Whole lot of clucking going on in minot

[lunkerslayer]

https://www.kxnet.com/news/local-ne...ck-at-city-council-to-have-backyard-hens/amp/

 

[tikkalover]

I wonder if these people know how expensive it is to own chickens.
Have to build an insulated chicken coop, heat it in the winter, buy the chickens, buy feed all year, water every day, plus having to find someone to take care of them when you want to go somewhere longer then 2 or 3 days.
All for a few eggs and chicken wings.
I can already see chickens crammed into a plastic dog kennel freezing in the winter.

 

[lunkerslayer]

Yeah the permit is for a max of 4 chickens bud and believe it or not as long as you have a well insulted coop those chickens will fine. If they got a 10 pound self feeder and an automatic water they could be set for 2 or 3 days. There is so much stuff now for raising chickens it's almost like have pets ridiculous

 

[eyexer]

I don’t think you could raise enough eggs to pay for all the stuff you need. That being said you’ll have eggs when the store doesn’t

 

[NPO_Aaron]

I'd like to be able to do it so I can teach my kids how to raise food. The way I see it, if i don't teach my kids to grow vegetables, hunt and raise animals for food, I failed to give them an essential life skill.

 

[1bigfokker]

Chickens=rats

 

[NPO_Aaron]

Chickens=rats

Oh no, I’m not falling for this again. I spent years looking for wild rat eggs. Fool me once..

 

[shorthairsrus]

Costco 5 dozen. 15bucks

 

[shorthairsrus]

Prices coming down fast

 

[Icumpd]

Wait it says I can have 6 dogs

 

[NDbowman]

I think they all forget about the chicken shit and the flies that will come with it. Chickens don't belong in town if your neighbors are close.

 

[NPO_Aaron]

I think they all forget about the chicken shit and the flies that will come with it. Chickens don't belong in town if your neighbors are close.

You are going to freak out when you hear how much dogs shit... It's like, alot.

 

[KDM]

Everyone should have a few hens in the backyard IMO. It's stupid easy to build a mobile coop out of free pallet wood and a couple yards of chicken wire. Move the thing every couple days and the droppings won't build up enough to smell or draw flies. Four hens will eat about a cup of food per day combined. A 50 lb bag would probably last a bit more than a month if you fed nothing but store bought food. With four hens, depending on breed, but say a leghorn or isa brown, you could count on an average of just over 3 eggs a day. A bag of feed is around 18 bucks. In winter, newspaper on the bottom of the coop covered with an old blanket will keep them warm enough if you add a standard lightbulb to keep them laying thought winter and it takes about 20 seconds to clean up and most of the time that's free as well with junk mail. To cut food costs a guy can buy a bag of cracked corn for 8 bucks and double the time between feed purchases. Essentially you can look at 25 bucks worth of feed for 2 months. Longer if you feed your chickens your table scraps. They will eat EVERYTHING, including pick the bones clean. In spring, summer, and fall you will cut your feed costs in about half as they will eat the grass and bugs they find on the lawn. You will find that you can't eat all the eggs you will be getting so if you sell them to neighbors that cuts costs as well. There are plenty of ways to spend more money on chickens, but at that point they are more pets than livestock. Just some thoughts....

 

[johnr]

I sure hope my neighbors don't add chickens to the neighborhood.
Plenty of country houses out there for the folks that want to play farmer.

 

[Allen]

I had chickens for around 10 years, I think we started with about 20 hens and a couple roosters. It was fun at first, then just fine, but eventually the kids and I slowed our egg intake and they just became more work than fun. 20 hens in their prime lay a lot of eggs, so even though the kids and I were eating 4+ dozen eggs a week, I was constantly giving them away. Then as the number of birds fell (dog, bird flu, whatever) and they got older, by the time we were down to 6 birds, the juice just wasn't worth the squeeze. Which means I can't imagine any scenario short of nuclear war where I would want to have 4 chickens.

I do miss having them to toss table scraps to. Always amused me as they fought over noodles, old bread, whatever.

 

[espringers]

i got no skin in this game. but, the DL city council is working on some parameters and for the life of me, i can't understand what the opposition would be. i've come up with a few reasons folks might not want them in town. but, there are 10 answers to every concern. anyone?

 

[5575]

I'd like to be able to do it so I can teach my kids how to raise food. The way I see it, if i don't teach my kids to grow vegetables, hunt and raise animals for food, I failed to give them an essential life skill.

Couldn't agree more
Grew up in single mother poor home.
We moved into town after the divorce, 4 boys grades 1-4. First thing mom did was help us build a pretty large chicken/rabbit coop.
Killed and ate allot of rabbits through school, learned to skin and tan hides at a young age as well. Also had a trapline I'd check every morning before school a couple miles from town on foot pulling a sled. Wouldn't trade those days for anything, mom was raised reservation tough.

 

[Kurtr]

Chickens are hell on mice i would rather have them around than a cat

 

[lunkerslayer]

My roommate who also went to school at Moorhead for construction management when I went to Detroit Lakes, he wanted to design chicken coops for urban dwellers. The design of the coop was in the shape of a gazebo so the chicken eggs were accessible from the outside and the design was appealing to the neighbors. I haven't talk to him for years since he moved to the cites after college I bet he wishes now he started building those gazebocoops.

 

[Allen]

i got no skin in this game. but, the DL city council is working on some parameters and for the life of me, i can't understand what the opposition would be. i've come up with a few reasons folks might not want them in town. but, there are 10 answers to every concern. anyone?

I think the biggest two arguments against having chickens in town are:
1. Someone is going to think roosters are fun. They are loud, obnoxious arseholes. If they can get away with it they'll be chasing someone's kids down the street.

2. Dogs, especially hunting dogs, will feel like they need to break the rules to go harass the chickens, even if they are in a chicken tractor. I'd suggest there will be more neighbor conflicts as chickens bait dogs into bad behavior. Heck, my dog has spent almost his entire life around the chickens and for the love of all that's holy, I can't break him of killing them. He won't bother them when I'm around, but if we're all three (dog, chickens, and I) out in the yard...it's just a matter of time before he plucks one. I was able to train my earlier GSPs to leave them alone, but Reckless is an a-hole to chickens by birth.