In March, my wife and I decided that we wanted to raise a few chickens. We packed the kids in the van and went to TSC and bought 12 straight run White Leghorn chicks that were already almost two weeks old. We live in city limits so I knew immediately that I would be butchering the cockerels and I didn't have an issue with that. Around min-April the kids wanted to expand our small flock of birds so the wife and I agreed and this time we went to our local Orscheln's Farm and Home store and bought 6 RIR, 6 Production Reds, and 6 Easter Eggers. We lost one RIR chick about a week into brooding.
Fast forward to mid-June...a friend of mine asked if I would be interested in a few of his hens which I obviously said yes. I asked how many he was getting rid of and he said all, his wife wanted them no more. Okay, I agreed to take all 25 hens and rehome some to another friend of mine which left me with 17 eighteen month old laying hens of Production Red, Barred Rock, and Easter Eggers. When I arrived at his house to pick up the hens I was appalled at the sight. He had 36 hens in an area roughly 10' x 15'.
This included the supposed coop. They had no type of bedding at all, just muddy poop covered ground. The smell was horrendous.
He is a heck of a nice guy just not very good with animal husbandry.
Anyhow, I converted my truck bed into a makeshift pen to haul them and he started loading them in the truck. Every single bird had mites, had lots of missing feathers on their head and neck areas, breast area, and undersides. Many had missing feathers and red ares around the vent. To me this was an unacceptable way to treat any animal. The water was so dirty that it looked like mud. He gave me the waterer but it was so gross that I pitched it when I got home. I kept to my self and we finished loading the 25 I was getting (the rest were already spoken for). I was now really concerned as I have no way to quarantine 25 birds for a month. I drove the 25 miles home all the while racking my brain about what I was going to do. I thought about butchering them all to keep any cantamination from my current flock but in their condition I would have been afraid to eat them. I decided that they were all going to be thoroughly cleaned before being introduced to the coop and others.
I called my brother and he came over and gave me a hand. I filled a washtub with water and used some dog shampoo and my brother and I got busy giving 25 chickens a bath. These chickens actually stank...badly. Everyone of them got a good scrubbing and we semi-dried them. We released them in my coop and pen (coop is 10'x12' and my run is almost 350 square foot). They all took to the water and feed right away.
I personnaly don't thing these birds ever had a chance to dust bathe or see any grass whatsoever. For two days these 25 dust bathed almost constantly. And they fell right in with my other 23 chickens. We delivered the eight chickens to my other friend 5 days later.
Fast forward again...these chickens are almost all feathered back in now after about 4 weeks with us. And they look beautiful! They have gotten all the feed they want, oyster sell, grit, and lots of grass. When I can let them roam the yard I do, but when I mow the lawn I bag the clippings and put it in the run and they all love it! One thing that really surprised me with this whole experience is that the 25 hens never stopped laying...period. They layed 21 eggs the next day! I figured I wouldn't see any eggs for about a week but apparently the stress didn't bother them. The egg quality was actually on the poor side for about 5 days. I increased the amount of oyster shell and fed them chick grower for 2 weeks and to this day we are getting beautiful eggs with wonderfully hard shells.
Well, I just wanted to post my experience.
Fast forward to mid-June...a friend of mine asked if I would be interested in a few of his hens which I obviously said yes. I asked how many he was getting rid of and he said all, his wife wanted them no more. Okay, I agreed to take all 25 hens and rehome some to another friend of mine which left me with 17 eighteen month old laying hens of Production Red, Barred Rock, and Easter Eggers. When I arrived at his house to pick up the hens I was appalled at the sight. He had 36 hens in an area roughly 10' x 15'.
Anyhow, I converted my truck bed into a makeshift pen to haul them and he started loading them in the truck. Every single bird had mites, had lots of missing feathers on their head and neck areas, breast area, and undersides. Many had missing feathers and red ares around the vent. To me this was an unacceptable way to treat any animal. The water was so dirty that it looked like mud. He gave me the waterer but it was so gross that I pitched it when I got home. I kept to my self and we finished loading the 25 I was getting (the rest were already spoken for). I was now really concerned as I have no way to quarantine 25 birds for a month. I drove the 25 miles home all the while racking my brain about what I was going to do. I thought about butchering them all to keep any cantamination from my current flock but in their condition I would have been afraid to eat them. I decided that they were all going to be thoroughly cleaned before being introduced to the coop and others.
I called my brother and he came over and gave me a hand. I filled a washtub with water and used some dog shampoo and my brother and I got busy giving 25 chickens a bath. These chickens actually stank...badly. Everyone of them got a good scrubbing and we semi-dried them. We released them in my coop and pen (coop is 10'x12' and my run is almost 350 square foot). They all took to the water and feed right away.
I personnaly don't thing these birds ever had a chance to dust bathe or see any grass whatsoever. For two days these 25 dust bathed almost constantly. And they fell right in with my other 23 chickens. We delivered the eight chickens to my other friend 5 days later.
Fast forward again...these chickens are almost all feathered back in now after about 4 weeks with us. And they look beautiful! They have gotten all the feed they want, oyster sell, grit, and lots of grass. When I can let them roam the yard I do, but when I mow the lawn I bag the clippings and put it in the run and they all love it! One thing that really surprised me with this whole experience is that the 25 hens never stopped laying...period. They layed 21 eggs the next day! I figured I wouldn't see any eggs for about a week but apparently the stress didn't bother them. The egg quality was actually on the poor side for about 5 days. I increased the amount of oyster shell and fed them chick grower for 2 weeks and to this day we are getting beautiful eggs with wonderfully hard shells.
Well, I just wanted to post my experience.
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