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

[flagirl]

have been following this thread from beginning and love it. Asked question several weeks ago when I added 2- 1 yr olds to my older flock which included 5 hatchery rir's. I got the answer i needed(I think from Fred) I thought they got along ok, but as the weeks passed the old rir(who were not laying anymore, except 1) were preventing the new hens from eating and drinking except when they went out to forage. then came the info on the rir's and meaness etc. that day 4 rir's jumped together on my new hen and pecked her. the next day I packed them all off to a friends mother to become good, old-fashioned southern chicken and dumplings . In just 2 days, the remaining 7 hens are laying more eggs and things are calm- a little jostling for pecking order, but all get to eat, drink and lay peacefully. that you guys for the great info

 

[galanie]

have been following this thread from beginning and love it.  Asked question several weeks ago when I added 2- 1 yr olds to my older flock which included 5 hatchery rir's.  I got the answer i needed(I think from Fred)  I thought they got along ok, but as the weeks passed the old rir(who were not laying anymore, except 1) were preventing the new hens from eating and drinking except when they went out to forage.  then came the info on the rir's and meaness etc.  that day 4 rir's jumped together on my new hen and pecked her.  the next day I packed them all off to a friends mother to become good, old-fashioned southern chicken and dumplings .  In just 2 days, the remaining 7 hens are laying more eggs and things are calm- a little jostling for pecking order, but all get to eat, drink and lay peacefully.  that you guys for the great info

This right here is the only way to keep birds from getting pecked. Remove the offenders. There isn't any Chicken Rehab. If they do, they're gone. If they don't, they stay.

 

[Fred's Hens]

have been following this thread from beginning and love it. Asked question several weeks ago when I added 2- 1 yr olds to my older flock which included 5 hatchery rir's. I got the answer i needed(I think from Fred) I thought they got along ok, but as the weeks passed the old rir(who were not laying anymore, except 1) were preventing the new hens from eating and drinking except when they went out to forage. then came the info on the rir's and meaness etc. that day 4 rir's jumped together on my new hen and pecked her. the next day I packed them all off to a friends mother to become good, old-fashioned southern chicken and dumplings . In just 2 days, the remaining 7 hens are laying more eggs and things are calm- a little jostling for pecking order, but all get to eat, drink and lay peacefully. that you guys for the great info

Glad it worked out for you. Sure, there are normal chicken ordering issues, but when it comes to the occasional hen that is just a witch, (sorry, I've no better word to use), she's gone. In early October, I'll assemble my winter laying flock of first year pullets. I normally gather up more than what I intend, because after observing them for a week or two, I'll cull 30% of them that just don't make the grade, in temperament. Those remaining are typically selected for the following spring's breeding purposes and wickedness isn't a trait with which I have much tolerance. Shrug.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Fred,

Have selected for anything before assembling this group of first year pullets? Or is temperament the first selection? ANd has temperament always been your first trait to cull all these years?

 

[Fred's Hens]

I've grown more fussy, as I've grown older. Temperament is much more important to me than it used to be. I wish I had given it more a priority in the past, but we live and learn.
I don't do any culling, other than for failure to thrive, until a spring chick reaches maturity. That is usually in early fall sometime. If the pullets make the cut of being in the winter laying flock, then we still have that winter to judge whether she goes into the breeding pens. We also will only take a handful of roosters through the winter. The rest all go in the freezer. Between my brothers and I, we may carry 80 or 90 layers through the winter, but surely, we don't breed them all in spring. Only the best are chosen for that.

 

[countrygirljess]

I have a couple of questions for the OT's on here. I don't have chickens yet, but am going to get my coop built over the months until next spring. I also have a horse boarding stable.

My questions, and I'm sorry if they have already been answered on here but I'm only on page 100 right now !
1) Can I put the chicks out in the coop if I have a brooder set up out there right away?
2) I'm going to have an enclosed run that the girls can go out in during the day, so what are some bushes and plants that are chicken safe that could go in there for cover, shade, etc..?
3) Can I put the horse manure where the girls can have access to it and let them break it up and eat the bugs and such?? I don't want to hurt the girls with this and I'm sure it won't do any harm, just asking!!
4) I live in Northwest Iowa, with hot and humid summers, sometimes over 100 *F and very cold winters, -30 * F sometimes, would Wyandottes be a good choice of breed for this area? All the research I've done on them says it would be so I'm just looking for what others have found to be true. I like them as they are supposed to have a fairly good egg production and I think they are very pretty birds.
5) I am also wondering if I could run a few ducks in the same run as the chickens? I only want a few ducks, more for looks than anything else.

Any and all reply's will be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!

 

[Robert Blosl]

Quote:

This is a great question as last week I got a personnel message from a beginner who has had three different breeds and seems to be going around in circles and does not seem to be satisfied with what she has. She has mutts as Ralph mentioned and I cant help that but you got to get a start some where. I did I had mutt Rhode Island Reds when I was Born and had them up till I was ten years old. My first Light Bahamas where mutts they lasted two years. Then at age twelve I saw the light I got me some pure breed Rhode Island Reds from a old strain out of Illinois. I kept them till I left home and joined the Air Force.

Now I have 27 years under my belt and I have only had two strains of chickens. I have Single Comb Rhode Island Reds that are 100 years old and I have a strain of your White Plymouth Rocks that are 50 years old. I dont baby them. Rule number one is Vigor. Rule number two is I use the Fit of the Fittest Principle when I breed. I may hatch 50 chicks out of four females. Only the Strong survive, I do not dope my chickens. Not vitamins, not worming, maybe some Adams flea spray to chase the mites away once in a while. I breed from females that lay eggs allot. Not your 275 egg production type birds but about 200 eggs per pullet year. My hens can live and I breed from them up to 8 years of age. I like to breed from hens and cock birds that have molted back the way I want them to look and act.Would you expand on this?

If they get sick they die. I dont need them I may put a male bird in a cardboard box during the winter when its cold to keep from freezing his comb but he is back during the day in the cold to do his job. My females have their nest, with their dummy eggs in them and I tried to breed them to lay be for 8 am. I don't put eggs in the incubator after eight am and in five years the off spring do the same. They go out and enjoy the free range eat bugs, come in and get their game bird pellets and fresh running water and out to roam the two acres and then they come back to roost I hope late and then i shut the door and the lights go off at 9 pm and we do it all over again the next day. This addresses the egg collection issue of the hens off roaming all day. What time do the lights come on in the morning so that they lay by 8 am?

No sick chickens, they are tuff, they are gallant in the males, yet DOCILE in nature. This sounds like he result of many generations of selection for the area they live in. If I move a new strain to my place should I support them with basic meds and worming? How is a location change managed?

Like I was saying most of your problems is in what you have and they are not breed for only one thing and that is to hatch and sell chicks.Old farts like me are died in the wool breeders just like the old farmers where in the old days. We dont go to Vets to take our sick chickens to find out whats wrong with them. They are very much like the Marines we breed them tuff and they live long lives and their off spring have these traits. I had an uncle that bred pigeons. Very good races. Won all their feed money. He culled a sick bird. THe remaing birds were less exposed and the resistant birds continued on the resitant genetics. He bred that flock for 70 years. When is inbreeding a problem? How do you keep up vigor when by mathematical evaluation, vigor decreases after 25% inbreeding?

Hope this helps you guys as this is what I was trying to tell this lady who was frustrated. She likes Rhode Island Reds. So get a good stain like I have I told her your money ahead in the long run. . I plan to get her ten started chicks next spring and will teach her how to breed them like I do and the man be for me and the lady be for him going back to 1912.

I have a fellow with the same problem. He likes Buff Orpingtons and I plan to get him some good blood lines of Buff Orpingtons that are tough like my birdsnest spring. He wont have any more problems with sickness and dieing birds next spring. Its easy you just got to know your blood lines and the strain history of the birds you raise to have extreme success.

If I have offended anyone I cant help it I am a poultry snob and a old time breeder. bob

Bob,

Thank you, I think I'm starting to understand. I learned most of my stuff in college. THe focus is high tech factory production. I'm looking for a flock to feed my family meat and eggs for little money.

What I'm hearing from you is the difference in selection process for many generations. I purposely started with cheap hatchery hens to lay lots of eggs. ANd putting feed in front of them was what I learned in college ( the factory hens in cages in a huge building). AFter getting the chicks last February, I started questioning that method.
Thank you, I think I'm starting to understand. I learned most ofmy stuff in college, as I said. The focus is high tech factory production. I'm looking for a flock to feed my family meat and eggs for little money.

You 've given me much to think about.





I will put my questions in red.

 

[Arielle]

THanks , Bob, my head is in overload. I have bred horses for a lot of years, and can look at conformation and access it quickly. Still working on the chickens.

 

[flocksalot]

I'm going to weigh in on the mutts vs. old strains. I know I shouldn't, but I just can't sit by and watch my old girls get maligned. We have some old mutts that we got as old hens as our young son wanted chickens and I had been without for a couple of years due to an injury. We received 6 hens and 4 roosters of which we kept one lovely boy. The rooster is a Welli and the hens are who knows what. We named them, cuddled and petted them. Heck I would have put dolly cloths on them if I had a daughter with dolls, but alas I only have boys. I never quit outgrew that faize. My older son, who had just gotten home permanantely from his stint in the military had grown up with a few chickens around, so when we put those four roosters in the greenhouse just outside his bedroom window it was like sweet music to him. Those old hens started laying right away. Liturally I got the first egg right after I put her into the greenhouse. The surviving girls that we still have (we've lost four in the last year) are now almost 10 years old if we go by the hatch date we were given. Only one died from an illness of sorts. The rest were freak accidents. Of the two remaining I was getting 3 or 4 eggs a week from them until Ezmeralda decided she was going to be a momma again. She does this once a year and all our egg customers notice as the beautiful sky blue egg is missing from their lot. Her sister Big Bertha is still currently laying and has never gone broody. These mutts have awesome vigor and laying ability. They are also very pretty to look at as are their many many offspring. We have other breeds. I think my son now has 20 different breeds. I don't mind as they are very pretty yard art and helps attrack more egg customers for the large amounts of eggs we get. Which in turn pays for his chicken passion. We also have many hatchery stock birds. It must just be we are very lucky or it could be we have an exceptionally healthy environment. Yes, occasionally we do loose a bird to illness. Free ranged birds are introduced to everything that wild birds carry. On the rare occasion that we have more than one bird ill we have dealt with it as we saw fit. I have medicated or killed depending on the circumstances. A bird with a serious wound will get antibiotics to help ward off infection, broken legs can get set in some instances. A few months ago we had a hen with a broken leg due to a rampaging horse. She's totally fine now and back to laying faithfully every day as she was before. I don't however go to a vet. It takes surprisingly little knowledge to look up information online and figure things out, but if I didn't have time I would go to my chicken experts otherwise known as Mom and Dad. There is very little they don't know, and most of that knowledge has been passed on as we grew up but we didn't always listen.

We recently had a feral cat get into the coop and tear open a hen that took twenty some odd stitches to close. She got antibiotics as who knows what that darn cat exposed her too. A few days later the cat was treated to it's very own shot from a 22 and hasn't been seen since. Although I could smell it when the wind was just right. Which was as it should be since that stupid cat cost us a girl a few days earlier. A hungry cat can and will kill a large fowl hen if given the opportunity. Putting a timer on the lights also helped as the cat wouldn't have gone in the coop had it not been dark. From our original six hens we have many offspring. They are of course mutts in every way. There is no uniformity in color or size. Those mutts continue to be our healthiest and strongest birds. Well that is next to our hatchery stock Dark Cornish. Those are some tough birds. The weasel that was recently killed by someones cat would have found those birds of ours stalking it. Last week they killed and were dragging about a very large rabbit. It's funny watching them play keep away when what they have is bigger than them. They also decided they were going to come up the hill to the house and take on my Broad Breasted White toms that weigh well over 60lbs each. I don't think those boys felt a thing with their feathers all fluffed out. Can't wait to see what kind of mutts my son hatches out with them. I'm hoping for some meaty boys. I know he's been hoarding eggs as the incubator is open on Sunday, so more mutts are on their way. And for me the more the merrier. We've got the housing, the land, and they pretty much pay for themselves in eggs and are the best darn pest control ever. Today I sold 3 birds and a bag of livers for 55 bucks. Now that may not be what you could get for a "pure breed" but it's fine by me as they were only little buggers.

Be proud of what you got whether they be pure breeds or mutts. The biggest thing contributing to their health is your husbandry. Find a bird that fits your lifestyle and what you require out of them and go from there.

 

[stonykill]

I'm going to weigh in on the mutts vs. old strains. I know I shouldn't, but I just can't sit by and watch my old girls get maligned. We have some old mutts that we got as old hens as our young son wanted chickens and I had been without for a couple of years due to an injury. We received 6 hens and 4 roosters of which we kept one lovely boy. The rooster is a Welli and the hens are who knows what. We named them, cuddled and petted them. Heck I would have put dolly cloths on them if I had a daughter with dolls, but alas I only have boys. I never quit outgrew that faize. My older son, who had just gotten home permanantely from his stint in the military had grown up with a few chickens around, so when we put those four roosters in the greenhouse just outside his bedroom window it was like sweet music to him. Those old hens started laying right away. Liturally I got the first egg right after I put her into the greenhouse. The surviving girls that we still have (we've lost four in the last year) are now almost 10 years old if we go by the hatch date we were given. Only one died from an illness of sorts. The rest were freak accidents. Of the two remaining I was getting 3 or 4 eggs a week from them until Ezmeralda decided she was going to be a momma again. She does this once a year and all our egg customers notice as the beautiful sky blue egg is missing from their lot. Her sister Big Bertha is still currently laying and has never gone broody. These mutts have awesome vigor and laying ability. They are also very pretty to look at as are their many many offspring. We have other breeds. I think my son now has 20 different breeds. I don't mind as they are very pretty yard art and helps attrack more egg customers for the large amounts of eggs we get. Which in turn pays for his chicken passion. We also have many hatchery stock birds. It must just be we are very lucky or it could be we have an exceptionally healthy environment. Yes, occasionally we do loose a bird to illness. Free ranged birds are introduced to everything that wild birds carry. On the rare occasion that we have more than one bird ill we have dealt with it as we saw fit. I have medicated or killed depending on the circumstances. A bird with a serious wound will get antibiotics to help ward off infection, broken legs can get set in some instances. A few months ago we had a hen with a broken leg due to a rampaging horse. She's totally fine now and back to laying faithfully every day as she was before. I don't however go to a vet. It takes surprisingly little knowledge to look up information online and figure things out, but if I didn't have time I would go to my chicken experts otherwise known as Mom and Dad. There is very little they don't know, and most of that knowledge has been passed on as we grew up but we didn't always listen.

We recently had a feral cat get into the coop and tear open a hen that took twenty some odd stitches to close. She got antibiotics as who knows what that darn cat exposed her too. A few days later the cat was treated to it's very own shot from a 22 and hasn't been seen since. Although I could smell it when the wind was just right. Which was as it should be since that stupid cat cost us a girl a few days earlier. A hungry cat can and will kill a large fowl hen if given the opportunity. Putting a timer on the lights also helped as the cat wouldn't have gone in the coop had it not been dark. From our original six hens we have many offspring. They are of course mutts in every way. There is no uniformity in color or size. Those mutts continue to be our healthiest and strongest birds. Well that is next to our hatchery stock Dark Cornish. Those are some tough birds. The weasel that was recently killed by someones cat would have found those birds of ours stalking it. Last week they killed and were dragging about a very large rabbit. It's funny watching them play keep away when what they have is bigger than them. They also decided they were going to come up the hill to the house and take on my Broad Breasted White toms that weigh well over 60lbs each. I don't think those boys felt a thing with their feathers all fluffed out. Can't wait to see what kind of mutts my son hatches out with them. I'm hoping for some meaty boys. I know he's been hoarding eggs as the incubator is open on Sunday, so more mutts are on their way. And for me the more the merrier. We've got the housing, the land, and they pretty much pay for themselves in eggs and are the best darn pest control ever. Today I sold 3 birds and a bag of livers for 55 bucks. Now that may not be what you could get for a "pure breed" but it's fine by me as they were only little buggers.

Be proud of what you got whether they be pure breeds or mutts. The biggest thing contributing to their health is your husbandry. Find a bird that fits your lifestyle and what you require out of them and go from there.

well said. That was my weasel killing cat, and I brought up mutts and caused a ruckus (apperently anyway) so I loved your post. The best part is the last 2 sentences. Well said, thank you for posting!