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

[jvls1942]

Quote:
Crockpot.

I find it strange/humorous that people are OK with culling numerous birds/animals in the name of breeding, but find it awful to kill a mean chicken who could take your eye out on one of it's attacks.. I agree,, crockpot.. the meaner they are the better they taste..

jiminwisc.........48 years with chickens/animals

 

[Beekissed]

Here's another point of view...both are valid, but hear me out:

One of the scary yet colorful things about visiting my grandma's house was the healthy fear that her cocky roo or her mean bull would attack us kids if we were to go into the wrong fence/gate.

Those precautions are not outdated...these are still male animals and they are acting much like a male animal does at times. Children should be supervised around animals with pointy things coming out of their heads or feet~that's just a good rule of thumb and I'm throwing it out there for consideration, is all.

No, I don't advocate keeping a potentially dangerous animal on the premises...but it's a dang chicken! He's 2 ft. tall if he is a normal breed and much, much smaller if he is a banty or other ornamental. You big, He small....do something about it.

At least give it a try to modify his behavior, using some good common sense techniques, before you give him away or kill him for stew. I don't allow my roos to show me any fight...but a roo that tries it once is given a chance to understand the food chain at my house before he is committed TO the great circle of life.

If it takes me that long to raise a bird to maturity, you can bet I'll try some behavior modification before giving up on him!

It reminds me of those parents who raise complete and total brats and then threaten them, "I can't wait until you go to school...they'll straighten your butt out there!"

If you've raised a bratty roo, you owe it to him to at least TRY to fix it. Don't get me wrong...I'll kill a bird as fast as anyone if it suits me. But a roo is not a terrorist...he's just a dumb bird who made a mistake and should be given the chance to correct it before his stupidity gets him in hot water...literally.

 

[GreenGoddess]

Quote:
IMO, it all depends on the treats given... I've been known to throw a banana in with the chicks (it's really funny when they have that "What the heck is this thing?!" look on their face until one pecks and realizes it won't attack them! LOL).. The biggest treats my hens/roos get, like you is when I clean the fridge and throw it out to them.. Even the thanksgiving turkey, roast chicken or boston butt bones go out there so they can peck them clean.. Then I either throw the bones towards the back side of the yard for the neighborhood dogs (to keep them AWAY from my coops!) or my dogs get them... Other than that, the only treats they get is the handfuls of grubs I dig out of the compost pile (basically just all the shavings/droppings I rake out of the coop, that is in a single pile)... Unfortunately, I don't have a fence around my yard so letting them free range is not very feasible.. Although I have 3/4 of an acre, I have way too many neighbors with dogs running amuck and too many hawks trying to get a free meal!

ETA: I forgot to mention that I have 2 cats and snap traps set at all times.. I collect mice almost on a daily basis and throw all of them into the runs!! Once in a while, I will catch a live on outside in a potato chip bag or something similar and let them chase a "live meal"! LOL

Goddess

 

[GreenGoddess]

Quote:
A good pair of scissors and a quick snip!!

I've tried to break a chick's neck before.. He was a 2 month old cockeral that for whatever reason was choking on food and his face was turning purple.. After trying the olive oil trick and rubbing his crop, I could not see anything in his mouth or airway and it wasn't getting better so I held him against by body with one hand, placed my other hand around his head and twisted/pulled at the same time, hearing it snap.. He went limp and then about 5 seconds later he picked his head back up and started gasping.. I panicked and this happened FOUR MORE TIMES!!!! The last and final time, I had already dug the hole out in the back of the yard, he's laying on the ground and my husband turns to me and says, "I thought you culled it!?" Ummm... I thought I did too... So, I placed one hand on his back, another around his head/neck and pulled... Needless to say, I buried two seperate parts of this poor thing... I will NEVER try to break a chickens neck again! Snip or chop it's head off... It's quick and won't fail!

I cannot count how many times I've screamed at the computer reading posts that say things such as these:

1. Baking soda and vinegar
2. Put in bag and attach to tail pipe of vehicle (Put your leg against the tail pipe and see how quickly you pull it away people!!)
3. Place chick in container and put into freezer.. Chick will just fall asleep.... (WHAT?!?!?!?!)
4. put chicks head under water until it stops moving

And the worst one I've EVER read.............................................

5. Put chick in paper bag, place behind car tire and back up

As stated MANY MANY times in this thread and others on this specific and VERY controversial topic.. The method of culling is what is best for the animal, NOT YOU! Culling is NOT pretty or easy... If you cannot do it in a way that the animal does not suffer, you should not own the animal.. PERIOD! Although according to this post https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=7992755#p7992755 I would be a psychopath... Hmmmm.....

Sorry... This is one of my sore spots... Can't you tell?


Goddess

 

[darkmatter]

Quote:
I made a "Chicken Hook" like the ones my grandparents made and used. I never knew this was a item available for sale in some catalogs until recently.

 

[GramaCindy]

Hello and THANK YOU FOR THIS THREAD! When I started reading the posts on the forum a few weeks ago, I was less than interested in posts about Chickens in the house, lap chickens, chicken's feelings, etc. THIS THREAD IS WHAT I NEED! Looking for real information on raising CHICKENS, not pets, not showpieces, just chickens. Don't get me wrong, some like chickens as pets, (I'm sure that I will name mine) But I don't want to keep them as pets. I don't want to show my chickens, but I DO want to raise some for meat birds and keep 6 for layers.

My question is….we will build a coop, (if I can finally talk my DH into it!) for keeping 6 hens, but how do I handle the 12 or so meat birds? (they are super smelly and eat everything in sight) the CornishX that is, not sure that is the meat bird that we will go with. I am thinking of starting with day old chicks in June. I am thinking RIR, NHR, Barred Rocks, & Orpingtons. It's a good time, as I have the summers off of work. and It's COLD up here in far NW WI. I will insulate the coop, and add interior covering so the hens won't eat the insulation. I like the ideas from all of the OT's here, KISS! I tend to overthink things and this thread has put it all into perspective.

and Thank YOU Beekissed for starting this no-nonsense thread!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Worming:

(This will be my final post here, because I think the original purpose of the thread has about run its course and will soon risks becoming awkwardly long.)

For chemical worming, Dawg53 is the expert. You can PM him and get all the answers you'd ever need.

Organic farmers, such as myself, use curcurbits and Black Walnut tea and those natural remedies are effective on some kinds of worms. No antibiotics, drugs or chemical wormers are allowed, ever. But then, my grandma had no drugs or chemicals either and did just fine.

This has been fun. Hope it's been enjoyable to others as well. This forum is packed with junior high and high school kids, young, urban people. People so very far removed from the rural lifestyle of the late 1800's, which we touched directly through our grandparents. "Long ago" for the average BYCer was the 1980s. They are who they are. There are more threads on jokes, rants, "get 2000 posts before...", random ramblings, that so clog the screen under "Recent Posts" that is sometimes hard to even see real posts and harder to surmise that this is supposed to be a chicken forum. It just is what it is.

 

[Pony Trotsky]

Fred's Hens :

It just is what it is.

No kidding.

From a sociological point of view, BYC is pretty darn fascinating.

On the one hand, you've got people dressing chickens up in little outfits and worrying about their self esteem, and, on the other hand, you've got people boasting about feeding their animals garbage "just like grandma used to do." There are folks posting pictures of coops so filthy you could practically get typhoid just looking at the photo, and other folks expecting kudos for killing hundreds of perfectly serviceable birds because their feet are the wrong color.

Wow.

I used to think horse forums were weird, but those are nothing compared to BYC.

 

[halo]

Isnt that leg hook fascinating? I imagine it would take a lot of practise to become proficient at it. Ill confess that chasing a chicken down that I particularly need to get my hands on, isnt very easy, with them having 10 acres to run from me. Even getting them in a corner they easily out maneuver me. I resorted to buying a fish net from Walmart and can scoop them up when I need them. Much easier on me, and takes a fraction of the time, so everyone doesnt panic. And now, Ive gotten my shelties to where I say "go get im" and point towards the offending chicken (usually one who has hopped over the fencing to head towards my garden!) to chase him down and grab his tail and hold on until I get there to pick it up. Its pretty funny; when the offender sees the dogs running towards them, they now just squat, as if to say..."alright already, I give up!".

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Exactly! Me, big. Him, small. Oh he might be big for a chicken, but in my world, he's still tiny. I just don't get adults being afraid of them.