Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us! - Page 3  

5 points?

Humm..

I'm gonna start and get in trouble. But oh well, you asked.

1. Don't get too attached, they are chickens, not children.
2. Never put up with a mean rooster. Ever.
3. No matter if you are raising for eggs, meat or show... cull if needed. (If you are raising for pets I guess you can skip this one. )
4. Realize, like BeeKissed said, most things you see are slanted to the USDA and commercial producers. As my grandfather once told me "Believe nothing you read and only half of what you see"
5. Remember I don't know much either.

m.kitchengirl :

We "massage" most everything we say on here, being sensitive in this new era and all.  LOL.   If we talked straight like we did back in the day, you're gonna get us all in trouble.  lau

I can't speak for all of us who are still trying to scratch the green from behind our ears, but I appreciate the folks on BYC who give it to us straight. 

I won't name any names, but there are some characters here who may put things a little "gruffly", but who I PRAY will weigh in with some straight up, hard nosed, no-nonsense management ideas.  P.C. is for folks whose hobbies DON'T potentially include beheading a named critter in the side yard on a sunny Sunday.

I'm going to subscribe, no need to "massage" this gal - except maybe my shoulders.  I raked a whole bunch of hay all over the yards today & my back is burning.

Thanks Bee, great topic!

We would realy love to do it that way, but even the most tactful walking on pin's and needles approach, can draw the ire of folks who just read the opposite in some new fangled chicken whisperer publication. Not to mention we live in a society where litteraly everything said will be offensive to somebody in some way, and so we are forced to sugar coat our oppinions and teachings for the sake of Tolerance. Yes P.C. may be a bunch of hooey but it can get you knee deep in it on liberals forums, when you have to defend yourself from the onslaught.

OK..... I just dip my toe in the water.... and see how this goes. 

Brood chicks out in the garage, in a shed, or in the barn, or least in your mud room or back porch for goodness sakes.  Chicks do not have to be brooded indoors, giving everyone cast iron lungs, sinus allergies and rooms that must look like someone shook out a flour sack.   The entire brooder does not need to be 95F.  Stop putting so much sugary crap in the water and cooking chicks in little suffocating plastic totes where the temps are 95-100 degrees and 99% of the posts of "Oh No!!  My chick has poop butt, what should I do?" would go away.   


Now, Bee, if I've already been too plain spoken, I'll bow out. No problem.

Fred's Hens :

OK..... I just dip my toe in the water.... and see how this goes. 

Brood chicks out in the garage, in a shed, or in the barn, or least in your mud room or back porch for goodness sakes.  Chicks do not have to be brooded indoors, giving everyone cast iron lungs, sinus allergies and rooms that must look like someone shook out a flour sack.   The entire brooder does not need to be 95F.  Stop putting so much sugary crap in the water and cooking chicks in little suffocating plastic totes where the temps are 95-100 degrees and 99% of the posts of "Oh No!!  My chick has poop butt, what should I do?" would go away.   


Now, Bee, if I've already been too plain spoken, I'll bow out. No problem.

OOOHHHH   I like the way this guy think's

Fred's Hens :

OK..... I just dip my toe in the water.... and see how this goes. 

Brood chicks out in the garage, in a shed, or in the barn, or least in your mud room or back porch for goodness sakes.  Chicks do not have to be brooded indoors, giving everyone cast iron lungs, sinus allergies and rooms that must look like someone shook out a flour sack.   The entire brooder does not need to be 95F.  Stop putting so much sugary crap in the water and cooking chicks in little suffocating plastic totes where the temps are 95-100 degrees and 99% of the posts of "Oh No!!  My chick has poop butt, what should I do?" would go away.   


Now, Bee, if I've already been too plain spoken, I'll bow out. No problem.

That is something I wish I knew when I first got my chicks, all I knew is what I read, they had to be inside and you'd kill them instantly if they were any less then 95 degrees, they couldn't bear outside until at least 8 weeks etc.....    I know better now, but it would have saved me a lot of trouble if I had known that before.

Fred's Hens :

OK..... I just dip my toe in the water.... and see how this goes. 

Brood chicks out in the garage, in a shed, or in the barn, or least in your mud room or back porch for goodness sakes.  Chicks do not have to be brooded indoors, giving everyone cast iron lungs, sinus allergies and rooms that must look like someone shook out a flour sack.   The entire brooder does not need to be 95F.  Stop putting so much sugary crap in the water and cooking chicks in little suffocating plastic totes where the temps are 95-100 degrees and 99% of the posts of "Oh No!!  My chick has poop butt, what should I do?" would go away.   


Now, Bee, if I've already been too plain spoken, I'll bow out. No problem.

See, that's what I'm talking about.  I wish is had known beforehand just how dusty three lil chicks would be.  Brooded them in my laundry room with the ceiling exhaust going constantly and the door shut.  When we got them out in their coop a coupla months later, I even had to wipe down the WALLS in there and in the adjoining bath!  Never again.  Of course, now I have a coop, so problem solved.  Thanks, Fred!