Chickens in Winnipeg

There was an obnoxious discussion over on the darkside about allowing chickens in Winnipeg backyards. I was debating the issue with someone there before the darksiders banned me. I guess they don't like engaged debate.

Since we are a more welcoming bunch I'll invite the chicken debaters to join me here in that discussion.

I think they are too "chicken" to come over.

what's wrong with chickens in backyards?

I'm for it. As long as there are regulations/enforcement in place.

what the hell did they ban you for?

Anyway... just read through that fun little thread and I can tell you right off I am in fact an EXPERT on keeping chickens. Or at least as near an expert as you need when you are talking about less then 100 of them.
1) Chickens do not need a rooster to lay eggs
2) Chickens ( the domesticated kind ) would not survive in our winters if they did not have some form of chicken coup in which to warm up in. The fact that a chicken coup exists means its warm enough for them to lay eggs.
3) CHICKEN sh1t STINKS REAL BAD.. way worse then most dog or cat poop. Even having one chicken in a yard would make it uncomfortable for your nieghbours unless you cleaned up every day. The chicken poop is actually what contributes to keeping the chichen coup warm as well.
4) Hot and wet chicken stink real bad.. worse then wet dog.
5) Chickens will eat anything absolutely anything. They are omnivores just like humans. Depending on what they eat, changes the taste, smell and colour of the eggs. Them eating greens the eggs taste far better and are healthier for you then when they are simply grain fed.
6) IT IS A CITY!!!... I dont care what other backwoods cities are doing, inside a city is no place for animals raised for food.
7) Chickens make great pets. Mine used to follow me around the farm and even come every morning and lay a fresh egg for my breakfast in our porch. Her name was Martha. She lived to be about 12 years old.

So let's allow it in the suburbs only.

Deank wrote:
Her name was Martha. She lived to be about 12 years old.

Did you eat her?

I think that I dated Martha!

nope
after 7 years we moved away from the farm.. traded her and her sisters for some gooseberry bushes...the family that took her kept her for another 5 years when she died of old age and was buried.

Would a 12 year old chicken be too old to eat?

I think I am going to get a few chickens this summer.....

When I was a kid, we lived in the suburbs (of Gainesville, Florida) and we had 10 chickens.

As kids we considered them pets, but they were eating chickens (there's a difference who don't know between the kind raised for eating and the kind raised for eggs).

We had them for about a year, then gave them to a local 4-H farm (all but 3...we had eaten those).

The stink wasn't so bad, and obviously the weather was warm enough in FL for them...though I could think here they might be used to hide "grow-ops"...since what has flagged houses most recently has been the elevated hydro bills for they hydroponic equipment....they could use the coop heaters as an "excuse" .

FlyingRat wrote:Would a 12 year old chicken be too old to eat?

nope

its all the old "expired" chicken that they use to make soup and soup base that you buy in stores.... but to just "eat" well you could eat it... but like rosie it would be real tough and hard to swallow.

"(there's a difference who don't know between the kind raised for eating and the kind raised for eggs)."

real farmers use the same chicken for both

Goth_chic wrote:I think I am going to get a few chickens this summer.....

as funny as that sounds... there are actually places where you can buy "shares" in the stock. basically you pay the farmer a certain percentage up front to house the chickens for you and you end up splitting the chicken at the end of the year.

The farmer wins because your payment basically buys the chicks for both of you and you win because the farmer makes sure that the chicken make it until the end of the year for slaughter. It used to be more common in the cattle industry for the obvious reason of a greater return on the investment but recently I have noticed this happening more and more as city folk want "fresh" chicken meat that they knew where it comes from.

I was just reading about this on PopSci a few weeks ago I think, and went through a number of sites talking about backyard chickens. Quite a cult following. If you check some of the forums for backyard chickens, you will get some pretty detailed stuff.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/

Thought it was a cool idea.

Deank wrote:"(there's a difference who don't know between the kind raised for eating and the kind raised for eggs)."

real farmers use the same chicken for both

real farmers use the laying kind for eating when the chicken stops laying eggs, or it starts attacking other chickens.

in general though, most farmers would not eat the "laying" eggs, as they are typically too fatty...and the ones raised for meat quite often lay bloody eggs (as in blood come out when you crack them...not an "English" slang term).

My dad now has a farm in W. Virginia with nearly 100 chickens on it.
Of which, about 60 are "laying" chickens, the rest are for meat....though his wife won't let him kill any of them cause they are her "pets".
They do get about 8-10 eggs per day though...she sells the fresh eggs by the dozen to coworkers...at Walmart ).

heh. I know farmers that raise chickens for meat... then sell all the chickens at farmers markets and such .. and then go to the store to by chicken because it is that much cheaper...

so what did you post about chickens that got you banned?

Nothing really. Go see for yourself. Then you tell me.

LOL... so they never removed anything?

wow...hmmmm

whats this dark side that people always mention?

AdamX wrote:whats this dark side that people always mention?

It's where Darth Vadar resides. It is a very scary and unwelcoming place!

soooo....

my mom and dad live on a farm.... and its pretty damn easy to keep care of chickens...build a coop... feed them the weeds out of the garden.. or just build a mobile coop that you push around the field for them to eat the weeds and the bugs..and move it once a week....

How much would you pay for fresh chickens? They are about $10 a bird in the store... would you pay more then that? less?

how many birds would you buy? would you want to visit them?

AdamX wrote:whats this dark side that people always mention?

www.newwinnipeg.com

it was a forum that alot of us used to hang out on before the bloodletting of July/August 2008. Things got real stupid for a while and things were said and done that caused a number of us to go our seperate ways. Some people still post both places. Some people from there lurk here and some from here lurk there.