Chickens Win Contest At City Hall – Village Idiot Votes No Town Chicks Allowed

Tampa City Council members are in favor of making the city more chicken friendly. During a workshop, the council voted 6-1 in favor of amending an ordinance to make it easier for residents to keep chickens in their backyards. “The right thing for us to do is to modernize our code to fit in with the way people are living,” Councilman Harry Cohen said.

Winner of this weeks Village Idiot goes to Councilman Frank Reddick, who voted against the change, said the chickens could become a problem because they could escape their coops. {OMG run for your life’s, lock your self’s in doors, there’s a chicken and it’s out of it’s coop!} Frank Reddick said “Having a chicken is a public nuisance.” {I say Lawyers are a lot bigger public nuisance that a few chickens!}” {In my Opinion is this is the same sissy kind of guy that’s afraid of grasshoppers, woolly worms and crawdads (crayfish)} what a wimp waste!

Does this guy hate fried eggs and ham or fried chicken?

Now that we have had a bit of fun at the expense of this weeks village idiot award winner. A small backyard flock of laying hens are easy to care for, they are very quiet, If you don’t allow any roosters to sneak into your flock of hens.

Chickens eat a huge amount of insects, weeds and weed seeds. Their feeding habit of scratching the ground to find weed seed and insects helps keep weeds at bay, and, Smile, they are always adding chicken mature to your yard and garden.

Before you go off to buy your first flock of laying hens. You need a chicken coop, feeders and chick starter food, waters, and a heat source to keep your chicks warm and safe from predators.

The Coop. Must meet minimum standards. Each pullet / laying hen requires at least 2 square feet of coop / hen house flood space, one nest box for every 3 or 4 laying hens and 4 square feet of outside run space for each hen. Don’t panic, a coop only 3 by 3 foot square with a 3 foot by 5 foot out side run is large enough to house 4 hens. Hint: Make it easy on yourself, be sure the coop, nest box(s) and out side run is easy for ‘You’ to access to collect eggs, feed and water your chickens and to remove and replace litter as needed.

New chick must be provided with a heat source. Producing a temperature around 95 degrees measured 2 inches off the floor. You need chick feeders and waters that designed to prevent your chicks from pooping in their food source and water containers. Don’t go cheap here, clean food and water is all important to proper health and growth of your chicks.

Remember, people are not the only thing that like to eat chicks, chickens and eggs. Rats, snakes, skunks, racoons, cats, dogs are just a few of the things you must protect your chicks and laying hens from.

FYI – If you don’t know, roosters are not need for egg production. Be a good neighbor, No Roosters unless you are far away from your nearest neighbor… Roosters can and will start crowing as early as 3am…

Caution, Don’t let a chicks small size fool you.. In 24-26 weeks they will start laying and the experts tell me that 1 hen will produce 1 egg every 27 hours. That’s 6 eggs a week. Two healthy hens will lay a dozen eggs a week. How many eggs do you and your family eat every week? Of course you can always give away, trade eggs for fresh picked garden vegetables or sell excess eggs. This can help off set the cost of feeding your small backyard flock.

Whether you allow your hens to free range in your fenced yard or keep them in a coop with an outside run, always close and secure the coop / hen house doors at night and open the door(s) early in the morning to protect you flock from night time predator visitors.

If you really get into this egg production thing, maximum egg production is achieved when your hens have 14 to 16 hours a day light in their house. Using a $5.00 timer and a 50 watt light bulb will provide any additional light you may need after sundown to obtain a total of 14-16 hours light.

You will need to replace your hens every 2 1/2 to 3 years as they age and stop laying. That’s when you need to learn the art of scalding, plucking and cooking an old hen. They are great for chicken / chicken noodle soup, chicken and dressing and slow roasted beer can BBQ chicken.

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Why is common sense so uncommon?
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