yep.

Brenda, that is a really good close up of chicken number four.

Beautiful hens! What made you interested in having chickens initially?

@Brenda: Love the last picture. :P

Nope.

I had a friend who raised chickens. She became remarkably attached to them. They have definite characters - and all the sayings such as Home to Roost, Mother Hen etc all seem to play out. There is a pecking order! They were brilliant at getting rid of slugs and their eggs were delicious. She used a hutch called an eglu!

Great chandelier in the chicken coup!

By-law here doesn't allow for raising livestock and my cats wouldn't allow it either

I don't, but someone near me does. I know this because the roosters make their presence known at 4 a.m.

My sons school is now keeping chooks. It's great for the kids to learn, they need to let them in & out and change their water etc. on the weekends a family needs to come by the school & do ' chook duty' ! You get to keep the eggs and get rid of your scraps!

The neighbor's chix swing by for snack time as they know I keep a jar of peanuts and cereal handy, and they always crash a party looking for handouts. I call them the cats of the bird world, because they're all friendly until they've been fed, and then they just leave.* But they're always welcome back -- except perhaps for the mushy little dumps they sometimes leave behind on the lawn. @:>

We have "ChicKeRs" to the east, "PacKeRs" (alpacas) to the west. The PacKeRs have had multiple sets of guiney hens to help with ticks, but the coyotes and foxes seem to always get them. They're shy and noisy, but fun to have around. And I'm always delighted to find a beautiful feather.

Brenda, love the ChicKeR selfie!
*I know, I know, not all cats do that. But so many do!

I just have hens -- no roosters. And the hens make A LOT more noise then I was expecting. One of my hens has decided that she owns all of the nesting boxes (where they lay eggs) and struts around screaming when any of the other hens try and use them.

But other then that they are a lot of fun, they get along great with my cats, and the eggs are de-lish!

I did loose one to a fox a few months ago ... I let them out to free range in my yard and garden for a few hours each day. I usually make sure I'm going to be out doing yard work while they are out, but got a bit careless one day and paid for it (with my favorite hen, Tilly).

Aw, sorry about Tilly. My SIL in RI gets so attached to hers, and has been devastated by hawk and coyote visits to her dear flock.

... no other chicken peeps here on houzz? ...

I don't have here because we are not allowed. Where I grew up, we had chickens, roosters, ducks, geese..the whole farm:) I am looking for a place nearby where I could have some chickens.

I don't have them now, but I grew up with chickens. The eggs were delicious, and we routinely had chicks, which was always great fun as a kid. We did lose a few to an animal that dug a hole in the bottom of the coop (fox?) but we put up a small electric wire along the perimeter and that seemed to help. We actually caught a rattlesnake tangled in it once!

Now, I don't live in an area you can have them, but I know at least one neighbor does. Guess how I know. :)

Just got our first three hens and they're settling in nicely. We're in a regional area of Australia and many of our neighbours keep chooks. The eggs are great and they make a lovely addition to the family.

My family has a 110 year old farm they will begin a whole remodel of and preserving and using old buildings. They have an old chicken house that is all rock and next to a creek, we are hoping to put some chickens in, any ideas on which chickens are best for eggs?

Fresh eggs are so, so much better. I'm not sure if there are particular breeds that taste different or better, but if you are going to feed them table scraps, as we did, that will definitely affect the taste. We learned to avoid things like onions in the scraps we gave them.

One breed we had a few of was Aracana. They lay gorgeous green or blue eggs. They tasted like a regular egg, but the shells were beautiful.

Circle Goods Reclaimed -- go to the site "MyPetChicken" ... you fill out a questionnaire about what is important to you ... number of eggs per week, color of eggs, especially docile birds, cold hardy birds, etc. Hit 'enter' and the site lists the breeds that meet your criteria.

I have one "fancy" bird that lays only 2 eggs a week. My best producer is my Austerlorp, Agnes -- I usually get 5 eggs a week from her, and she lays all winter when my other birds take a break.

the egg taste has nothing to do with the shell color or bird breed ... it's all about the diet and the birds stress level.

We don't have chickens because they do take a commitment that we can't make. But we do buy our eggs from a local farmer. His eggs are often enormous with very hard shells. They taste wonderful. A bit of research on the breed that he has taught me that they were actually bred for commercial egg production. Go figure. But I will never buy commercial or so called "cage free" eggs again. I want to know where my eggs come from and how the hens were treated. They need freedom, sun, bugs and clean water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISA_Brown

Oh, and we love the eggs... We eat them almost every day. There is a big difference between fresh eggs and store bought. But, this last week, all the hens just stopped laying - I might actually have to buy some for the first time in 3 years! Lol

beekeeping next spring for me Lynda!

Fresh eggs are amazing and fresh honey? wow...so good.

That's great Brenda! My husband has convinced me to take a beekeeping class this year. I do work them with him occasionally. He has about 60 hives - he raises queens and sells the nucs every spring.
Love the honey - especially his blackberry honey. As with fresh eggs, there's nothing like local honey. Yum!

If I wasn't so nervous to be stung by bees I would definitely have them, I've been on a serious peanut butter toast and honey kick lately! Thanks for the idea on the "mypetchicken" I will definitely look into that!

@Lynda, blackberry honey sounds divine! Where can I get some?

DutchCrafters carries a variety of different chicken coops that can be customized based on style, size and color! Here's just a few of our American made, sustainably sourced chicken coops.

@DutchCrafters- Not sure where you are located, but I would check with one of your local beekeepers. We are located near Lake Greenwood, SC. But local to you is best - especially if you have allergies :-)
Your third pic looks very similar to the chicken coop we have at the cabin. Love it!

Yep, and I love them all.

My daughter was considering having chickens but thinking about the pros and cons decided not to do it. Special because she likes to go away on vacations and has nobody to take care of then. Is a big commitment.

Hello! We were the happy and lucky owners of 4 different hens. Beautiful, nice with our kids. everybody in our neighborhood were amazed and wanted to come over and watch them, look at the blue eggs,... Then one neighbor complained (she was afraid of diseases for her dogs), and the township asked us to remove the coop (a beautiful playhouse in cedar). We were so angry... We'll try to get them back once we change the rules here! As there are many hens owners just a few houses away (but with more understanding neighbors maybe!)!

We have chickens and they live in an Eglu but free range around the gardens and woodland. Unfortunately their favourite place to hang out (and poop) is the covered patio right outside our kitchen. And if anyone leaves the back door open they have a tendency to come into the house to explore!

We live in Cambridge Mass. basically in a little oasis on Charles river with 20 min walk to Copley Square in Boston and about 10 to Harvard Square and on our small, city yard we have 4 chickens and beehive, our own fruit and veggies. It is amazing what one can do with a bit of a land. Chickens are actually quite easy to take care of. Bees even easier. We were very lucky to harvest over 4 gallons of honey in our first year:)

We reside in Texas. -have been raising a small flock of ten hens for the past 18 months. It has been such a joy! The gals have provided fresh, organic eggs and wonderful fertilizer for our vegetable and flower gardens.

Lynda, I will have to try getting in touch with local beekeepers, thanks for the tip. I would love to see a photo of your coop and chickens, too!

I retired at 50 and bought 14 chicks. I lost one when she was 2 months old. The rest of the 13 chickens produce 10 to 13 eggs a day. I have been a city person and lived in NYC for more than 20 years. Now I live in a countryside in MA. I could never imagine that I would enjoy the country life so much thanks to the chickens, the garden, the golf, the tennis and the community! The chickens are very sweet animals. They are trusting and loyal. They can recognize you and your voice. Not to mention they produce fresh eggs!