As long as you can seal that thing so nothing can get in at night it would be ok for a few birds. That carpet will get trashed quickly though. As far as free range birds, it is almost impossible to completely protect them. We have ours in a quite expansive fenced in area, and even then at times things kill them. The only thing I would worry about depending on your location is how close your neighbors are, free range birds without a fenced in area can travel quite a distance.

Possums are nasty, I killed one with a baseball bat once. I have killed countless raccoons in the coop. My dog actually ripped one apart when we were closing the coop up at night. We were walking back in the dark, wasn't really paying attention, anyways Akiela snarled and raised the hair up on her back, and I was like "oh crap". Long story short this racoon was possibly rabid, and she went right at it, and they tussled for a few minutes, she shredded it up, but I ran into the barn to grab my gun and finish him off. Had to take my dog to the vet though, that was fun for my wallet. We had a great horned owl kill about 30 birds one night.

[QUOTE=Baby Lee;8459691]I live smack dab in the city, and a neighbor has 5 hens that roam the alley. It's weird walking the alley to the local convenience store and skirting a bevvy of biddies.[/QUOTE]

:LOL:ROFL

I've got about 30 Rhode island Reds, they are great.. not the most appeasing looking birds but they sure can lay some eggs.. i get about 25-30 eggs a day. Does not take much to take care of them, feed and get eggs once a day.. clean the chicken house out about once a month. Not bad at all, and the eggs i dont eat, i sell for $2 a dozen, dont make a profit really but the $ pays for most of their feed.

first place we bought came with about 25 guineas. ****in hawks took care of most of them.
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Keep about 100. Have 70 Buff Orpingtons and the rest are mix of Brown Layers. Sell eggs at the local farmers market and then eat the rest.

Ok I've wanted to try poached eggs but wondering about the texture. I love eggs over medium...don't like the slime when they are over easy. So my question is how is the slime factor in a poached egg?

Great thread.
I have been thinking about this very subject quite a bit, considering how to make that rocky ground productive down by the lake in a few years.
The trick is that it is going to take some imagination to get the neighbors and Mrs. to like it.

Cook it longer, like any other way to cook an egg. You can poach them long enough to make them hard if you want. You are basically cooking with the steam.

Here is a picture of the old building I transformed into one of the chicken houses.

You can poach them to differing levels of done, but most traditional poached eggs have runny yokes.

Thanks I figured this but having never done it.

I like the runny yoke, just not the slime around it.

I'll pretty much use an omelette to rid the fridge of aging vegetables. I also hard boil 20 or so on Sundays and taken them to work throughout the week as a snack.

Came toe to toe with a wild turkey yesterday while tracking my golf ball.

farm fresh chicken eggs .. any large brown eggs .. RI Reds .. Buffs .. Jersey Giants ....

turkeys were gobbling in my woods this morning when i left for work.
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