Any poultry plans for 2014?

[chicken farmer]

Have any plans for 2014 about your flock or any additions,culling or anything your gonna do with your birds? Post them here and let's share are plans! For 2014 I'm gonna cull some roosters and get some more laying hens and build a bigger coop

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

My plans for 2014 are to purchase a lot more baby chicks and to purchase also a new incubator. By the end of 2014 I want at least 100 laying hens and a nice market for my egga....

 

[aggiemae]

A friend of ours has agreed to help us raise meat birds on her farm, I have to buy all the chicks and brood them until they are coop sized, we will split the cost of the feed (70/30). and slaughtering (50/50) will will split the processed birds 70/30 since there are 6 of us and she is single.

We had chicks in 2012 and 2013 plus, according the the chicken police, can only keep five hens and we already have 8 in so we will skip this year.

 

[aart]

Just started with chickens this past fall, that was my 2013 goal, build coop and run, get starter flock. Was able to do my first incubation by borrowing incubator and hatching (and brooding for 3 weeks) for the owner of bator.

2014 goals as of now are to get gear needed and learn to butcher, for culling at least (Jr. Rooster on death row now); hatch some replacement/additional layers; enlarge existing run; add pop door and run for coop partition; and just see how things go for the remainder of my first full year of chicken keeping.

 

[DCchicken]

I plan on raising Marsh Daisy this year. Although that probably means building another coop.

 

[Bert2368]

I want to try letting the dorking hens brood a batch of chicks. At least 2 of the hens are TRYING to do that already, so I will be building them a couple of brooding enclosures soon. Poor hens aren't doing so well with the other chickens ramping around them-
 :cd
Also need to finish enclosing our orchard area and build a gate from the current chicken run to allow chickens a lot more space to eat clover, fallen fruit and bugs-

 

[LDSchick]

I have already ordered and paid for a batch of 15 chicks from Murray McMurrary for April. A split between 7 layers, 8 meet birds and one mystery chick! I got my first chickens last fall so will be culling the second year chickens next fall as they will be two. All except for one red star who is my favorite! I know how to butcher myself and did t it on the 4th of July all by myself, but don't really enjoy it and am not the best at it so when I was ready to harvest meat birds I raised this past summer I took them to a local processor and had a good experience. I will use them again next year. Plus I hope to have a broody or two again and have them hatch out farm eggs as I have a couple roosters.

 

[GatorRPh]

I Plan to get started with chickens this year. I like to give my wife what ever she wants (that strategy has worked to keep me HAPPILY married for 23 years and I ain't gonna change it now). She has wanted chickens for a long time but they were just made legal in Jacksonville last month. I was not in favor at first but after researching on this and other sites I have learned that my objections were allegedly unfounded or founded in myths and ignorance.

So we have a Barred Rock, a Speckled Sussex, and a BLR Wyandotte on order from MPC with a June, 23 delivery date. Jax has a five hen limit but I want to start as small as possible and three is the least I can get shipped. I would buy just two to start from local sources except I can only find straight run chicks or pullets, local breeders don't offer sexed chicks . My wife would have a real problem culling any roosters (roos not allowed by law) in the first case and we want chicks rather than pullets so we can attempt to socialize them for pets. One reason I want to start small is my wife will insist on caring for them for all of their natural life regardless of production so I want to be able to add fresh layers as the hens age beyond their fertile stage.

Inevitably I will end up performing the chicken chores as I am retired with extra time to kill while she continues to work full time so I plan to order the large Snap Lock coop because it appears to be easy to clean and maintain. We have an area about 25' x 25' enclosed by 6' privacy fencing we plan to keep to keep them in. It is next to our living room/den and close to the kitchen for egg collection and is accessible via french doors which will provide a view of the hens (they're to be pets remember). My plan is to put an Ardor1 door opener on the coop and allow them free access to this area during daylight. I'm hoping to avoid having to build a covered run by allowing them free access to this area along with supervised forays into the back yard to forage for bugs. I'm sure the coop will be large enough for 3 hens and think 5 will be comfortable for sleeping as long as they have free access to this exercise area during the day. I think the coop will keep out coons and possums at night but my worry with this arrangement is that we live close to the St. Johns River and a wildlife refuge and I'm a little concerned about the hawks and Bald Eagles which we see on a fairly regular basis and the Owls that we hear hooting each evening. Last year while I was out in the very yard I'm talking about keeping the hens in, a rather large rabbit fell out of the sky and plopped down no more that 3' in front of me. I looked up to see an eagle circling overhead and left the rabbit where it fell to see if the bird would retrieve it's meal. It never did and I'm encouraged by that. Any opinions on whether a raptor will fly into a restricted area abutting an occupied building for a meal? The rabbit disappeared over night so I imagine a coon or possum profited from the eagle's loss (the yard wasn't fully enclosed by fencing at that time). Looking out my window now I see an eagle flying low over the wooded area next to my neighborhood. Don't get me wrong, we live in the city, or a bustling suburb (Mandarin) with lots of traffic but it is Florida and eagles, ospreys and gators are very common and I have seen a fox run thru the neighborhood twice in 20 years, the last time less than a month ago. A possum took up residence in our garage this fall after I foolishly stored some dog food there. That was a lot of fun dealing with, they secret some foul smelling substance when cornered and I have a whole new understanding of what playing possum means. One of the reasons for my breed choices is because their coloration might provide some camouflage protection. The speckled really blend into the background in some of the photos on this site. Of course, eagles do have Eagle Eyes and can see a mouse from 500 feet above so a camouflaged chicken isn't likely to go unnoticed for long when they're flying 50 feet above my house on a daily basis and resting in the pine trees next door.

I got the wife two little giant baby pig feeders for Christmas, they will fit into two of coop's nesting boxes leaving two for the girls to lay in. I couldn't justify buying the coop this early but wanted her to have something related to the chicks that she could actually touch. She's so excited, and I do love seeing the smile on her face when she's excited. She's excited, I'm lucky.

Merry Christmas.

 

[Sheilak]

Merry Christmas! Best wishes for success in 2014!
We will be retiring in TX soon and hope to find a few acres or a little more to settle on. We will start our 1st flock as soon as we can. DH will handle construction and I will supervise . I'm hoping we can have a rooster for our flock. More excited about Chickens, coops, run, fermenting feed, holding,petting, gathering eggs, talking chicken and getting pooped on than I am about our new home.
Good luck with all your plans everyone !

 

[Faverolling]

I'm planning on setting up a breeding flock of Faverolles and showing once I breed some decent birds. c: