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

[wsmith]

Yup, there's men here! I mostly lurk on this thread, picking out those chicken words of wisdom as they come up that I can apply to my flock.

BTW, with this last bunch of hatchery chicks we got, a few had poopy butt. I added a small amount of ACV and molasses to their water. Within 36 hours the poopy butt was all gone. Didn't come back either.

 

[wsmith]

I knew my Grandma kept that stuff in her shed for a good reason......

 

[Wynette]

For those of you keeping poultry for several years...I am curious about the use of hardwood shavings.

I have raised up a batch of hatchlings in a large horse stall in my barn. I used a different type of shavings for them, hardwood rather than my usual pinewood shavings that I normally use. The reason I switched is that these hardwood shavings are a bit more fine, making them more absorbent. I ended up losing 4 from a hatch of 17 - when I typically will lose none or MAYBE one. Their symptoms are consistent, and appear to be simply not thriving. They first appear disinterested in food, then keep to themselves in a corner, then begin to waste away. The hatching eggs were from 3 different sources; 2 deaths were from one breeder, 1 from another, and the last from another. I've been going over & over this in my mind, and the ONLY thing that was done differently this time is the shavings. Is it possible there is a toxicity in the shavings that would cause death? These birds are now 17 weeks. The deaths occurred at about 10 weeks, 12 weeks, 14 weeks, and 17 weeks.

The birds have not been out on soil yet. They are in a very large (broodmare) stall that's about 10' x 17', are given fresh water and good feed daily, with Avia Charge 2000 in their drinking water. The rest are thriving. In the losses, I have noted no discharge of any kind from eyes, beaks, vent...no sneezing/coughing, just a basic failure to thrive.

Thoughts?

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

I've bred sheep for 25 years. Lots of tough decisions along the way. I have a flock that fits my farm. If they develop foot rot-it's a one way trip. I would like to have chickens that work also. ANd yes I have my favorites to coddle, they are pets, most are not pets but I still talk to them!!

I'm fortunate to live adjacent to land set aside for hunters, it also means plenty of wildlife to pick off my critters. THe key is balance and prevention. I depend on fencing and my dogs to keep the coyote moving as the coyotes follow the path the deer travel. We rarely see the coyote; sightings confirm they still pass by silently. Unless it's spring and the howling starts. I'm sure my neighbors hate it but my dogs howling in the house is useless so I let the boys out. After a few barks, the coyote go silent.

I love the old owl. Still here after so many years. He/she moves around and I hear it in different areas of the woods; I hope that means more than one but I have only ever heard one calling at a time. I keep my chicks brooded with me not the hens as they will probably get picked off easily. I watch the free ranging birds to see who is on watch, and who is eating. Lots to learn.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Being male or female has little to do with it...it's how you were raised. Girls aren't supposed to be assertive, handle power tools, or drive tractors, them there's man work. I grew up in WV and trust me, it's different, when most girls were babysitting I was cutting and baling hay for the farmers, and trading and training horses...much more profitable. But! Whenever there was an orphan critter it was given to me to care for, and it was the BOYS that coddled it all the way over to my farm, you're all mushy on the inside, you just pretend you're not. I bet even Al pets his chickens and talks to them when no one is looking, well maybe just his favorite. My father was a screamin eagle that jumped on d day and made it all the way to the eagles nest...so I had no choice in being tough, extra chromosome or not, and even though he killed alot of people, he too had a soft side.

 

[chickencowranch]

Woo Hoo, made it the end. It took six days to get to read this whole thread before the kids are out of school for the summer and take over the computer. Love this thread. I bought 15 chicks fromTSC back in March. 5 silkies, 5 speckled sussex and 5 sexlinks pullets. Now have 3 ss roos and 4 silkies. The chickens replace the show cattle my 14 year old daughter took over. boo hoo. Anyway, the chickens are mine. We raised 100 capons from June to DEC every year free range when I was growing up and in 4-H. The chicken and egg part is new to me. The roos I thinking of keeping til fall and then selling them at auction, then replace them in the spring with pullets. Maybe. I'm debating now of when to let them out to free range for a few hours under supervision. Hawks I think are the biggest threat I fear.

 

[Beekissed]

lol. There are a few men on this site. It is mostly women. I'll say this then hide under the chair. I thought Beekissed was male mainly because she doesn't want to hold, coddle, pet, kiss and love on her chickens like 95% of women on the site. But then, now that I think about it they wouldn't read this thread anyway

Who says I don't like to hold, coddle or pet my chickens?

Of course I like to!!! All girls like soft, pretty things and my chickens are certainly pretty and their feathers just feel like silk. They also follow me around sometimes like moochy puppies and that appeals to a woman's heart. But you know what? I love the fact that they are animals in all their natural being and I really hate to inflict my human neediness for love onto their lives and change their natural instincts.

My husbandry style is geared towards these birds developing natural health and living a more normal chicken life out on the pasture...that, to me, is the reason they were placed on this Earth. Not to be contained in a box or cage, not to be primped, fluffed, coddled into something other than what they truly are and to live a great life,have a quick death and to be purposed for food, as is their destiny. It would be easy to let my girly side kick in and snuggle a chicken when the need hits me but that's why God made my kids and family, the dogs, the cat....for all those love expressions.

I need my chickens to be a little wild, a little rough and a little independent in order to allow them freedom out on range...they need to have that jumpy attitude that keeps them wary of preds in order to free range successfully...they will not develop that if they are lap chickens~this I know without a doubt. So, to fulfill their purpose, to live a great life, to be all the chicken they can be~they simply must stay off my lap and out of my arms. When gentleness and care are actually needed, it's there. When they need calm leadership and dependable care, it's there. When they need to feel safe, it's there. When they don't need any of those things~which is most of the time because they are pretty self-sustaining(by their natural design and by my intentions)~they are free to just BE.

To me, that is the most pure form of love I can give my animals...just letting them BE what they want to be without too much of my interference. What more could any of us ask? Yeah, it would be easy to give into my need to mother things but is that love? Nope. That's just me trying to remake a chicken into something it really isn't.

When I walk out into that yard, do you know who follows my every step? ALL the livestock and pets...they walk behind and around me, sit when I sit, stand when I stand and await to see what I will do next. I like to imagine they appreciate my leadership and stewardship for them, but who knows? Could be they are just wanting to BE right along side me while I am simply being.

Trust me...girly is something I have in spades when it really counts! I cry at movies, mother everything in a 10 mile radius and tell everyone how much I love them each and every time I have the opportunity. I'm a nurse, a massage therapist, a mother, a gardener, an artist and a lover of all things/people....I am a natural born nurturer. But I put it where it's most needed and chickens just do not need that kind of nurturing.

Sorry...feeling very verbose today and kind of...well..girly and emotional.

 

[wsmith]

Now I don't consider myself to be a chicken old timer, (though my kids think I'm an all round old timer).....
I was perusing the 1869 American Agricultural Annual; (available as a free read on googlebooks), and ran across this comment:

"Poultry.-April is probably the best month to set hens for market chickens. When a hen shows the first symptom of broodiness, if possible remove her to the sitting apartment and let her lay, if she will, her last egg or two in a nest full of false eggs. She will probably soon take to the nest and may then be trusted with eggs. Many good hens will not bear removal after they have once begun to set in earnest. Turkey hens may be trusted with fowls'eggs to hatch but not to rear chickens. Hens, as a rule, are best mothers for young ducks or turkeys. Broodiness is easily induced in turkeys or hens by letting them lay in full nests; eggs blown and the shells filled with plaster of Paris are good false eggs for this purpose. A turkey hen will cover two dozen hens' eggs, more or less, and after sitting two weeks they may be removed and given to hens, and fresh ones given to the turkey, which may thus be made to do most of the sitting for quite a flock of hens for two months or more." page 13, 1869 American Agricultural Annual

What caught my eye was first, the use of blown out egg shells filled with plaster of paris, and then used as false eggs, and also the use of a turkey hen to sit on the eggs, similar to what many of us do with an incubator for the first couple of weeks, then give the incubated eggs to a broody hen to finish out.

 

[stonykill]

Who says I don't like to hold, coddle or pet my chickens?

Of course I like to!!! All girls like soft, pretty things and my chickens are certainly pretty and their feathers just feel like silk. They also follow me around sometimes like moochy puppies and that appeals to a woman's heart. But you know what? I love the fact that they are animals in all their natural being and I really hate to inflict my human neediness for love onto their lives and change their natural instincts.

My husbandry style is geared towards these birds developing natural health and living a more normal chicken life out on the pasture...that, to me, is the reason they were placed on this Earth. Not to be contained in a box or cage, not to be primped, fluffed, coddled into something other than what they truly are and to live a great life,have a quick death and to be purposed for food, as is their destiny. It would be easy to let my girly side kick in and snuggle a chicken when the need hits me but that's why God made my kids and family, the dogs, the cat....for all those love expressions.

I need my chickens to be a little wild, a little rough and a little independent in order to allow them freedom out on range...they need to have that jumpy attitude that keeps them wary of preds in order to free range successfully...they will not develop that if they are lap chickens~this I know without a doubt. So, to fulfill their purpose, to live a great life, to be all the chicken they can be~they simply must stay off my lap and out of my arms. When gentleness and care are actually needed, it's there. When they need calm leadership and dependable care, it's there. When they need to feel safe, it's there. When they don't need any of those things~which is most of the time because they are pretty self-sustaining(by their natural design and by my intentions)~they are free to just BE.

To me, that is the most pure form of love I can give my animals...just letting them BE what they want to be without too much of my interference. What more could any of us ask? Yeah, it would be easy to give into my need to mother things but is that love? Nope. That's just me trying to remake a chicken into something it really isn't.

When I walk out into that yard, do you know who follows my every step? ALL the livestock and pets...they walk behind and around me, sit when I sit, stand when I stand and await to see what I will do next. I like to imagine they appreciate my leadership and stewardship for them, but who knows? Could be they are just wanting to BE right along side me while I am simply being.

Trust me...girly is something I have in spades when it really counts! I cry at movies, mother everything in a 10 mile radius and tell everyone how much I love them each and every time I have the opportunity. I'm a nurse, a massage therapist, a mother, a gardener, an artist and a lover of all things/people....I am a natural born nurturer. But I put it where it's most needed and chickens just do not need that kind of nurturing.

Sorry...feeling very verbose today and kind of...well..girly and emotional.

well put. Very well put. Waiting patiently for your book

 

[jeapa]

I agree. You definitely have a way with words Beekissed. I have a similar opinion though I doubt I could have expressed it as well as you did. Put me down for a copy of your book when it is finished.