Chickens provide entertainment and pest control as well as eggs

Posted 3/28/16

Buhler said Stebner’s boss, Scott Heny, offered the chicks, “and I said I totally want all four of them. His boss dropped them off at the house one day, so we got home ... and we had four chickens. ... They were just itty-bitty …

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Chickens provide entertainment and pest control as well as eggs

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Big Bertha, Bonkers, Dusty and Chicken Little became city chicks last fall.

“When we first got them, they were pretty small,” said Krista Buhler, who, along with her fiancé, Chancey Stebner, owns the chickens and houses them in the couple’s backyard on Bent Street.

Buhler said Stebner’s boss, Scott Heny, offered the chicks, “and I said I totally want all four of them. His boss dropped them off at the house one day, so we got home ... and we had four chickens. ... They were just itty-bitty things.”

Buhler said she knew nothing about raising chickens when she first became the birds’ owner, but she’s learned a lot since then. She filled out an application and paid $5 for an annual permit from the city of Powell to keep each chicken, as outlined in the city’s animal ordinance. The ordinance was amended in February 2014 to allow up to four chickens per lot in town — but no roosters.

Buhler and Stebner bought a coop kit for about $200 and put it up in their backyard on top of an industrial-style rubber mat. The waist-high structure consists of a small nesting area resembling a miniature house within the larger fenced-in coop. It’s light enough that the couple can lift the coop off of the mat for regular cleaning, then put it back in place.

For bedding, “we started out with hay, but that wasn’t too good; it picked up odor sooner,” Buhler said. “So we switched to wood shavings and wood chips, and that seems better.”

Stebner made a feeder for the chickens out of a length of PVC pipe with a 90-degree angle in it, and a water container out of a hanging plastic bucket with “chicken nipples” attached underneath that allow the hens to drink on demand.

Before that, Buhler tried to provide water in a bowl for the chickens, “but it got to be such a mess, and it didn’t work. They figured (the new system) out right away.”

The homemade contraptions provide enough food and water for a couple of days or more, reducing the mess and the time it takes to care for the hens.

The coop stands next to the house on the north side of the yard. Buhler and Stebner even have a surveillance camera they can use to check on their chickens when they’re away from home.

“It’s probably not a needed thing, but it’s nice to be able to check on them that way. We’ve had them top the fence into the neighbors’ yard occasionally.”

In addition to chicken feed, the hens eat fruit and other scraps.

“They like tuna fish, which is odd,” Buhler said.

The neighbors’ apple tree hangs over the fence, and when the apples drop, the chickens have a fresh source of fruit that they love.

The neighbors, Bob and Bonnie Coorough, said they like having chickens next door.

“I really enjoy them,” said Bonnie Coorough. “They’re lots of fun. They just make little clucky noises. I find it pleasant.”

From her kitchen window, Bonnie Coorough watches the chickens as they patrol the yard, take dirt baths or squabble over a precious piece of food. With them for entertainment, “doing the dishes is a lot less boring,” she said.

Each of the chickens has her own personality, and that’s how they got their names.

Big Bertha, or “Big B,” is the boss of the henyard.

“If she goes somewhere, the rest of them follow,” Buhler said.

Bonkers got her name because she’s constantly clucking. Though it’s usually fairly soft, she can get pretty vocal if another chicken challenges her for a bit of apple she wants.

Dusty is as dusty does — she takes a lot of dirt baths.

And Chicken Little was the smallest chick of the bunch.

“They’re pretty friendly and seem pretty content,” Buhler said. “They’re more like a family pet than a regular chicken.”

“We like them,” said Bob Coorough. “The kids keep it (the coop) nice and clean, and there’s no odor or anything.”

The Cooroughs said they don’t really mind when the chickens manage to get into their yard, though Buhler and Stebner have since clipped the feathers on part of one wing on each of the hens in an effort to keep them on their side of the 5-foot fence.

Buhler said their other neighbor likes the chickens, too.

“He’ll give them produce from his garden that he doesn’t use,” she said.

Buhler said the couple’s dog and the Cooroughs’ cat have left the chickens alone.

It’s been nice to have a steady supply of fresh eggs since the chickens got big enough to begin laying, which took about three or four months, Buhler said.

Now, “we usually get 4-5 eggs per day, and they’re usually pretty big,” she said.

Two of the hens, brown in color, are golden laced Wyandottes, while the two black ones with white speckles are cuckoo Marans. They all lay brown eggs most of the time, some of them speckled. But now and then, a white egg turns up.

An unexpected bonus since the chickens arrived was a decline in the insect population in the house and yard including ants and spiders, Buhler said. 

“We definitely saw a decrease in our bug life,” she said. “We used to have tons and tons of ants, both outside and in the house. Since we got them, I’ve only seen one ant in the house.”

The insects are the only ones that aren’t pleased with the arrangment, Bonnie Coorough said.

“The bugs aren’t too happy, but that’s OK,” she said with a laugh.

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