bad or half-baked chicken advice you've received?

[southerndesert]

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That's quite funny - but entirely possible, really.

I once had to argue long and hard with a transplanted New Yorker who thought that live Perherons would make ideally "authentic" lawn decorations for her weekender farm house.

Good grief.

That is funny and at forums I have read posts by folks that buy something they read about in the first couple posts of a topic that "every chicken owner must have" only to get home to find other posts saying Noooooooooooo.........

There is nothing wrong with conflicting info as long as one waits for it to sort itself out in a thread and it is best not to over think our chickens sometimes.

 

[chickened]

What I cannot figure out is why they know how to peck when they came from an egg and no Mama to show them. Someone had to know they needed to know how to do this. They actually needed to know they would not get out without pecking.

 

[frostbite]

It's an instinct, not a learned behavior. They don't have to know anything at all.

Birds that didn't peck their way out of their eggs didn't live to reproduce. Those that did survive bred and produced offspring that were more likely to have the inherent tendency to peck their way out of an egg.

So now, they don't need a mother to hatch out.

Darwin got some things right.

 

[chickened]

So I shouldn't help those out that cannot seem to make it? Did the first chicken come from an egg? I was being facetious.
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[frostbite]

Survival of the fittest is a concept that works in populations, not individuals. I don't know about your particular case, and your particular chicks. I know that hatching isn't nearly as quick as getting the insides out when I crack eggs into the frypan. I don't know if your chicks need help or just patience. I'll leave that discussion for those who have experience with hatchlings!

 

[Chinchilla2]

Here's a new twist on an old myth.... If you really want a lot of eggs, do NOT get a rooster. Eggs are a hen's way of announcing she is looking for a mate since roos can smell eggs up to a mile away.

Another goodie.... If you want a hen to go broody, add another roo to the mix. The fighting between the first roo and the new one will make the hen run to the nest to protect the eggs.

I'm thinking I can hold more water in my colander than these two bits of wisdom I overheard today at TSC.

 

[Chinchilla2]

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Somewhere at some time in the past I was watching a show on Discovery or National Geo, one of those channels and they had a bird in Africa (I think) that was actually helping the chicks out of the shells a little. Seems the chick pips and the parents just stand there a bit to watch it. If the chick can get the "zip" going so far then the parent birds reach out and start helping the unzipping process. They wait a bit, think the chick had made it to like the halfway mark but the parent birds were definitely lending a hand after a certain point.

Could be an evolutionary behavior for the area since, if I recall correctly, it was a rather arid environment. By helping the chick out of the egg, it could be evolution's way of heading off shrink wrap.

 

[elmo]

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, I agree with you there. I've seen my momma hens strip whole oats off the stalk and feed them to their chicks that are only a few day's old. The chicks grew really fast eating all that whole grain in addition to starter I had available. Of course I was told that chicks can ONLY eat fine ground grains like chick crumble.

I handed a mealworm to our first broody moments after she led her chicks off the nest for the first time...and of course she promptly gave the mealworm to one of her chicks! I gasped...mealworms aren't on the day old chick list! Then I laughed at myself.

 

[Nonny]

I haven't' been given any bad advice myself, but came across this tonight and was gobsmacked! It's from the website of a "Rent-a-Chicken" business under the heading of "Why You Should Be Keeping Chickens":

* Free, fresh free range eggs, the best you've ever tasted
* Know where your food comes from!
* The only environmentally sustainable pet for your backyard (turning wastes into food)
* They eat all your kitchen scraps, leftover take-away dinners, mouldy cheese and the contents of the 'land at the back of the fridge'
* They remove weeds from your garden and turn your compost heap over for you
* Kids love them (and they can be tamed), and
* The best eggs you've ever tasted (did I say that before?) up to 6 eggs per chook per week!

Would I feed my chickens mouldy food and food so old I wouldn't eat it myself? NO WAY!​

 

[dainerra]

Fred's Hens :

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I don't know about "bad luck" but it sure is annoying. Perhaps that is what gets them a trip to the stump with axe stuck in it?

"Whisting girls and crowinf hens always come to some bad end".

It's basically "improper" behavior. Excess roosters usually went in the soup pot and a rural farmer would have dozens of birds. Any might be roosters were killed because they didn't have the time or need to see if the hen was really laying, plenty more hens in the yard.

As for whisting girls, that was considered unladylike. Who would want to marry a girl who might be an embarrassment?​