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

[Beekissed]

Be wary of a chick mill operation. See if you can find a breeder that isn't just selling chicks....chicks mills are something I now avoid. Heck, if you're going to buy from a chick mill, make it a hatchery chick mill. At least those people are experts at it and have found it's in their best interest to ship healthy chicks from reasonably healthy birds~and you can buy all females.

What I see out there the most are people having fun with their incubator and then they find out they can make a few bucks from selling of the product of all that fun. Then they get an idea they can make a profit by churning out chicks.

Danger, Will Robinson, danger!!!

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Find out how that snake is getting in. I keep the area around the coop mowed short, and remove hiding places for them. I don't know if mothballs will work - heard it does but the rain will wash it into ....well who knows.? Don't leave eggs for them, and lock your chicks in a snake proof brooder till they're fast enough to run away....get a broody with a taste for snake.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Be wary of a chick mill operation. See if you can find a breeder that isn't just selling chicks....chicks mills are something I now avoid. Heck, if you're going to buy from a chick mill, make it a hatchery chick mill. At least those people are experts at it and have found it's in their best interest to ship healthy chicks from reasonably healthy birds~and you can buy all females.

What I see out there the most are people having fun with their incubator and then they find out they can make a few bucks from selling of the product of all that fun. Then they get an idea they can make a profit by churning out chicks.

Danger, Will Robinson, danger!!!

X2

 

[MoonAngel12]

I SO want to get to your flock health at some point Bee! It sounds like they are amazingly hardy birds

. I wish I lived closer, I would buy some of your eggs/chicks in a heartbeat!

 

[Beekissed]

Find out how that snake is getting in. I keep the area around the coop mowed short, and remove hiding places for them. I don't know if mothballs will work - heard it does but the rain will wash it into ....well who knows.? Don't leave eggs for them, and lock your chicks in a snake proof brooder till they're fast enough to run away....get a broody with a taste for snake.

I've found moth balls to be quite effective for snakes....just don't leave them where the hens can consume. It's very hard to make a snake proof outside brooder, so I just use the moth balls....they do work.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Next time I take/retrieve bids to/from KY, I think I'll swing by Bee's in WV and pick up a few recruits, say in late October. I'll winter them over up here and return them in early spring. That way, some of her stock will have had Navy Seal arctic/polar training and can share what they've learned with the rest of the flock.

 

[Beekissed]

Like taking the kids to their cousin's house when you hear they have chicken pox over there, so your kids will get the dang thing and get it over with?

 

[lcw1995]

Woah this has got to be one of the best threads on byc
Thanks everyone I've learned more on this thread then anywhere else

 

[Beekissed]

Excellent! That's the reason for the whole thread.

 

[fowlman01]

If you have a healthy flock other than parasites you should be good introducing new birds. If I didn't know the source I would keep them separate for a while......just so I didn't have to deal with them. There are two bad diseases that do surface occasionally. Avian Influenza in the east and Exotic Newcastle disease out here in the west. There is no immunity to those two and probably a few others, but I haven't seen them. While living on my uncles poultry farm I saw what Newcastle can do. It killed over 10,000 birds from the time I checked them at 5 pm until 7am in the morning. There were dead and dieing birds everywhere. It hits here about every 10-15 years and is usually in southern CA. We haven't had it up here since the late 40's. They usually end up killing millions of birds to stop it's spread. If you have any kind of birds and live within a ten mile radius of the outbreak they are going to come to your house and euthanize all your birds. All of these outbreaks have started in commercial flocks and NEVER in a backyard flock. So what I am saying is that there are some things our birds are not resistant to.

Bee..some Plym Rocks and especially RIR's sometimes have a red line down the shank. It doesn't cause anything, but I haven't seen what you are talking about, so I have no idea if that was part of the problem or not.

Walt