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

[Beekissed]

Oh, they ain't much to look at~especially Jake, AKA Chocolate Thunder~ but they sure do the job. I couldn't have kept chickens all these years without the help of these dogs. My job had me away until all hours and sometimes I'd go out of town for up to a week...and never had to worry about what was happening to chickens, sheep or cattle back home. Worked like a well-oiled machine and made keeping livestock easy...I don't know that I'd ever attempt to keep any livestock without good dogs to help me.

 

[thedragonlady]

Oh, they ain't much to look at~especially Jake, AKA Chocolate Thunder~ but they sure do the job. I couldn't have kept chickens all these years without the help of these dogs. My job had me away until all hours and sometimes I'd go out of town for up to a week...and never had to worry about what was happening to chickens, sheep or cattle back home. Worked like a well-oiled machine and made keeping livestock easy...I don't know that I'd ever attempt to keep any livestock without good dogs to help me.

Pretty is as pretty does! Wonderful kind, wise faces on these dogs. They know their job.

 

[Beekissed]

You are right! Jake has gotten a little too sentimental in his old age, though. I had a few CX chicks take a swim in his water bucket this past spring and didn't make it to shore. He carried one around in his mouth and whimpered about it, kept licking it to try to revive it, tried several times to put it back in the coop with the other chicks...we finally had to take it away from him because he was pacing a path in the yard around the coop.

It was sad to watch...he's turned a little strange since Lucy died and hasn't quite gotten over it.

After that he got a little anxious at butchering time...never had acted that way before. Getting a little soft in his old age....

 

[thedragonlady]

You are right! Jake has gotten a little too sentimental in his old age, though. I had a few CX chicks take a swim in his water bucket this past spring and didn't make it to shore. He carried one around in his mouth and whimpered about it, kept licking it to try to revive it, tried several times to put it back in the coop with the other chicks...we finally had to take it away from him because he was pacing a path in the yard around the coop.

It was sad to watch...he's turned a little strange since Lucy died and hasn't quite gotten over it.

After that he got a little anxious at butchering time...never had acted that way before. Getting a little soft in his old age....

He's adopted those birds as a predator dog would. They are his FAMILY. That's why the blood smell upset him. He's doing his job.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

grosses me out, but I swear our dogs think the chickens are just fluffy pez dispensers!

and like any other...er, food source,

they guard them to a fault. our red dobby mix even heards them like a cattle dog would calves. I sometimes have to call her off so the girls can roam about a bit!

 

[bobbi-j]

My dog thinks he's the top roo. No, he doesn't attempt to breed the hens, but he does a good job of protecting them and breaking up squabbles. Before I put my excess roos in the grow out pen and they'd fight, Dakota would rush over to them and knock them apart. Here he was checking out the new flock last spring.

 

[darkmatter]

As an old coot with Chickens and a Garden, I'm always learning something new, trying different things in the Garden each year and finding the chickens doing things I didn't expect. Part of keeping your mind active and open is observation, thought and research. On my walkabout yesterday I noted something, took pics and did the research, here it is:

 

[galefrances]

I have two beautiful Saint Bernards. Docile, wouldn't hurt a fly. Lazy, couldn't be bothered to get up to protect anything. My older Saint, the laziest most docile of the two, killed four of my chicks the one day. So now....I don't let them near my chickens. Anyway, your dogs are beautiful Bee and you're lucky to have one so well trained.

On another note I have a question to ask. My chickens will soon be old enough to start laying and I plan on giving them oyster shells on the side. Now, I can buy a 5# bag of oyster shells at the Tractor Supply for about $6. Or, I can buy a 50# bag for $11 at my local feed store. Obviously my feed store is much cheaper. But the question is: how much oyster shells do 12 hens generally go through in let's say a months time? And, how long can you store this stuff?

 

[thedragonlady]

I have two beautiful Saint Bernards. Docile, wouldn't hurt a fly. Lazy, couldn't be bothered to get up to protect anything. My older Saint, the laziest most docile of the two, killed four of my chicks the one day. So now....I don't let them near my chickens. Anyway, your dogs are beautiful Bee and you're lucky to have one so well trained.

On another note I have a question to ask. My chickens will soon be old enough to start laying and I plan on giving them oyster shells on the side. Now, I can buy a 5# bag of oyster shells at the Tractor Supply for about $6. Or, I can buy a 50# bag for $11 at my local feed store. Obviously my feed store is much cheaper. But the question is: how much oyster shells do 12 hens generally go through in let's say a months time? And, how long can you store this stuff?

Oyster shell keeps forever. Just keep it clean and dry. Your girls will go through about 35-40 lbs a year if they chow down on it like my big Orps do. Their eggs are very thick, and hard to break, but chicks don't seem to have a problem getting out. Hens seem to go through times when they don't eat much of it, and then chow down when they need it.

 

[just me]

When I went home for lunch yesterday, I noticed one of my little roos had wet feathers around his vent. It was the same when I got home. I went about my chores, and once done I caught him (no easy task) to give him the once over. As soon as I got hold of him, I noticed the stench.

Anyway, I gave him to DH and told him we needed to cull him. I didn't know what was wrong with him, but I didn't want whatever it was to be around the others any longer. (After researching, I believe he had vent gleet???) DH, who works traveling maintenance and is gone for quite a few months at a time, told me that since he's not there all the time I needed to learn how to take care of such things....so I did.

So, now the reason for this post.....

Had I not found this particular thread, I would not have had the courage or the know how. So, THANK YOU Wise Ones for this thread.

Now, I have got to go about figuring out why he got sick....who knows, he could have gotten into anything. They free range whenever I'm home (they're not old enough for me to feel comfortable leaving them out of the run while I'm not there). I keep their feed in a used food grade plastic 55 gallon drum with the lid on tight, so I don't think that's the problem....but who knows? Anyways, even though I don't have any ACV with the mother yet, I believe I will start putting some in their water anyway.

Thanks,

Julie