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

[Beekissed]

I'll take a stab at it...but you know that 5 things are just a little limiting. We'll call it a wisdom snack, shall we?

1. You do not have an "egg-eater"...you have a whole flock of egg-eaters. For whatever reason, your egg shells are thin and becoming broken upon laying, other hens climbing over them, etc. Any chicken will eat any broken egg on any given day that ends in "Y"....do not start culling, isolating, or retraining a bird with hot sauce just yet. Give added calcium in the rations, maybe some added protein and wait a while...it all works out in the end.

2. An ounce of preventative health care is worth a pound of medicine mixed in their water...do yourself a favor and stop diseases before they start so you won't have to post with titles that start with "HELP!"

3. Regular chemical deworming just isn't necessary~IME~I've never done it, never needed to, have the healthy flocks to prove it. Try to look for natural ways to help your flock shed parasites, create living conditions that do not support heavy parasite loads and cull your birds to keep only those who thrive well with their existing parasite loads. There isn't an animal in the wild that doesn't have intestinal and other parasites and yet they thrive and....if you haven't dewormed yourself this year, your chickens don't need it either.

4. Bleach has never touched any surface in my coops....it isn't necessary as those surfaces will just have fecal matter within seconds a bird walks back into the coop. Save yourself the stress, work and worry of your chickens getting germs~news flash: They eat their own poop and the poop of others....get over it and let them live with their very healthy, germy environment.

5. Vinegar is a great health tonic for chickens and other livestock...if you don't believe that, at least you cannot prove that there has ever been a poultry-related death caused by apple cider vinegar overdosing or usage. Whattayagottolose here???

Use the darn ACV!

(No, it doesn't necessarily have to have the mother in it to be a good thing for your chickens...)

 

[al6517]

To me one of the most important things about raising chickens is to let them be chickens, their attitudes will be so much better if they aren't constantly harassed by their caregiver. Coddling and hugging, excessive handling, and the total misinterpretation of what the chicken is thinking, and having things forced on them that isn't natural to a chickens day to day goings on. I see too many folks doing things as they say for their birds quality of life when what they are really doing is things that make their owners feel good not the bird. For instance................. I think my chicken is sad or lonely, those are human emotions not one of the chicken world. anyway chickens just do better when left to do what they have been doing without people for hundreds of thousands of years.

 

[Tres Amigas]

Like a long, cool drink on a hot day, Bee. Thank you.

BTW: You got more, c'mon!

 

[Beekissed]

Ayep.

Al, how would you like it if some giant started jabbering, stooped down to pick you up every time they were in the vicinity, rubbed you all over, put you in bras, panties and sunglasses and made you come inside their large box of a home that had fake grass with no bugs?????

I bet you wouldn't feel good either! Sheesh! I know MY chickens have feelings....they feel like chickens each and every day. I can tell. They look and act just like chickens should when feeling like one.

 

[Beekissed]

How about feeding, y'all? What feeders do you use? What ration types and why? Waterers and why?

 

[seminolewind]

Rooster + Hens = chicks or fertile eggs.

Build a predator "proof" coop and pen and lock it at night.

Don't mess with their pecking order

(I've had chickens 4 years, but my Grandma had them for lots of years.)

 

[al6517]

Quote:
I prefer simple easy to clean feeders and waterers, fill them up and don't freak out if they leave a present in their which always happens as soon as it's clean, no need to clean them out twice a day. feeders should be the way, simple is better with a plan for keeping waste down. No need for a feeder that looks like something they built at Nasa, the chickens don't mind if it's not a designer dispenser.

 

[Beekissed]

Here's one, Seminole~Dog+ Chicken= HELP post.

Train your dogs to do something useful for you~like guard chickens, keep them outside so they can actually do what a dog is good for, and enjoy the perfect peace of no predators, no "my dog killed my chicken" scenarios and also enjoy a dog that has developed a thick, winter coat of hair so that he can thrive and be a REAL dog out in the night air doing what dogs like to do best....smell, lope around, bark at foxes or coons, sleep all day after a night of being normal.

Do yourself, your dog and your flock a favor by using a dog for his intended purpose...working AND companionship.

 

[Ksane]

Fred's Hens :

One of my first flocks, circa 1959

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/69833_flock1960.jpg

You've had chickens since the year before I was born?? That's a long long time, wow.​

 

[Tres Amigas]

Quote:
I'll go.

We have a hanging feeder (round) We feed a layer pellet from our local Aslin-Finch. I can't remember what percent. I have two big plastic tumblers stuck in an old oval planter filled with grit and oyster shell/eggshell mix. I give the grit now through winter because they can't forage much. In the summer I filled one with oyster shell and the other with their shells. No. I don't disinfect, bake, boil, microwave, bar-b-que or do anything other than rinse, dry and crush their eggshells. For water in summer they have a big plastic waterer. In winter we use a giant electric dog bowl waterer with a little sand in the bottom, nestle regular metal pet bowl down in the sand. Voila - no frozen water and eazy-peazy to switch out each day. Hose in summer and tap in winter. Sorry, no Evian or other hoity-toity water served. Couple times a week they get switched an old Tupperware bowl with ACV (which we use ourselves -- I've been a believer.) For "treats", they get their own in spring, summer and fall out in the yard, but when their cooped up I do toss a pumpkin, BOSS, kale and the carcass of whatever we had. I've really cooled it with the extras, as it seems it may have been contributing to the thin shells I was getting awhile back. In any event, I don't give them anything salty or sugary or overtly processed. I will continue with the kale and greens throughout winter, as they can't get out to get it for themselves.