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

[La Casa de Pollo]

This is one reason I have been reading this thread, I am working on 'putting on my big girl pants' so that I can process my own birds for food. It is taking some time to desensitize but I am determined to do it. Absolutely determined. My family is grossed out by the whole ordeal as well, my daughter became a vegetarian last year. Not me, I am 100 percent carnivore. I have yet to eat one of my own girls though, it is taking me a bit to get those pants on...

 

[zinia8]

If I like? Oh Bee, I would be honored!! I'm only 2 miles off route 50, so it's not difficult to find. I'll let you know, and I'll buy your fuel and put you up for the night if you'd like. What month would be best - if there is a best - for butchering? I guess logic tells me that July heat may not be the most comfortable, and may lead to other problems as well with getting the meat cooled?
Thank you so much for the offer!!!!!

what's the price of admission?
I am thinking of getting meaties in the spring but I am hesitant on culling.I have watched the video and say to myself yeah I can do that but it would so much nicer to have someone with experience to learn from. I don't mind getting my hands dirty.
My DBF hunts and gets a deer ever year I have helped him clean and process them but he refuses to process chickens

 

[Beekissed]

.. Okay, I'm newer than a newbie. I don't even have any chickens yet, just beginning to plan and doing lots of reading while recuping from surgery. Although I spent time on my aunt and uncle's farm, mostly I'm a city girl with no experience so I really appreciate this thread. I've been looking at cute little yuppy still coops with attached runs until I started reading more here. Scrap that. Okay, so I need a real coop that's bigger than a breadbox. Maybe a shed.

We have 7 acres of mostly alfalfa and being not too brite I was also planning to put my little yuppy style coop with tiny attached run in the middle of the field where we already know the hawks hunt daily. So, scrap that idea too. I'm guessing I should put the coop on the other side of the property down by the stream where there are lots of trees for shade and places for chickens to hide? Do I need to worry about the chickens drowning in the stream? This brings me to the above quote. In terms of hawk shelter - the brush is very thick all along the stream so it seems it would be great for hiding, but do I need to worry that the chickens would get lost or stuck in the thick brush? Or am I still just applying wimpy city girl logic? Thanks!

That all depends. I really can't advise you on all that because it's a little more complicated than that to provide safer free ranging for the chickens. If you just get some chickens, keep them in your house until they are 4 mo. old, take them out to the pasture in a coop and turn them loose, you will likely lose many of your birds.

I never advise coops my a stream because those eventually flood, predators who live on fish and crayfish also like your chickens, and, yes...some chickens are daft enough to drown, though it doesn't happen often.

The thick brush is a great place for foxes to nab the birds and also for the chickens to lay out instead of in the coop.

I'd advise that, for your first year, you keep the chicken coop up close to the house(where you can hear any disturbances there) and invest in an electric poultry netting style fence to keep out four footed predators and then provide hawk shelter inside that fence for ducking and hiding from hawks. You'll never be sorry about getting the electric fence...it can keep out coon, foxes, dogs, cats, coyotes, weasels, etc. I'd place the fence completely around your coop. That way your are ranging within a paddock and you can change this paddock to a new place very easily when you want fresh pasture. The flock will stay safer and healthier under these conditions.

 

[Beekissed]

what's the price of admission?
I am thinking of getting meaties in the spring but I am hesitant on culling.I have watched the video and say to myself yeah I can do that but it would so much nicer to have someone with experience to learn from. I don't mind getting my hands dirty.
My DBF hunts and gets a deer ever year I have helped him clean and process them but he refuses to process chickens

No price, silly....just bring a cooler and a sharp knife! I have a whole box of nifty, plastic disposable aprons that cover your whole front.

Oops...sorry, Nicki...didn't mean to start inviting to your processing party. I just got excited about doing something like that with a group of folks...always just been me alone, me and my boys, or me and the Bat. Always more fun if you have a lot of people who really want to learn something.

 

[Mountain Momma]

If I had the where with all to come out, I'd be there in a flash.

Always wanted to go west and see Colorado. Was trying to get my middle boy to go to Colorado State to be a vet once but he changed his mind.

Loved John Denver when I was little...

still love his music.

If I could get paid to go around the country and do chickens it would be the coolest gig ever but that wasn't mentioned on career day at school, was it?

Well then we have to figure it out because it just so happens that DH plays guitar and knows all of JD's songs...even the obscure ones. He even knows Berkley woman which never fails to p**s me off. Sometimes friends come over and we talk way into the night while he plays these songs...talk about another guy who dropped all the balls and followed his dreams. JD, not DH, well maybe DH too. lol. We did go from KY to Co. Come in the summer, no humidity at altitude its never over 80 degrees and always sunny. Or heck come in winter and we can go skiing in our bikinis!

 

[Beekissed]

Bee? In a bikini????

When pigs fly...or when they ski.

Bee's a fat girl, MM. No bikinis for a long, long, long time. Long time.

 

[MagicChicken]

A few words......................

Toe Punching....................

The Diagram Walt posted is considered the standard operating procedure for the toe puching of very young day old - several days old chicks. it is a great method used by serious breeders who put serious numbers on the ground each year, it helps keep track of not only breeding groups and breeds but also is used effectively in ID'ing several Generations of birds to be used in further breeding. It doesn't hurt the chick bleeding is very little to non exsistant and will not become infected if you keep clean brooders. It's simple, easy and fast, plain & simple period. It also helps to learn once again how to vent sex chicks as this will also add another tool in your toe puching.

Leg Bands........................

After intial toe punching......... when the chick is big enough to be banded after the first chick culling session, I band them using wide spiral colored numbered bands. these bands are great IMO they come in many various sizes and colors, they can and do fit very well on very young birds all the way to adults. If done properly and monitored systematicly replacing them with the next sizes up they work great. Keep in mind a spiral band will stretch and conform to growing birds until the next size is needed. Put the bands above the spur line, and they should be slightly loose fitting but in way can slip off at all even during animated behavior. another advantage is these bands when replaced can be used again further down the road, so buying a variety of sizes and colors and different numbers will last you for a seriously long long time.

Thanks Al, this is a keeper. Especially the part about keeping the band above the spur line. Never would have thought of that - especially on a younger bird.

Quote from Al:

Great information, Al. I must confess that I have always thought the toe punch was a little harsh, without ever actually reading about it or thinking about it. Seemed like it would leave chicks vulnerable to infection, unlike the ear punch on a lamb or calf, due to the chicks walking in feces. Now I'm thinking that it was a knee-jerk, nursing style assumption.

Bee, you can always dab a little NuStock on 'em if you're concerned. Just remember, for toe punching you want the hole to STAY there, not disappear!

"How do I get some of these birds you ask ??? they are out there all over the place, you just have to look beyond your hatchery nose. Shoot !!! go down the road or out to the country for a Sunday drive and see flocks raised by people who don't even know Hatcheries exsist, that's where"

Al and others,

I ask where to get real DP birds that don't cost the $100 I saw on a breeder's website because I have literally combed the tri-county area with no luck.
So don't get frustrated with us. I bet there are a lot of others like me who feel like they are living in a time and place bankrupt of common sense, work ethic, and an appreciation for things that last. We can't learn in a vacuum!

I hope this doesn't sound disrespectful--I don't mean that at all!! I appreciate everything y'all say on here and I bet the questions newbies ask are frustrating as all get out. I guess I just wanted y'all to know that we're not always being stupid, we are just kind of floundering out here on our own.

IvyMae, Al already volunteered to help you out (he has a heart of gold under those rooster-flogging boots

) but you might consider looking for chicks in the spring, which are generally less expensive than buying grown-out birds in the fall/winter. The trick is finding the people whose birds you want in the first place. There are several of 'em on this thread. You might also want to check out the Heritage Large Fowl thread started by Robert Blosl in the "Breeds, Genetics, & Showing" forum. Lots of good info and connections on that thread. Just don't expect to get any income-producing work done once you dive in. Like this thread, it's a semester's worth of chicken college, and it's starting to move almost as fast.

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.

What? No half-nekkid buff guys in loincloths waving palm-frond fans, cooling the poor chickies as they nibble on their special pina colada pops at the spa? The nerve!

Quote:
Bee, the secret those career day folks never tell you is: The Best Jobs are Never Mentioned On Career Day.

You could get paid to go around the country and do chickens. And it would be extremely cool. (Let me know if you want a chicken gig in the southwest.) But it would also take you away from your chickens. And the Bat. And all the other stuff that's so worth having and doing and loving. Might be worth it. Might not. Just saying.

Ok, I am NOT going to be able to read this thread much longer, have actual paid work to do, hahaha. Maybe a bit tomorrow.

I gather that I am not the only one that had trouble with Barred Rocks in the heat - Buff Orpingtons and Australorps (I have black now) do better.

And that Production reds are just that, not much for meat, which might be why my 18 month to 2 year old Production reds were only fit for chicken jerky for my dogs. I crockpotted, and the breast was only sort of tender. The rest, well I just popped the cooked meat in my dehydrator overnight, and refrigerated in a baggy afterward.

And Bee on harvesting meat birds. My question - are you skinning for canning, or defeathering for roasting / frying?

(so far I've only skinned, my time is so scarce I don't see me ever pulling off a major meat bird harvest, and I'm always working alone... My grown kids think this is horrible and gross.... Tolerated but no one will eat chicken at my house.)

Just wondering, Gypsi, did you age the meat for a couple of days before you cooked it? Inquiring minds want to know. I haven't mastered the technique for cooking older birds yet, either.

Sarah

 

[Mountain Momma]

Bee? In a bikini????

When pigs fly...or when they ski.

Bee's a fat girl, MM. No bikinis for a long, long, long time. Long time.

I was mostly joking about the skiing. I'm a portly punkin myself. We could sit in the lodge with hot apple cider and swap stories. I have a few doozies you'd find hard to believe. Truth is stranger than fiction though. I guarantee you will be entertained!-L

 

[IvyMaeWilliams]

Morning, everyone! I missed a lot of stuff while I was out going errands.
Thanks to everyone who offered advice about finding birds. Al, I'll definitely take you up on your offer at some point, I appreciate it!
I took a peek at the Heritage threads and will be diving in whenever I can plan to have to uninterrupted reading time--for some reason, my three-year old just needs all this attention!

What's he thinking? But I'm looking forward to it!

 

[Sally8]

Not sure if I should post this here or on Bee's other site but I DIDN'T HAVE TO BREAK ICE IN THE WATERER'S THIS MORNING. 2 weeks ago I bought heated dog waterers and maybe that makes me a sissy, but na-na-na-na-na-na! After all the dancing around, I've used all the energy I would have thawing everything out. It's been warm enough for things to not freeze in the past 2 weeks to know until now. Hubby just left for work shaking his head. na-na-na..........................