BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[bmvf]

Today I took my rainbow layers that were housed in my coop to my buddy who wants some chickens running around the place. I still need to catch the last 4 or 5 that are running about my barn. My buddy milks organic, grain free cows so the chickens will feel at home. The only problem is they won't be finding any corn in the cow poop like they can at my place!

I need to clean out the coop so I can move my Delawares in. Should I be concerned at all with how clean I can get it? I was just going to scrap the floor and let it dry out, then move the new birds into the coop.

 

[gjensen]

Today I took my rainbow layers that were housed in my coop to my buddy who wants some chickens running around the place. I still need to catch the last 4 or 5 that are running about my barn. My buddy milks organic, grain free cows so the chickens will feel at home. The only problem is they won't be finding any corn in the cow poop like they can at my place!

I need to clean out the coop so I can move my Delawares in. Should I be concerned at all with how clean I can get it? I was just going to scrap the floor and let it dry out, then move the new birds into the coop.

I thoroughly clean everything as part of a rotation. Not as much for a fear of transmission (believing that exposure has already occurred), but a matter of control. Good poultry management includes the management of a build up of pathogens and parasites. Level of exposure is relevant. Where the birds may tolerate a limited exposure, there is a level where they may eventually succumb. If I choose to do it, then I perform it to the best of my ability. Otherwise I do not know that my efforts were worth much at all. Particularly with things that I cannot see.

I thoroughly dry clean. Then I give it a thorough wet clean (soap and water). I let it sit, and air dry. Then I thoroughly disinfect with a compound that does not deteriorate upon exposure to organic materials (like bleach).

In the long run, I believe we are better for it.

 

[1zooman12]

Well Bill Mathews,
You were afforded an opportunity based upon what looked like a turn around and at my invitation to be polite and cordial, but no, you could not help but to relapse into some deficient mental state by uttering your last comment. I'm hear to suggest that there are no psychiatric referrals from this blog known as BYC. Any comment of the nature of yours has no place on any civil blog so you probably don't know what you are talking about as there are no blogs that I know of which encourage snide comments that you choose to inflict. I have been associated with this grand outfit for nearly a year now and all are those I have encountered have a zeal for their craft combined with great manners. May I suggest that you go get the help that you need and leave the rest of us alone to share our enthusiasms, cordial ideas and the abundance of epiphanies? Thankfully my computer has the ability to reject any further comments of yours which reveal the old axiom of Michael Savage's origin that, "Liberalism is a mental disorder." My computer has been instructed to not even recognize your emanations much less to reveal them to me as I much prefer the wisdom and good nature of fellow bloggers at BYC. You had your chance and blew it.
Neal, the Zooman

 

[bmvf]

Quote:
I guess my problem with this building is that it's an old shed I got from my uncle that has a wooden floor. I can wash it but there's nowhere for water to run and I'm not sure how long the floor will last.

 

[apteryx]

I guess my problem with this building is that it's an old shed I got from my uncle that has a wooden floor.  I can wash it but there's nowhere for water to run and I'm not sure how long the floor will last.

I would suggest pulling out the old litter, scraping off whatever remains to the best of your ability then spraying with a disinfectant once or twice and allowing it to dry. As previously mentioned by Gjensen, you do what you can with the environment you have to lower the pathogen level.

edited by staff

 

[gjensen]

I guess my problem with this building is that it's an old shed I got from my uncle that has a wooden floor. I can wash it but there's nowhere for water to run and I'm not sure how long the floor will last.

I got away from wood floors, in part for this reason. I used them for a long time though. Some linoleum or similar may be helpful down the road to protect the floor, and make the floor easier to clean.

I like Lysol for soaking down wood with a sprayer. I saturate it, let it soak it up, and spray it down again.

 

[bmvf]

So apparently when it's 13 degrees outside stuff is frozen. Who'd a thunk that?

So the pen was mostly dry anyway, but frozen to the floor, so I scraped it, swept it, and threw the crap on the part of the garden I can't drive my skidloader to dump compost on. I'll spray something down in the coop and then move the new birds in.

 

[DesertChic]

My eggs have finally started to hatch! My husband awakened me at 3 A.M. to let me know the first two had made their way into the world. These are Naked Necks that I plan to use for meat, maybe a few for eggs, and a few for breeding.

The first two to emerge, all tuckered out from hatching.

I named this one Pippen. It was the first one to hatch.

No name for this one yet. You can definitely make out the naked neck.

At least half of the remaining eggs in the incubator are showing signs of hatching. It looks like this will take quite a while.

 

[dfr1973]

OK, I have finally read this entire thread from the start. Quite a bit of useful info as well as opinions here, which have helped me focus better on my chicken-related "dreams and schemes" which are now into the planning-ordering-building phase. I have even been able to narrow down my breed choices to four main projects (for me, that is significant progress as I like well over a dozen breeds):
1. Golden-Laced Wyandottes. I got four "straight run" chicks from Tractor Supply back in March 2013 and all four ended up being cockerels. Now down to only one rooster, and he is a beautiful feathered TANK. Very solid muscle and frame under those pretty, glossy, lovely feathers. Given the slower growth curve I observed in the initial four cockerels, I am thinking my extra boys will make fine roasters/capons. I need to learn to caponize this spring. I have found the graphic caponizing thread mentioned here previously, subscribed to it, and plan to read from start to finish next. I get 25 more straight run chicks this coming Friday!

2. Partridge Plymouth Rocks. The Rock variety that I find most attractive-looking, as I have this need for pretty birds. I will be selecting for rapid-growing fryers in the cockerels, while also keeping an eye on growth rate and lay rate of the pullets and hens. I will be ordering these in early to mid-March. My main experience so far with Rocks of any kind is with assorted cockerels, although the black bear and her cub got several last month and my neighbor wanted one of the surviving cockerels. I am down to just one barred Rock, but at just shy of 12 weeks old he is starting to fill out good.

3. Silkies - either grey, red, or partridge most likely. I will need a way to incubate, and being at the dead end of a dirt road off another dirt road means power outages during storm season (pretty much March through October). Silkies have a solid reputation as being "incubators disguised as featherdusters" for the hens and good "uncle" roosters as well. I already have a buyer for my extra cockerels - my fondness for ethnic foods has its advantages. Plus, I must admit they really do look cute.

4. Red Broilers, just for the fun of it. I will get my first batch on Friday with the GLWs, and will better be able to judge how serious I want to be with this project. I emailed the hatchery about the genetic makeup of these, and got the most-vacuous response claiming they are not a cross breed but developed from the Cornish Rock. Errr ... I guess they let the marketing kids answer emails while the knowledgeable chicken people are tending the birds. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but man the smile on her face was HUGE when we found her ... and I am now very curious to see what I can get from these birds.

If any of y'all "old timers" care to bust my chops on these plans, feel free. I spent time in the Army so I can take a chewin' with style as long as there is method to the madness.

Edit: I can spell, typing is a whole 'nuther matter.

 

[hellbender]

OK, I have finally read this entire thread from the start. Quite a bit of useful info as well as opinions here, which have helped me focus better on my chicken-related "dreams and schemes" which are now into the planning-ordering-building phase. I have even been able to narrow down my breed choices to four main projects (for me, that is significant progress as I like well over a dozen breeds):
1. Golden-Laced Wyandottes. I got four "straight run" chicks from Tractor Supply back in March 2013 and all four ended up being cockerels. Now down to only one rooster, and he is a beautiful feathered TANK. Very solid muscle and frame under those pretty, glossy, lovely feathers. Given the slower growth curve I observed in the initial four cockerels, I am thinking my extra boys will make fine roasters/capons. I need to learn to caponize this spring. I have found the graphic caponizing thread mentioned here previously, subscribed to it, and plan to read from start to finish next. I get 25 more straight run chicks this coming Friday!

2. Partridge Plymouth Rocks. The Rock variety that I find most attractive-looking, as I have this need for pretty birds. I will be selecting for rapid-growing fryers in the cockerels, while also keeping an eye on growth rate and lay rate of the pullets and hens. I will be ordering these in early to mid-March. My main experience so far with Rocks of any kind is with assorted cockerels, although the black bear and her cub got several last month and my neighbor wanted one of the surviving cockerels. I am down to just one barred Rock, but at just shy of 12 weeks old he is starting to fill out good.

3. Silkies - either grey, red, or partridge most likely. I will need a way to incubate, and being at the dead end of a dirt road off another dirt road means power outages during storm season (pretty much March through October). Silkies have a solid reputation as being "incubators disguised as featherdusters" for the hens and good "uncle" roosters as well. I already have a buyer for my extra cockerels - my fondness for ethnic foods has its advantages. Plus, I must admit they really do look cute.

4. Red Broilers, just for the fun of it. I will get my first batch on Friday with the GLWs, and will better be able to judge how serious I want to be with this project. I emailed the hatchery about the genetic makeup of these, and got the most-vacuous response claiming they are not a cross breed but developed from the Cornish Rock. Errr ... I guess they let the marketing kids answer emails while the knowledgeable chicken people are tending the birds. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but man the smile on her face was HUGE when we found her ... and I am now very curious to see what I can get from these birds.

If any of y'all "old timers" care to bust my chops on these plans, feel free. I spent time in the Army so I can take a chewin' with style as long as there is method to the madness.

Edit: I can spell, typing is a whole 'nuther matter.

It's good that you do your homework. knowing what I know now, I would pick just one strong breed and get to know and understand that breed before I went into others. There's a term I often see but don't think I've ever used...until now...

'Chicken Math'. It's easy enough to get over extended with one breed but when one begins mixing the breeds, it can be difficult to match the characteristics and for that matter the character of the breeds so that some semblance of order can be kept in the flock...JMHO