Are We Overthinking This?

[OldGuy43]

I was out turning my compost heap this AM and watching my cluckers do their thing, scratching, eating, drinking, laying etc. when a thought struck me, "Am I making this more complicated than it needs to be?" As I pondered on this I remembered a bit from my childhood during the golden days of radio (Do you remember radio? It was like TV without the need to actually look at it.

);

First guy: "I'm going to start raising rabbits."

Second guy: "Do you know anything about raising rabbits?"

First guy: "No, but the rabbits do!"

My question is that once we've protected them as best we can from danger, and provided food, water and shelter is all of the rest of this really necessary? Chickens know how to raise chickens.

Opinions?

 

[elmo]

What else are you doing for your flock?

 

[JodyJo]

I am a bit confused...what else do any of us do beyond this and what should we be doing...?

 

[OldGuy43]

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Nothing, but I've considered adding heat, light, shade, cooling and disease protection among other things.

 

[gritsar]

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That's what I do. My chickens have their family of other chickens and I am just a visitor to their world. About the only thing I would add to the above is observing them for signs of illness (and because it's enjoyable) and putting my hands on each bird at least once a week, to check for health issues.

 

[simplynewt]

I thinkk I know where Oldguy is going with this. I remember radio but was introduced to the world after TV made its debut (64) but yea, how did they raise chickens back in the old days? I am sure there wasnt any of the technology that they have today and they seemed to have done just fine back then.

Sometimes I feel that we get so caught up in all the information and new gadgets that are flowing around us everyday and we seem to loose sight of the simple things that kept things going for many years back then.

I contemplated putting a small flat screen in the coop so the girls can watch reeruns of Foghorn

 

[JodyJo]

Quote:
Nothing, but I've considered adding heat, light, shade, cooling and disease protection among other things.

ah, got ya....I add no heat, I want them to survive, and if my power went out, they would freeze...we get VERY cold here...in the teens at night already...they ARE wearing down after all!
no light...let nature take its course when it comes to egg laying...

I do watch them carefully to see if any are ill, they have a covered run for shade in the summer and
do ensure they are out of drafts in the winter...

 

[sheila3935]

My neighbor feeds and waters her thats it! Hers lay very well and even though she has lost a few most do very well. On the other hand mine are my pets that give me breakfast. They get the best feed I can get them shade in the summer with fans, this year no heat and they are feathering down very good. I have only lost 2 one due to the heat and a chick that was hatched deformed that we had to put down. My neighbor and I have some of the same breeds and mine have gone broody and hatched a ton of babies hers have yet to go broody. I sometimes wonder if its the way she cares for them. Mine have lots of coop space and the whole back half of the yard to range everyday. Hers is crammed into IMO too small a coop and the run is not that big either. So my point is each their own. Whatever you feel comfortable with. Chickens have been around since almost the begining of time and done well without our interference.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

See,already you are starting to think clearly, see what chickens can do? Less is smores, I mean more.

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

It doesn't have to be complicated, but it does require the care and attention you'd give to any creature (two-legged -- feathered or not! -- or four) in your trust.

Free-ranged or yarded, you see to fresh water and adequate nutrition. Provision for free-choice feed or supplements like grit or oyster shell are not complicated and just a part of it. See to hygiene/sanitation as their accommodations demand.

As for health, other than front-end decisions like vaccination for Marek's and or cocci, or a medicated feed, it's no more complicated than paying regular attention.

Going back to your original post, I find the management of a compost heap to see it through to a finished and usable product to be more challenging than the husbanding of my flock. i've often wondered if I don't make composting more complicated than it needs to be . . .

And to pick up on another thought that came out in the course of the discussion, I recall the words of my Great-Grandmother Douglass (b. 1875) as it related to the fascination my grandmother (her daughter-in-law) took to soap operas in the late fifties, never mind her son's rush to get home in time for Huntley and Brinkley at the end of each work day.

If God had meant for man to have television, he'd have put screens on radios.