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

[fowlman01]

Interesting birds in the photo, Walt. What are they?

O Shamo's.......an ancient Oriental breed. Gentle giants, they just don't like other chickens. No worry about hawks when they are out...maybe an eagle could be a problem if they didn't see it coming.........they are surprisingly quick for their size and quite strong.

Walt

 

[chickletteSarge]

So they taste like "chicken" then I'm guessin.....lol
HOLY CHINGALY! THAT'S A HUGE uh.... BIRD! Do you eat them???
And what's a chocobo?
AWESOME FOWL SIR! Still tryin to find the propper chanels and paper work to gain access to the CO in my outfits good graces to allow me to have a set! Maybe someday....

 

[stonykill]

Ok I asked this ? On the other thread but got an off answer....
Stony, are the roos the only birds that are harvested? I was wondering because DW and I read that they taest like pheaseat.
Never had phesant before and don't want to be suprised. (In a founkey face way.)lol

I have eaten hens as well. They are smaller however, but still ok with a good side dish or 2. Sumatra's are chickens and that is what they taste like ....chicken. Good fresh, home raised chicken full of flavor.

 

[ajlynco]

With 11 pullets, I'd put in a third nest box if you can. You can probably get by with two when things go well, and they will probably mostly use just one or two anyway, but a third gives you more flexibility, sort of insurance. Even with yours, you might get a broody that will take up a nest. Not all broodies let other chickens lay with them, though a lot will. I've had hens that would regularly stay on a nest for up to three hours while she was laying and would not let another hen in the nest with her. I think a third nest will give you a better chance for less drama with them even if it is not used much.
Do you currently have a problem with them roosting in the nest boxes or are you just anticipating a possible problem? If you are currently having a problem, what is going on? How much roost space do you have? Is it all of them or just a few? I can't tell from your post if you have a problem or are just worrying about something that might happen.
I'm a firm believer in using fake eggs. Golf balls work well for me. I've used plastic Easter eggs, filling them with sand and glueing then shut, but they eventually came open. With ping pong balls or the empty Easter eggs, they can ge scratched out of the nest easily when the hen is rearranging the nesting material. Wooden, rock, or ceramic eggs would work too. Something heavier works better for me.
I've had a fake egg get scratched out of a nest onto the floor and a hen laid an egg next to that one that hed been scratched out. When I put the fake egg back in the nest (I raised the lip on the nest to stop that) that hen wen t back to laying in the nest. There is a fair chance they will figure out what the nests are for anyway, but I firmly believe a fake egg helps give them the right message.

Ridgerunner, I just installed the nestboxes on Sunday and the girls didn't roost in them Sunday or Monday nights so maybe I've fretted over nothing. I just wanted to be ready if they did. Re: fake eggs, should I go ahead and place some in the nests now, and if so, how many in each nest?

 

[Leahs Mom]

And I can tell you just which birds will be producing eggs and meat enough for my table needs and that there skinny thing in the cage isn't going to produce anything but bones and more bones.

This whole breeder snobbery vs. hatchery mutts is amusing to me and only slightly annoying...but it's more amusing than anything else. In the whole breeder world I'm sure it's important but in the real world of producing food for the family and using a flock to do so, I don't care if the bird has a blue blood certificate or if I found it in a ditch in the road where it fell off of someone's Clampett-style truck.

I'm sure y'all make money off of showing and selling breeding stock and that is important to you....but in the broad scheme of things? It matters little if the bird "looks" right according to breed standards. Does it put an egg in the nest every day in peak season? No? Then I don't care if it is descended from the first chicken on the first day of the world, it is of no use to the ordinary folk that just want to eat their eggs and then eat the bird when they no longer produce eggs.

It still gives me a chuckle when I remember my first days on this forum when I first discovered there were chicken snobs...chicken elitists!

It's chickens, people!!! You eat them with noodles and a good broth, not race them in the Kentucky Derby!

99.9% of the world don't care if the chicken is a blue blood aristocrat of it's breed, they just want to use them for food and a mutt tastes just as good~or better~than that bone rack covered with scanty feathers in the cage . No offense to your bird, I'm sure it's a real blue ribbon winner in it's class but it has no practical usage in the real world.

I like 'em for practical too... But encourage the breeders and showers to continue and have fun at it!

 

[Robert Blosl]

I don't know anyone that makes money off showing, but the hatcheries seem to be doing well. There is a huge interest in breeding ot the APA SOP on this site of over 100k people. There are a lot of things about poultry that interest some folks......a lot of it quite different. If we were all interested in the same things what a boring life this would be.

Walt

How many people use this site 1,000 5,000 people?

Since I got on to start two popular threads one on Heritage Large Fowl and one on Rhode Island Reds many people did not know much about other rare breeds that this country has been raising over the years. I bet I dont know more than 50 people on this site that has standard breed chickens. I bet I dont know more than 10 who have bantams.

In my county that I live in its pretty large. I know maybe five people who owns incubators. Most who had them gave them up they cant hatch chickens of any kind. How many people have I know who has registered cats? Not one in 30 years. A few who have Regerested dogs. Most people have mixed breed dogs and cats. I am a guy who supports the human society's each year and gives them $100 for their work. How many people do that.
I have adopted one cat and two dogs in the last five years. Just yesterday a guy asked me what breed is your big dog? I said half German Shepard and half Beagle. How about the little dog? He is 100% pure breed Peakiness. Why do I like mixed breed dogs they are healthy and I hate to spend money at vet clinics. Yet when it comes to English Call Ducks I have the top line out of New York not ducks from the feed store. I see hundreds of chickens around my fifty by one hundred mile county but only know three people who have Standard Breed Show Chickens.. County Just three out of maybe 500 people who have chickens in my County.
I say there are only one half of one percent who own Standard Breed Heritage chickens. Heck I think they are one thousand of one percent. So the guys like me who are breeders of rare breeds of chickens and ducks are a super minority. The hatchery-feed store eBay chicken is going to rule for ever. You will still contact me with your problems with Rhode island reds and Plymouth rocks and I think the big reason you beginners are having such health issues can be sum up in one word.

Husbandry.

You just dont know how to raise chickens. You have to learn that's all and we will do our best to help you. You ask me for breeds of chickens I have never seen and then ask why they are so rare. You ask me why your chickens dont look like the pictures in the catalogs. You get up set when I give you my answers but that's just the way it is. I will raise my cure, scrubby, mutty dogs and raise my fancy Rhode Island Red Chickens. Some buddy has to or they will go extinct. I got a email from a guy in California two days ago wanting to get back into Barred Plymouth Rocks. He has been out for 20 years. He use to show chickens when he was a teen ager. he did not ask me to send him a catalog and who has the best barred rocks in the USA from a chicken farm he wants the top breeders of the breed which are only about two right now. TWO.

I can not afford to screw up with this guy as he may be the one I have been praying for to save the West Coast to raise such a rare breed that just about went ext-int in the past ten years.

I would love to know two things from this web site

. How many people use it daily and what in the heck happened to the Rhode Island Red population in America. Why is it so hard for older people returning back to chickens since child hood have such a hard time finding the breed of their choice that they raised twenty or forty years ago. What will it be 20 years from now 70% of all chicken breeds will be endangered? Just a thought. I am going fishing the heck with chickens today.

 

[Ridgerunner]

 Ridgerunner, I just installed the nestboxes on Sunday and the girls didn't roost in them Sunday or Monday nights so maybe I've fretted over nothing. I just wanted to be ready if they did. Re: fake eggs, should I go ahead and place some in the nests now, and if so, how many in each nest?

I keep one and only one golf ball in each nest permanently. Since I've had some pullets start to lay as early as 16 weeks, I think 16 weeks is a good age to have them in there. Yours might not start to lay for another month or more or one might start tomorrow. Even if it is a month before they start, if you have a problem, you have time to react if you have them in early.

The kind of possible problem I'm thinking of is, if they scratch around in the nests and scratch the fake eggs or bedding out, they are telling you to raise the lip on the nest box. I don't see any benefit in trying to wait until the last second and try to outguess them.

Besides, I can't tell when the first of a bunch of pullets is ready to lay. You might get some clues, such as the comb and wattles turning red, but those things are just a clue, not a guarantee. They'll surprise you. I don't try to outguess them.

I've found snakes in the coop with golf balls inside them. They could not crush those golf balls and could not get back out the hole they came in. It's happened more than once. Unless they are under a broody I never leave eggs in the coop overnight. Those snakes had been visiting during the day and getting a few eggs. They came back at night and couldn't find any eggs so they ate some golf balls instead. To me, there is more than one reason to have fake eggs in the nest.

 

[Arielle]

Quote:

That's a broad generalization of hatchery stock that is oft repeated by breeders. I've raised hatchery stock flocks for many a long year without the use of vaccinations or antibiotics AND have done it quite cheaply, I might add, by selective culling and breeding for hardiness from that stock.

I'm sorry I wasn't clear I am referring specifically to those birds purchased at the hatcheries, I'm not referring to once the birds are rehomed where management practices are very specific from farm to farm. THen the animals need generations to adapt to that environment.

I will bow out as it has become clear that people are looking for an augument here rather than create understanding of different preferences and why. As I said I have hatchery stock too. Bye.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I bought hatchery birds from the local feed store who has been using the same supplier for years, I figured they would be good enough and they are! They lay great, have never been vaccinated or medicated and lay a jumbo egg every day...they free range along with my oagf. I guess the reason they do so well is that somebody has been selective breeding these chickens for years..hatcheries aren't going to toss in free vaccines and up the price of chickens and neither do I. After reading so many posts no wonder I'm confused.
Everybody has the right to do what they want, it's still America, it's just that your way, not mine...I've been in the 'show' world and just cause it's got papers means nothing except I don't feel any need to pay extra money saying mine is better than yours. All the heritage breeds were developed by people, for people and when there's no longer a niche for them, they will disappear...sad, maybe.
It's kinda like saying your an old timer and your way is it..heck..I'm an old timer too, I just don't look it.

 

[thedragonlady]

I like 'em for practical too... But encourage the breeders and showers to continue and have fun at it!

The real breeders are those people who preserve the different breeds that can be used to suit different climates, housing and ranging, as well as breeding for either meat, eggs or both. Mutts would not have the hybrid vigor that so many people enjoy if there were not good strong lines back in their birds' family trees. Once the breeders' lines are lost, there will be no more strong lines to cross to produce either meat, eggs, or both. Poultry bred without regard to type will soon revert back to smaller and less productive birds.

A few years ago, the Greyhound Club of America closed their stud book to track Greyhounds as they felt that the track dogs, bred solely for performance, and who no longer resembled in most cases the Greyhound on the bus, were no longer really Greyhounds. Greyhound racing is all about money. Hounds are bred solely on winning at much shorter distances than previously run. Conformation is not considered; just speed over a short distance, so more races can be run in an evening. The result has been that the track hounds are now short and squatty with the huge muscles of a sprinter. They have lost the ability to turn, and would be hard put to catch a real bunny. They break down by the thousands. Many have their ears with identifying NGA tattoos lopped off, are shot, and dumped in ditches. A few lucky ones are picked up by Greyhound Rescue.

The hatcheries produce birds based on either SHORT term egg laying , or meat production. The hatcheries livelihood depends on selling more birds to people again next year, as this years' birds wear out, or go into the pot. Most SOP birds go on producing eggs for years. I had SOP SLW LF hens that were producing over 250 eggs a year at 5 and 6 years old, and a black Silkie hen who was not only on Champion's row, but still laying at 12 years.

The so-called snob breeders are most often those who have spent years breeding SOP poultry, and have learned the value of the SOP. Many might have started with hatchery birds, but soon learned the VALUE of SOP birds versus hatchery birds. There is a reason a bird is supposed to look the way it does in the SOP. The birds are PREDICTABLE for performance for a longer time , or for more meat in a shorter time.

Vickie Dawson