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

[al6517]

I don't live very far from north Texas and although the Devil himself won't live here himself due to the heat LF or any bird for that matter do just fine. I never lose birds to heat and as you know it can be unbearable. Conditioning is the key, if you do half the stuff the frilly threads tell you to do you'll kill-em faster. Train them to deal with it and they will be so much stronger for it, without so much as a hiccup.

No misters, no ice water bottles under their bum's, no fancy anything. Just some cool shade, soft wet dirt to lay in and fresh water, that'll doer.

 

[SacredSax]

Well, How do I restrain myself. Been at this in some fashion or another 16 years. Left it all up to mother nature but have realized I can do pretty good at the local swap shops if I had more than eggs! After fruitless attempts to incubate my own, I decided I needed some edumacation. Spent more days than I care to admit trying to read so I just started looking at the pictures. When I say the prices of the small to larger incubators I spent more time, looking at pictures and making some phone calls. I hope this doesn't violate anyone's repertation or goals but this is worth sharing. My first attempts sent me on this wild horse ride cause rotten eggs are a waste, not just the egg, but the poor girls maken em, not to mention feed. Anyhow, this stuff below is sweeeet for the build it on a budget and gits about as easy as it gets. Hope this all helps some of my kinfolk. After reading till it all got blurry, I found this site's stuff. Now don't go getting your panties all twisted up cause some of you probably all know this but some don't, cause I sure didn't....The motor as little as it is only spins at 5rpm, so if your building a picnic cooler incubator or a refrigerator size unit "Kip" one of the designers at this site said it handles them well as long as thing are centered and balanced, you just got to do the figuren parts. The sweet thing is the rotation time and duration (big words again) can be programmed by the second unit I included below the first. Yes, more sweetness. It is a proportional thermostat that you get so if it needs to come on a little it does, or a lot, not just on and off with a wide temperature swing between the two cycle times of on or off. Plug her up, 12 volt, or use the adapter for 115 volt and thats is really convien, well easy..
http://incubatorwarehouse.com/5rpm-dc-motor.html
http://incubatorwarehouse.com/review/product/list/id/353/

Any of youins want to share idears bout these here contraptions just holler.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I don't live very far from north Texas and although the Devil himself won't live here himself due to the heat LF or any bird for that matter do just fine. I never lose birds to heat and as you know it can be unbearable. Conditioning is the key, if you do half the stuff the frilly threads tell you to do you'll kill-em faster. Train them to deal with it and they will be so much stronger for it, without so much as a hiccup.

No misters, no ice water bottles under their bum's, no fancy anything. Just some cool shade, soft wet dirt to lay in and fresh water, that'll doer.

No fans in the coops either?

 

[loanwizard]

 

[colburg]

I don't live very far from north Texas and although the Devil himself won't live here himself due to the heat LF or any bird for that matter do just fine. I never lose birds to heat and as you know it can be unbearable. Conditioning is the key, if you do half the stuff the frilly threads tell you to do you'll kill-em faster. Train them to deal with it and they will be so much stronger for it, without so much as a hiccup.

No misters, no ice water bottles under their bum's, no fancy anything. Just some cool shade, soft wet dirt to lay in and fresh water, that'll doer.

I'm from Carlsbad NM and the devil wouldn't live here either. Curious as to what you mean by conditioning though? Do you mean provide shade, water to drink, and ventilation and let them acclimate like normal birds? Or do you actually do something to condition the birds to prep them for the hot season?

 

[fowlman01]

I have always loved Rocks, ever since I was a kid. I have BRs (hatchery) right now and love them. I'm interested in Partridge Rocks too, as well as Dominique. I foresee Runner ducks in my future, too, but that's a different story.

Okay, now I'll step away from monopolizing the thread!

When you get ready for Runners I can tell you where to get the best and at a good price. You will be able to get the raal BR's this spring at reasonable prices.

Old female duck




Walt

 

[loanwizard]

Loanwizard,

Your sig line has the quote wrong....

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and you'll never see him again and he'll spend his last dime on a boat.

I have a boat.... I am broke.... I fish....

 

[loanwizard]

Stretch deer (plastic black netting) around/in front of/ over the stack to keep 'em out. It's pretty cheap and they can't really fly over it if you get the tall stuff.

Or...could retrain them to the nest. Or..could let them have that one nest and just take out it each day like you would the other nest boxes.

You know me Bee.... That's more my style.... also lost a hen that tried to drink out of a 30 gallon trash can.... drowned.... weird they can be so smart yet....

 

[Maven]

Al, thanks for your input on dual purpose birds. My take is that something that is dual purpose is not going to give stellar performance in EITHER category, maybe just passable performance (???) That said, I think that the old-timey heritage birds are gorgeous and are a fit for a lifestyle that isn't hell-bent on production. I got into chickens after my husband passed away, as something to "take care of". I like to garden, chicken poop is good for gardens, etc. Knew NOTHING about chickens but decided I had to have them, so approached it in my usual nerd way and started reading everything I could. I started in Oct 2011 with 6 adult hens (all hatchery stock I'm sure) but they all laid pretty well. Earlier this summer I built a 2nd, larger coop and was up to 16 birds, but lost 3 to the awful heat we had. I am SO SO thankful to all of you oldtimers who are sharing your knowledge. I honestly don't eat many eggs, I sell almost all of them which just covers the feed. I do like to eat chicken, though, so am considering trying my hand at meaties this spring. You all have helped me to decide in my mind's eye which of the hens I have now will be butchered to make room for a couple of new layers and possibly some meat birds. I know that I probably won't get enough meat for a pot of soup off the birds I end up butchering (mostly production reds), but hey they laid GINORMOUS eggs nearly every single day. My 2 Welsummers will likely go as well, because they are SO nervous, noisy, and pretty unpredictable in their laying (but beautiful birds, and eggs when they do lay). The best layers for me have been the production reds and the 2 Black Copper Marans I have left. I have one BA who's a pretty good layer and one of the prettiest. I would LOVE to have enough room (and money) to get into seriously raising and showing a few of the heritage breeds, those that have caught my eye so far are Buckeye, Delaware, RIR, Cornish, White Rock, and believe it or not the Black Copper Marans.

By the way, Al, I had to tell you about this chicken breast I saw the chef's grilling at one of the places I work. That breast was darn near as big as a turkey breast. The chefs were all saying that they wouldn't eat it because it probably came from some mutant chicken that had been force fed hormones or something. I looked at it and thought about your giant Cornish

CCC, I don't know how long ago it was, but my condolences on the loss of your man - sounds like he was a real keeper.

I, like you, knew from the day I was born that all I wanted was to live on the farm. Both sides of my family farmed - Mama's side were all cabbage farmers in Florida, and Daddy's side was from as far back as you can get in the Alabama backwoods living off the land. When we were little girls you could ask my sister and me what we wanted to be when we grew up and she could answer anything from a teacher, to a nurse, to whatever depending on what day it was. The only answer I ever gave was 'a perfect farmer's wife'

My first husband was a real snake, but I ended up with wonderful daughters. I raised them on my own a long time until I met the man I'm now married to. I knew when I met him he was 'the one' I'd been looking for all my life. He worked for the BIG YELLOW (Caterpillar) for 36 years, but on one of our first dates he took me for a ride in the country and showed me a farm and said 'what would you think about ever living in a place like that?' I fell in love right then and there. I didn't know it then, but the way my face lit up and how happy I was to even think about it was what did it for him too.

He lived in a small farming community at the time, but it was still in town. He was raising his daughter on his own (she was 5 when we met) just like I was raising mine.

When we got married, he told me 'you know, when I retire, all I want in the whole world is a place where I can sit on the back porch in my underwear drinking beer & shooting deer if that's what I happen to feel like doing!' I told him, 'Sugar, if that's all it takes to make you happy, I think we can arrange that.' So we found ourselves 70 acres in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains - a house on it we could rent out to make the payment, 2 ponds, 3 outbuildings, 20 acres or so of pasture and the rest in rolling timber.

We've worked our azzez off the last 16 years to pay it off and this spring we finally retired here.

This year I got the chickens and will get them through winter while we build the rabbit hutches and (hopefully) a couple of good holding pens for pigs and sheep. We have to get the pasture re-fences, then a couple of cows will come along and a horse or two because all the kids love to ride. Our dream is finally becoming a reality. We feel like we died and went to heaven every single morning when we wake up. I don't think it will ever get old. All the girls and their families live up in Illinois still, but they are only about 4 hours away and ALL the grandkids love the farm - they make their moms and dads bring them down every chance they get.

Funny thing - that grandson I posted pictures of a few pages ago - the 3 year old with the rooster? He called me yesterday - well, he MADE his Mama get G'ma on the phone as soon as he got up from his nap. I said 'Hi B, what's a matter with G'ma's boy?' He said, in the most serious, passionate voice a 3 yo can muster 'G'ma, you HAVE to bring me my chickens, RIGHT NOW.'

I don't think we have to worry about this 'family farm' ever leaving the family as long as my grandsons are around.

Sorry for the ramble everyone....

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
That's priceless! Next generation....good to know.

I like the stories. It helps us gauge the mindset of folks and probable goals for their flocks. These lessons coming up are going to have to address a large cross section of chicken owners with various reasons for wanting to know and apply the information. The stories give us an idea of the demographics of the thread and try to cover the bases for the majority.