Only 5 now, but I used to have over 40 and I raised cochin bantams.
The city of San Marcos passed a new ordinance tho' restricting me to
only 8 birds so I had to give most of them away. :-( I kept 5 chickens
and 3 muscovie ducks.

Don't you hate government and all the phony regulations?? Anymore you have
to keep a mile minimum between you and your neighbors to be able to do what
you want with your own property. And THEN only if you have no wetlands,
riparian areas or "endangered" species.

On the upside, they let me keep my 5 emus and did not count them in
the head count. ;-)

That was generous of them.

Chickens are neat, and so are ducks, emus, pigions, doves, quail.....

You forgot geese! My geese were my favorites. Especially Africans. I love
their voices, bumpy beaks and color.

My grandmother had a flock of the domestic white geese and some gray ones.
I don't know how many she started with, but they grew over the years to
20-30 or so while we had good dogs. They lived on the farm for years and
years, well after my grandmother passed away. Then my parents' Great
Pyrenees had to be put down because of aggression toward the grandkids, and
within a month the coyotes had killed ALL the geese. It was very sad. I
still miss them, but Mom hasn't gotten more now that they have another guard
dog.

Cindy