
  
• Henri Number Two
  
• Salty's Bumble Foot
  
• March Massacre - hawk attack
  
• Junior

My Chickens Part 2:

• Sugar and Spice
  
• Baby Beebee
  
• Poulet
  
• March Massacre Revisited - fox attack

My Chickens Part 3:

• Pondet
  
• Pondet's Family and Loss
  
• An End for One and a Beginning for Four
  
• Clash of the Titans

My Chickens Part 4:

• Pondet Broods Again
  
• Additional Small Updates
  
• Pondet Broods a Third Time
  
• The End for Pondet
  
• Phoenix Never Rose
  
• Too Soon Petunia
  
• Mr. Speckles Too
  
• The End

My Chickens Part 5:

• A New Beginning
  
• The Eggs
  
• The Hatch
  
• The Chickweeds
  
• Eggs!
  
• Saddle Time
  
• Brooding
  
• Chicks

My Chickens Part 6:

• Ten Chickens!
  
• Chicken Soap Opera
  
• Blood Brothers

My Chickens Part 7:

• Blood Sisters
  
• Ariel's Prolapsed Oviduct
  
• Billie's Ascites
  
• Lame Iris

Cage

Photos of My Chickens:

• Photos of My Chickens - 2001 to 2003
  
• Photos of My Chickens - 2004 to 2006
  
• Photos of My Chickens - 2007
  
• Photos of My Chickens - 2008 to 2015
  
• Photos and Videos of My Chickens - 2018 to present

We have one living chicken and had thirteen others that are deceased (not including embryos!).

Bird Videos Page - includes chicken videos of Salty and Beebee, Chickie and Pondet, and more.

[Note: The chicken house and run were renovated in 2018. See Chickentopia.]

The chickens are in the former turkey cage. My turkey cage is actually two cages. The older one was just an enclosure below a playhouse so that we could keep quail for a short time before release. It is 6'x6'x6'. The addition is 14'2"x8'x8'5" high. The height allows flying and me not to hit my head. A large black cherry tree goes through the roof. On two cut off branches in the cage, a board was nailed.

During the summer of 1998, my father replaced the big pens' chicken wire with large holed PVC wire. He also enclosed the small pen with rabbit wire windows and plywood. A slanted roof with shingles covers the top while the floor is still dirt. The height inside the small pen is now closer to 8 feet (it was 6 feet). I can close animals into the pen during bad weather.

When the chickens were added, a few changes were made. A PVC nest box was mounted in the small covered area. A tree was nailed in the covered area as a perch. One inch chicken wire was added on top of the large-holed PVC wire around the bottom two feet of the large pen so the chickens cannot stick their heads through, and so predators cannot break in as easily.

Both Henrietta and Salty laid their eggs in the turkey nest box. They showed no interest in the chicken nest box. Pepper also crowed from the top of the turkey nest box.

By 10/30/01, all three chickens (at the time) roosted in the 6'x6' house. Electricity was finally brought out to the chicken's home. An inside light was installed (for people, not the chickens). The chickens now have a 100 W ceramic heat emitter suspended over their roost. On cold nights now, I close them in once they have gone to roost and turn on the heater. I reverse this in the morning. The emitter does not get that warm except near it, even though the doors are shut, and the windows are covered for winter (one has plexiglass, the other three have plastic which lets in about 40% of the light). It does not give off light so the chickens can sleep soundly. I also bought a heated dog water bowl which was needed by late December.

For more information on the chicken's house and photos, go to the bird shelter page.

See my chicken predator page for predator-proofing tips that we have since added to the chickens' pen.

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