Let us talk about pets

Any ideas to take up a pet chicken?

Chickens may seem like an odd choice for a pet, but they can be very engaging, friendly and entertaining - and they pay their way with eggs and pest control for your garden.

Chickens can easily be tamed and trained, even as adults, with positive reinforcements and food rewards. They will come running when they think you might have a treat, learn to eat out of your hand and some may even allow you to stroke them. If you talk to them, treat them well and handle them gently you'll have faithful followers.

Before considering a chicken as a pet, check your local zoning laws. In the country, this should not be an issue, but some cities have strict regulations on keeping "farm animals".

Generally chickens need to be outdoors at least part of the day, love to scratch in dirt and take dust baths, eat tender new shoots, and lay sprawled out in the sun. House training a chicken, although not impossible, may prove difficult.

Chickens come in hundreds of colors and "styles": Brown, gold, red, white, gray, silver, speckled, spotted, checkered, dappled, smooth, fluffy, silky, grizzled, whiskered, bearded, bare legged, feathered legged, booted, high tailed, bushy tailed, long combed, rose combed, bare headed or with fanciful headdresses to mention a few.

Hens, with their subtler colors, lay eggs and cackle and cluck. Cockerels (roosters) are much more colorful and flashier, fertilize those eggs and crow loudly and often.

Unless you want more baby chicks, don't get a rooster as a companion for your hen. Hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs, and without one, will be less stressed and harassed.

Chickens come in various sizes, from one-pound banties to 10 pound Giant Jerseys. Some hens lay blue or green-shelled eggs, some spotted, some dark brown and others pearl white. Some lay every day while others only a few months of the year.

Most hens start lying in their 5th or 6th month and are productive up to their third or fourth year, but some have been known to produce well into "old age". Pet chickens average lifespan is about 15 years.

Pet chickens are not as odd as they seem and those who have kept them rave about their qualities and attributes. Chickens have distinct and interesting personalities. In a flock they quickly establish a social order and watching this evolve in a group of growing fowl is highly entertaining.

Raised with love and tenderness, they will make very beneficial companions for you.