in regards to chickens

[ToniZoso]

hows it going.

well i just set up a huge avairy with one lorikeet, one cockatiel, 2 budgies, and a young pigeon, and they all get along fantastically :D
anyways i really want to get two small sized chickens (would love bantams :D) just to sleep in the avairy at night time, and they would be out roaming the property at day, and maybe be in the avairy on some days too (raining days). my bottom of my avairy i plan to set up with dirt and hay and everything to keep the chicken busy when they are in there.

but my questions are:
1. can i do this? mix chickens with other birds?
2. would bantams be okay to roost in the avairy (i have lots of various size branches in there)
3. are bantams suitable for an avairy, if not which chickens are? i would love to make a nesting box anyway.

i would like to have a small breed of chicken. but i dont know many. araucana hens small right?
i live on a 5 acre property so i plan to have my chickens roam during the day. hopefully my geese would leave them alone


advice please!!!!!!!

-ToniZoso~

[Ashling]

Well naturally, they wouldn't go very well together. Ashling chases my chickens lol. I guess if you got them as very young (day old) chicks and raised them in this environment, then it may be doable. But I really don't think it's a good idea. Chickens can have underlying illnesses that can randomly appear after a few years, even without any previous signs. Not too sure how transferable a few of these are to parrots or pigeons though. Also, the chicken poop would be horror to your birds noses. It blimmin STINKS! I don't know if ammonia would be an issue. Another thing is that chickens, while pecking around the ground all day, pick up all sorts of things from wild birds like worms, parasites, diseases and other such nasties. It would only be a matter of time before you'd need to treat them all, and this would be often (and costly). Chickens have a mean streak- some will eat each other alive. You can only imagine what could happen if one of your parrots got hurt or sick one day and had to land on the ground for a rest! Or even if they were just a bit too slow... Not to mention the poor chickens would get pooped on!
Aracauna's are quite small (and beautiful) but I think they can have a particular mean streak- that might just be my experience though. Bantams and belgian blues are small (I have a belgian and he is sooo sweet) If I were you, I'd just buy (or build) them a little coop. Much safer for everyone involved. I'll post a pic of mine- I lock 3 chickens and a duck (soon four chickens) in there from dusk till dawn. Then they have the run of the yard ;)

(Face off between Binx and the Raven that steals our eggs haha)


You should consider quails! They usually go fine with your kinds of birds, I have had those same species (cept the pigeon!) in with quails without a problem. They are quite similar to chickens- and they lay eggs you can eat :) They're just smaller, quiter and not so bossy!

[ToniZoso]

Frankie only chases my birds and cat to say "get away from me~!" and we've had chickens before, and i had one called pickle who was mine, and she got along with my budgies, but that was on thing i was a little worried about was if the chicken pecked the other birdies, but i was planning on having day old chicks.
if i got day old chicks, you said it would be doable, do you think if i put them in there and test runned it, it would be okay? and should i keep them in there from a young age with a heat lamp. or in a tank like i did with Pickle my old chicken

[Ashling]

I dunno I am pretty against the idea- you never know what could happen. I have seen a chicken pecked almost to death by another chicken; they were the same size. Also remember the stuff about diseases, worms, parasites, ammonia etc. I know that chickens can be carriers of Merrick's disease that can spring up suddenly without any previous signs (happened to me twice, both birds died after becoming paralyzed)... dunno if that can be transferred to parrots but I am sure there are other diseases that can be. Have a serious think about whether it is worth risking the others, cause a little coop like the one I have is inexpensive and could save you that worry.

I forgot, you'll have to quarantine the chicks for at least a month so that takes away their being able to bond with your birds as youngens. Unless you want to skip quarantine which would be very risky!!!

I say go for quails! I hatched quail chicks once who looked like brown cotton balls- they used to follow me around like I was their mother, eat from my hand, and snuggle asleep in my lap.

Ashling chases my chickens to preen them. She'll sit on their backs forever and just preen the heck out of them! Peanut sings to them :)