Oh man it has been a long time since I heard ‘Dubia Roaches’! We used to raise and sell them at the Mom and Pop Pet/Garden store I worked at. I love them creepie crawlies! The crickets would smell pretty bad though.
I’ve raised mealworms above my kitchen fridge for three years. 
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ive raised all 3. roaches are the easiest. id feed them flour and carrots for a water source. cheap and no smell.
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Well, I hope I have the one who has eaten all my chicks and killed an egg layer too.
I like O’possums. I feel like city possums are different than country possums. Mean, if you want to put it that way. Brazen, too.
He was relocated. I was nice.
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Because of concerns of avian flu (snow geese were determined to have died of it about ten miles away in 2024) and some other factors, we started fencing in chickens and ducks for other than short periods of time for the first time. We have been letting them free range with very little loss from predators for a couple of decades. There have been no cases of avian deaths from avian flu near here in over a year, and the Canada geese that raise families in our pond every spring have departed, so, about a week ago, we let our birds free range again. They are happier and have an improved diet. We’ve reduced the amount of feed we give them, and egg production has increased.
Some small farms that raise chickens for commercial purposes are actually free range on a few acres.
I don’t know how people can live treating their animals like that.
Not chickens, but i fed and watered the neighbor’s geese and ducks today. The turkeys told their friends and so everyone was here 
I know, it’s a hot mess and i ended up with heat exhaustion today trying to keep them all safe and I’m my backyard. My new neighbors aren’t very nice to them or any animals that I’ve seen, including my own dogs. Their owners are on vacation and the guy taking care of them have been a bit careless.
Next year i plan on getting some ducks and maybe chickens. Still trying to figure out my future setup.
Also any chance anyone knows what these brown ducks are? They’re gorgeous.
Except the turkeys, these guys haven’t messed with any berries except the ones i gave them. They’ve mowed down my clover in the back though but i don’t mind. The way I see it, I’d want whoever to be kind to my animals if they somehow escaped. So I’m spoiling these guys as if they were my own. I’m just not ready for the poop load yet.
Apparently my dogs are like me as well. Chronos and Rhea loved chasing them but couldn’t care less after capturing them. Chronos was so gentle with the geese he caught as well. This is the same dog that grooms stuffed animals so it makes sense that he would groom the geese lol. Rhea even likes just watching them as well.
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@Melon Some kind of runner duck I’d assume. I’m no expert though.
I do like ducks though, more personality, gentle, and less destructive. They eat slugs when our chickens do not. They also have the potential to lay more eggs per year and are productive for more total years than chickens. They do seem to be messier and not as tough.
We have had Peking ducks, we gave them away, waaaayyyy too loud. Then we got Khaki Cambells. So cool! Very quiet and sweet. However, not that tough. They were taken by hawks within 6 months.
We have had very minor hawk issues with the chickens. One or two attacks in 8-10 years. Even then, the chickens survived, just a few feathers missing, no actual injuries. The ducks however…well…they were sitting ducks.
Our run is very large and it isn’t feasible to put a net over the top. It is important to provide lots of cover for the birds to keep them safe.
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If anyone is interested in the possum tick myth
Ymmv though.
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I have to limit myself to 6 cluckers, whether it be ducks or chickens because i don’t think i want to handle anything more than that
Found out they’re called saxony ducks!
I’ve been paying 8-12$ a dozen for the good, extra orangey yolk eggs lately.
After we get the privacy fence up, I’m going to start working on the poultry housing 
loving all the photos of everyone’s setup.
I’m in love with the duckies right now because they only ate the berries i gave them and didn’t try to destroy my plants. They did mow my clover though which is fine i guess. The turkeys broke a few things and cleaned me out of strawberries in my front area. They even ate the unripe green ones and they flew for raspberries. Found a ton of dead bumblebee carcasses 
so no turkey for me i guess. The ducks stayed by the water and didn’t go very far after i set out a tub for them. They did go home yesterday and haven’t returned though.
We have a bunch of Ravens that keep the skies clear. That’s also how we have so many bunnies as well
Hey all i raise Brahmas for eggs , cornish pure and red rangers . i cross bred the brahmas with a cornish roo and got some really heavy chickens with a lot of meat growth was slower then normal for the cornish but faster then a normal cornish . so I got myself some red rangers for food source crossed those with my brahmas and poof 15 lb chickens at 12 weeks . my fav breed is the brahma and I do keep some of them pure for eggs but the cross birds are freezer camp birds
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When we first got chicks through mail order, a male light Brahma was included. He got the name Poohbah. He developed the bad behavior of sneaking up on my wife and daughter and pecking at their ankles. He never tried to attack me. He became the first chicken I took an axe to and the first of our own chickens we ate. We haven’t ordered Brahmas since.
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I have never met a white leghorn who wasn’t a back flogger either. English game chickens etc will do the same. Dark cornish are more wild than tame and plenty ugly but very good chickens. I like the white leghorn for egg layers and dekalb hybrids. I dont eat chicken after years of eating it a lot. It is like rabbit to me sure if i was starving and weighed 100 pounds maybe but honestly i might as well skip the middle man and eat the frog or rattlesnake direct which i prefer in flavor. I was watching them eat mice, voles, rats, snakes , grasshoppers , small rabbits , bugs, worms , etc. for years and prefer fish over chicken. Turkey , pheasants, quail i greatly prefer in flavor. I like eggs fine from guinea, ducks and chickens. I have been told quail eggs are great also.
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i have a 1/2in scar on my right calf from a silver wynadotte roo named elvis. got me while collecting eggs. made the mistake of coming at me a 2nd time. elvis got his neck broke and in the pot he went. that wound took nearly 2 months to heal.
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sorry to hear that ive never had a mean brahma but there could be some ive had some horrible rirs and red rangers and i dont give it a second thought if in the middle of being attacked . i had one go after my niece still in diapers and killed it with out realizing i had it dead in my hands flopping . she was 3 feet away and laughing thank god she didnt know that was dinner that night
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Quail eggs are Amazing. fish eat all that meaty stuff too . i skip the eggs after watching my hens eat a rat mouse or snake . just for about 2 months LOL . i like rabbit and quail im not a fan of turkey . Pheasant is Delish.
ive had aligator snake and chocolate covered crickets and ants, they are ok but Iguana is delish try it . a friend wants me to try kangaroo and emu. she orders from a fancy company but i dont know if i could knowing what it was
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I want to try it all!!
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Summer coop is loosely based on a Conestoga wagon. I move it around all the weedy, burry areas I want to reseed. We have raccoons that dug under one year so I beefed it up. It’s heavy now, but doable. I can’t let the birds loose due to a cougar and several hawks that like chicken even more than the raccoons.
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well i usually only let my chicks free range in early spring when the snow still covers most of the ground. yesterday i decided to let them out. didnt take them long to dust bathe under 3 of my bushes , uncovering alot of roots. i wanted them to clean up all the fallen fruit and lower the bug load but i dont want them digging everything up. plenty of places to dust bathe but they have to do it under my trees and bushes. bird brains!
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They do love to do that. My chickens always hunted hard morning and night and rested and dust bathed in the hot afternoon. They would often think like us looking to get in a cool spot out of the sun.
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