Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[delisha]

Hi I'm looking to buy 3or 4 hens black giant Hersey for eggs but I also want to go broody can some one tell me where to go I'm from ilinois thanks

Hersey? or giant Jerseys? If you are looking for Giant Black Jerseys, they are not really a broody bird and are known for breaking eggs from so much breast meat. I have Jersey Giant White. No roo so I am no help. Good luck in your search.

 

[Beekissed]

I am not tiny...that's the bad part! These guys are just so huge! You can see now why I needed to start while they were young with the whips and chairs...I knew one day they would tower over me and I would have to have earned some level of respect by then. Their birth wts? 8lbs 11 oz., 10 lbs, 8 lbs.15 oz. Yeah...I throw big calves. Wide hips and all. I think Al would definitely keep me in his breeding project.

I've been feeding these guys with a grain shovel all these years and the smallest one can out eat the other two any day of the week and twice on Sundays! NOW you can see why I have had to be so frugal in my chicken husbandry, making every cent count and processing all the extras. Try feeding these three bottle calves on a single, scraggly income and you'll see why I grow my own foods.

Probably why my cull hens are so fat....can't seem to stop overfeeding things now.

 

[galanie]

Teachers these days have to get creative with their punishments. I'm not allowed to paddle, if I pull a kid aside to talk to him one-on-one, I must be sleeping with him, and a phone call home gets me a sob story about how he doesn't respect his mama either and treats her the same way. I've got "the look" down, and that's usually all it takes. But not always. New school punishment option: stick them in the hallway, standing on a special tile on the floor, staring straight into the camera that monitors the hallway with 24/7 video footage. Let them know that if they move, the office will be there to pick them up. Haven't had a bit of trouble with that one yet, even though the camera's been broken all year

I had a kid once who wouldn't shut up in class. Couldn't say three words without him interrupting. I told him if I heard one more word, I was calling his mom right then & there. Next time he opened his mouth, I picked up the phone and dialed her number. Spoke with her for a moment - in front of the rest of my gawking students - and then handed him the phone. Do you know that she came to school and reamed ME for embarrassing her son!?

Needless to say, I plan for this to be my last year of teaching. I'm hanging up my ruler after five whole years on the job. Our public school system bows down to parents, fails to teach students one iota of respect or responsibility (in my school, I'm not allowed to expect a child to have a pencil or paper. I must supply it for him. Do you know how many pencils I go through in a day?! Week... Year... It's pathetic - board of education has no backbone)

Rant over.

Both of my brothers and one sister in law are teachers. Or were. Both my sister in law and her DH are retired now. The one brother still teaches. Don't ask him about his job. He just rolls his eyes. After years of hearing how bad the kids are now that there are no consequences for acting up, I understand the retirements and the rolling eyes. It has become an impossible job.

 

[Sally8]

Can I fast forward for a moment? I had my children in the 70's That's when they started stuffing our children's minds with child abuse. I'm not saying that there isn't a real problem out there but from what I've seen, they jump all over the parent that believes in discipline and closes their eyes to the real problem. When my children first came home accusing me of abuse, I posted the child abuse hotline phone number on the fridge and would offer to call for them when they would threaten me. Unfortunately, lack of discipline is a real problem. We now have monitors on the school buses and the turnover of replacing the monitors is unbelievable. I'm not sure, we may also have tv monitors too but I know an extra person is on too.
short story--When I was in high school there was this boy that was always high on drugs. He lived up on a hill and the road bordered a very steep bank. Bobby was always "way out there" and annoyed our bus driver (he was an ex narc officer from NJ). The one day, Bobby stumbled up the isle and out the door and down over the bank he went. Dave the bus driver waved and yelled bye Bobby, shut the door and we went on. The next morning, Bobby was waiting at his usual stop. I know some of you OT walked a very long way but from where I lived, I walked 1 mile to catch a bus and rode the bus for 45 min to get to the grade school and then changed buses to go on to high school. That doesn't happen now. I also had to go get my own lilac switch and take it to my mother. She was more of a screaming mother, thankfully.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Now that everyone has had a chance to have their say on the discipline discussion..........

It's time to curtail that side discussion and get back on track.
There's too big a risk of that other thing going south in a big hurry, and in a big way.

 

[Maven]

Now that everyone has had a chance to have their say on the discipline discussion..........

It's time to curtail that side discussion and get back on track.
There's too big a risk of that other thing going south in a big hurry, and in a big way.

X2

I say, what we need is some thread discipline up in this thing!!

Yeah, I 'crack' myself up sometimes.....

 

[Beekissed]

I agree....we do tend to wander away at times. Anybody talkin' about chickens?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Well, I've got my new incubator warming up. May set tonight or in the morning.

 

[Pullet Surprise]

I have two mutt girls that have gone through a light molt and I thought they would be too young for that this year. Checked them out again today for any signs of mites etc., nothing that I could detect. So does it depend on the chicken when nature decides it's time for them to molt? New feather shafts are coming in, one is a bit cranky, but they seem perfectly fine otherwise. Tail feathers and neck feathers seem to be the ones that have dropped thinned out..should I get the microscope out and look harder for crawly things?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have two mutt girls that have gone through a light molt and I thought they would be too young for that this year. Checked them out again today for any signs of mites etc., nothing that I could detect. So does it depend on the chicken when nature decides it's time for them to molt? New feather shafts are coming in, one is a bit cranky, but they seem perfectly fine otherwise. Tail feathers and neck feathers seem to be the ones that have dropped thinned out..should I get the microscope out and look harder for crawly things? 

How old are they? Could this be a juvenile molt?