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

[deerman]

Quote:
As a new guy, I have both. A 2x4 mounted flat, and a tree branch mounted diagonally in a smallish 6x4 coop.

Our birds will always opt for the tree branch. Also have one out in the run. They love it.

The thought about covering cold feet is bunk, IMO.

Edited to add: Al, not many people know what a staub is.

well up here in the northern winter ,the flat roost save many toes from frostbit....we get down in -20 or lower temp. Have even see free ranging ones lose the tips of all toes.

One thing i learn........different way because we are in different areas.......some wet others dry...some warm/hot others cold/freezing.

can't raise white leghorn the same in Florida and Alaska.....just sayin

 

[polloprincess2]

Ok. Here is my question for the wise OT's. I keep hearing on the boards that it is not good to feed human scraps to layers. That they need the specific layer food with the calcium in it.

I am new to chickens but, remember my great grandmother throwing scraps out to her free range flock. I do have layer food out for my hens but, like to feed leftovers to them as well as veggies left over from the garden. They don't get all the scraps. I make my own dog food so the dogs get some too.

And one for Bee- What kind of dog do you have for predator protection? Is it an LGD? I have sheep dogs that can move a flock but, they are not ones that I would leave out at night. Although, my cattle dog would I'm sure, like to be out all night to chase off the coyotes. They are plentiful where I will be moving.

Maybe I will need a 223.

 

[Newwell]

Gosh I posted last night, found my posting & there were about 10 additional pages of reading tonight. Great postings OTers

. Love the info. Al, I read your story about your rooster. Too funny. There is so many hysterical postings. Thanks Bee for starting it.

Question - What do you think of my "feeding program"? (I am a first time chicken person & growing them for eggs & eventually meat. I want to be as no nonsense as possible. I have 3 month old chickens.) I give them free access of PM "Flock Raiser", grit, fresh water, BOSS, ACV, occasional scraps, & they free range from 10 AM until they put themselves to bed at dusk. They have access to the coop all day long so they can eat feed & drink. Plus I leave an additional water pan outside of the coop. They all seem very healthy, growing well, etc. We still have green grass & weeds (lots of them) for them to range on.
Is there anything else I should be doing?

Thanks for any advice you can give me. I REALLY am looking forward to those eggs come about March.

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
Rounded. I built a ladder roost that I mounted the top end with carriage bolts so as to pivot the whole assembly. It's suspended from the ceiling with chain and I run a cable and pulley system over to the door with a counterweight on it to make it easy to lift it up out of the way for when I'm adding to the deep litter or removing the compost for the garden. The frame of the roost is made out of 2 X 4's and the roost bars themselves are 2 X 2's with the top rounded off.

If you look close at the picture you will see the roost has a notch at the top where I removed a roost-----that one was too close to the wall and resulted in excessive "streaking". Also looking close you can see the bottom where I placed a cross brace to stabilize and strengthen the assembly. The whole thing is suspended from the ceiling, does not rest on the floor. Gives the entire floor space for the chickens to scratch up the deep litter. I got the ideas from an even older Old-Timer when I was planning my Coop. Books back then recommended that you leave the wood for the roosts and nest-boxes unpainted.

 

[galanie]

This is late but LOL I hate the word biosecurity too, and went to great pains not to use it in my post about avoiding disease in your flock. Sad fact is though that the word is shorter and easier to say than "avoiding disease in your flock" or something similar. No matter, I still hate that word. I also hate words like "lifestyle" but that's a different subject. Great stuff on Biosecurity though

 

[Fred's Hens]

Since the chicken flock is essentially an integrated part of the organic garden operation we do, there's no way I can or will use any medications of any kind. Any bird which fails to thrive is culled, which is relatively rare event, actually. The chicken has been around, in some form, for nearly 4 thousand years without any medication or drugs. Their survival was based on the weak dying and strong propagating. I have two brothers, each have flocks, in KY and it is there we do our breeding. Our flocks are closed. Period. We focus on building vigor, health and strong immunity, not treating with drugs.

Other than black walnut or curcurbit, no chemical worming, as again, we are organic. DE is sprinkled on fresh litter when the coop is cleaned. It's effectiveness is unknown. Once a year, the interior of the barn pens are disinfected with peroxide, hosed out and limed. In the summer, the water fountains and buckets get a mild bleaching every other filling. That's about it.

Roosts- a chicken would happily roost on an upper book shelf or in an evergreen tree without complaint. When I build a roost, I use 2x3, flat side up, edges slightly rounded over. Strong enough to span, small enough to seem natural. Never had a foot problem because of them.

 

[Fred's Hens]

BTW, this is our bird. She's essentially a Black Sex Link bred back. The coloration is darker, more like single comb Dominicker, which her blood line is full of anyhow. We really, really like these birds. This has been one of our breeding projects for the last couple of years.

 

[m.kitchengirl]

VERY pretty hen, Fred.

 

[ajlynco]

Let me begin with a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who contribute pearls of wisdom on this thread. Your knowledge and experience are invaluable. I'm a newbie, just starting out, but I've been an avid reader of BYC for several months. I'll be getting 6 chicks(day-olds) early this spring. I live in the city and have to start small, but in a year or so will be moving to someplace with more elbow room. Then I'll expand my hendom. Ultimately I'd like to raise heritage breeds, not for show, just to sustain the original breeds. Eggs and meat are what I'm after. I want to raise RIRs and BRs. My question is, in your humble opinions, should I start out with production, hatchery strains and learn the ropes with them or go ahead and get heritage breeds from one of the reputable breeders and go for broke?

Keep up the good fight OTs!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

ajlynco,

Good question. If you have a small backyard, starter flock and just want to learn, and have eggs, it would be hard to beat a red sex link or black sex link. You'll get eggs, especially their pullet year. You'll get those eggs in 18 weeks, not two months later as you might if they were slower developing breeds. I know that can be frustrating to a beginner to wait and wait and then end up with only 3 eggs a week. With known, high producers, the frustration level is much lower.

Since you won't be breeding in the backyard anyhow, the breeding potential of the birds is irrelevant. Once you're out in the country, my guess would be you'd very likely gravitate to a different kind of flock, with different kinds of birds.