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

[Ridgerunner]

I agree with Beekissed. A weak chicken may be attacked by her flock mates. They are pretty good at hiding how much they are hurting until they are really bad off.

I do not let a hen that has a physical problem, egg laying problem, or behavioral problem breed. She can pass her traits on to her chicks.

I raise my chickens for meat even more than the eggs. If a hen wants to volunteer to be next, I'll honor her wishes. If a hen regularly lays a double-yolked egg, her internal egg laying system is not working right. A hen that lays her egg from the roost for over two months instead of getting it straightened out in a few days has volunteered. If I have one hen in the flock that is barebacked, I don't eat the rooster because of that. I eat the hen and the problem goes away.

I know most people on this forum do not eat their chickens from a poll Nifty did a while back. We've all got different goals and circumstances. You can call me mean and ruthless if you wish. It won't hurt my feelings. I've had friends call me that and they are still friends. I do think I have a pretty healthy flock.

 

[Cass]

I've not posted here for awhile as Fred's prediction did come true...the thread has become clunky and impossible to keep true to intent. But I feel compelled to post for this question, as I'm sure Fred did.


We don't give this advice because we are heartless, cold or approach our husbandry with only cost in mind...it is because it is the humane, sensible and most wise course of action for anyone who raises livestock of ANY kind. .

KILL the chicken. Unless this is the only chicken you have and you depend on that one egg a day for your only subsistence and attempting to unclog the plumbing is the only thing between you and starvation~kill the chicken... and then eat her.

I'm sorry the old timers feel this thread is to "clunky" to keep up with. I have been a faithful reader ....and have not posted (much) as to not add to the thread's length. However I have counted on the advice of the OTers to keep me on track. I find it easy to run my dryer, with nothing in it, because the chickens stand under the outside vent in this colder than cold weather. I count on your guys (and gals) to keep my head where it needs to be. They are CHICKENS, not people.

But even with my soft heart I know that ending the internal layers suffering is the right thing to do. AND I can heat up the oven to roast her, keeping myself warm in the process.

IF the OP of the internal laying problem chicken actually does proccess the bird for eating, I think that they will find out a LOT about chicken's internal organs and THEN find themselves relieved that they ended the chickens suffering.

 

[featherz]

I'm sorry the old timers feel this thread is to "clunky" to keep up with. I have been a faithful reader ....and have not posted (much) as to not add to the thread's length. However I have counted on the advice of the OTers to keep me on track. I find it easy to run my dryer, with nothing in it, because the chickens stand under the outside vent in this colder than cold weather. I count on your guys (and gals) to keep my head where it needs to be. They are CHICKENS, not people.

But even with my soft heart I know that ending the internal layers suffering is the right thing to do. AND I can heat up the oven to roast her, keeping myself warm in the process.

IF the OP of the internal laying problem chicken actually does proccess the bird for eating, I think that they will find out a LOT about chicken's internal organs and THEN find themselves relieved that they ended the chickens suffering.

I am not an OT and I don't eat my chickens BUT I agree here - I had an internal layer last year (for the lurkers, this is not the same as egg bound) and I let her go on much longer than I should because she kept getting better, then worse again. If I see it happening again on another chicken, I'll cull right off. I did necropsy her, and her abdomen was full of that nasty cooked egg stuff typical of internal laying.

She was a newish layer and had stopped laying, stood around looking depressed, egg yolk poo, the whole nine yards. But then she'd perk up and get better - took me forever to cull her since it was my first time, but I am very glad I finally bucked up and did it.

 

[wsmith]

I for one really rnjoy this thread, even though there have been some comments that departed somewhat from the intent. I would love to keep getting the advice of the OTs, so I hope they will continue to read and post comments.

 

[flocksalot]

I agree that the original posts intent has been way laid. I've had chickens most of my 48 years, but have still learned or relearned some things. Then things went into the yada yada category. Even with that I still read and tried to respond. The problem with any thread is that not everyone really wants to listen (or read in this case) to others. Instead they just want to chat about themselves. There is nothing wrong with doing things different and there is nothing wrong with disagreements. There is however something wrong with disregarding others knowledge or insight. I wouldn't know the first thing about an internal layer. I've never experienced it. I'm curious about how you would cure a chicken of something like that, but I wouldn't even think to try as I just don't have that kind of time or energy. In my opinion the advise to cull rather than an attempt to cure sounds like an appropriate choice as that would be my choice.

I have a question for the OT's. I use pine shavings for bedding as many people do, but I just cannot stand the smell of chicken sh--. Hence I find myself shoveling it all out once a month to repeat again in a month. I know it's been said that if you can smell it then you need to add ventilation. Seriously that's not the problem. I have tried the deep litter method and after a month and a half I couldn't stand it any longer. Adding fresh litter to nasty stuff even with some removed doesn't help.

Currently we are using three coops. One is a broody coop (containing 2 hens in separate nest boxes) which is 4x4. It is located inside a greenhouse that all the chickens have access to, and once the chicks hatch later this week I will release the hens from lock down. The next is a tall coop with the dimensions of 12x10x12. There are 46 hens, 3 roosters, and 8 pullets (in a separate cage at night only). There are dropping boards that are cleaned daily. The last is a 12x20x8 and apparently most of the chickens like this house the best as 88 chickens are in residence. Again with the dropping boards and daily cleaning. Waterers are hung over grating with a catch pan that is drained daily if needed. There is plenty of ventilation through the sofits and peak of the roofs. I do have some heat in the coops besides the solar that comes through their many windows. The heat is mainly for me as I am becoming a wuss as I age.

I've tried sand. Smells like chicken sh-- right away although it's awesome for the garden which is where the whole 20 yards ended up this summer. Now for the kicker. My grandpa always used to use cedar and I miss the smell. At least the cedar smell with the chicken poop wasn't so nasty. He used to use it as perches as he said it kept the bugs off the chickens and kept the flies and mice out of the coop. The compost then helped keep bugs out of the garden. I recall no death problems and asked my mother and she claimed he didn't have really any problems with his flocks. I especially remember his turkeys roosting on the cedar logs just cut down. I've been told on this forum that it's bad for their airways, but then I hear that it's more the fresh (which grandpa used) with the oils that causes the problem. So the stuff you buy in bales is kiln dried. What say you, ok or still a hazard? Can you show me any real evidence to the potential problem?

Once the eggs hatch this week I will move the hens and their broods to a different coop with a run attached so they can get out and about during this cold snap. I was thinking of adding some cedar into the bedding to keep the smell down as we all know chicks are messy and sloppy. That doesn't mean I won't keep up with the house keeping of cleaning up wet litter and such I just want a bit better smell every time I go in there. So OTs what do you say. I'm looking for some real experience with this one not just some he said she said the supposed experts said. I know there is a study going on right now as to this but there are no results in yet.

Stupid me forgot to say my chickens are all free ranged during the day no matter the weather. They have the greenhouses to visit and dirt to find!

 

[Gerry2011]

I am trying the deep litter method with pine shavings. Now I do not have nearly as big a coop as you have, but what I have done is every few days is take the pitchfork in and fluff the shavings. Everything was fine until last month , then there was a mild ammonia odor that I couldn't track down, so I cleaned it out and in doing so I found waaaay down under the waterer (where I probably was missing) was wet. It seems as long as I fluff the stuff often (not sure I'd want to do that with the amount of square footage you have tho') and pick out any wet shavings I can go 5/6 months. One of the ots said he used leaves and only cleaned out yearly, but when I added leaves then it really got funky. I guess I probably add new shavings every couple of weeks or so, but no more often. Also I usually add food grade diatomaceous earth in with the shavings at the start and occassionally afterwards. I don't seem to get the chickens*** smell.

 

[ejb3810]

My first post here, although I qualify based on thread title. I have, for the most part, read all entries. Some I could not make it beyond a few words, because it seemed there was nothing of substantial content. Perhaps just my opinion. There have been only several excellent posters in this thread as far as response to a serious question or topic, and it seems that the whole thing is reverting to just another thread without much value ?
In any case, regarding the cedar shavings or wood chips. It is my experience that they can be used without harm to the birds, but my birds free range during the day at their discretion even when it is below zero. Particularly if use are using a kiln dried material I don't think you will have a problem. There are some in the Pacific NW that it is their first preference over pine, hardwood or straws.

 

[wsmith]

As our family gets back into chickens, I was wondering if any of the oldtimers harvested the feathers of proccessed burds, and if so, what was their method of cleaning, drying, etc. of the feathers for use.

 

[wsmith]

Birds, not burds. Wierd. For some reason the edit feature isn't working for me.

 

[BWKatz]

No offense to BWKatz, none whatsoever, but here we have a rather classic divide of perspective. This is also an example why few of the original OT come back to post or attempt to keep this thread alive. CluckyChook, could have asked this question on any of the forum threads here on BYC. You chose to ask it here in hopes of getting an OT's perspective. You did. There are few with more experience, training, knowledge and wisdom than NYReds. So, you can choose which of the divergent posts of advice to take. That is up to you.

BTW, I did read your thread and completely agree with NYReds, FWIW.

No offense taken . But I would appreciate some clarification. It is my understanding that the chicken was less than 40 wks old, was eating and doing everything a normal chicken does. In fact she was still gaining wt, The only thing possibly abnormal that I could see was the OP having to occas clean a poopy butt, which could have been caused by diet. She did not mention any pain. My question is how do u diagnose an internal egg layer, is it predominate with new layers or can it happen at any time. I would have no problem eating the chicken but I would have hated to have invested that much time and money in a chicken for laying, killed it and then found out that wasn't the problem. I personally have read and appreciated all the comments from the OT's and hope that they will cont to post. I was not trying to undermine anyone's experience or offend the ots. That's why I asked for more OT's to chime in hoping they would explain how they came to that conclusion if they concurred with NYRed. It bothered me that it was assumed that the chicken was an internal egg layer w/o even looking at the (?)symptoms.