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

[thedragonlady]

speaking of space. look i am the type of guy that never would allow any type of livestock in my home no where for any reason. with that said i have 32 meat birds in my basement as we speak. why? that is where i had the room. i keep my birds (12 layers) in a 14x8 pen and coop with the gate open to free range. yes it is closed at night. the meat birds (17 )are kept in a 14x8 pen with a metal roof 1/2 way on top with free range as well.. i am also converting a wooden garage that is 15 or 20X6 for the new meat birds. i have maybe 2 1/2 weeks to do this. yes chickens are addicting however the care to properly care for them is what is most important. over crowding causes illness, crankyness. parasites, etc. which leads to people wanting to dump their no longer wanted chickens.. proper management is the most important element in keeping any animal. it is not that you have to do it perfect but it is a whole lot it easier to correct with a few birds than it is to correct with a ton of birds.

i was reading on my local thread about all these people having issues with there flocks. i even gave some suggestions. i also said if you have a problem p.m. me. if i don't know the answer i ask someone who does. well with that said not one person wrote me yet. let me correct that one person did .that person is now on this thread.
yes some people take suggestions, most will not. it is a ego thing. all i can say about that is they do such much diservice to the birds and all it would take is simple management some common sence, and take some darn advice without getting the underware in a bunch.. it would give them a much better expirence than what they have now.

i may not be able to spell but i can raise a healthy happy chicken that produces well and tastes great. if i can raise those horrible cornish x ( just kidding ,i love to raise them) and they are healthy, diarea free , running and jumping to the day of slaughter. anyone can.

i just want to thank all of you on this thread and the men at the markets when i was a kid for all the advise. omg i think i am softening up.

bruce

 

[loanwizard]

Some new information. The stalls are 11x 14 each or 11x 28 in total.I guess I have more than ladder type roosts, I have cross supports and rafters that a lot of them use. When I pull out the brooder box and run it will open up some more space. Love the pop door to the other stall idea. Really don't need the door idea as duh... the stalls have doors that slide so placing wire over the gaps and putting some pallets up for more height, should make it so I can lock down if necessary.

The roof of the 31x75 barn concerns me. It is an all steel building with a lot of problems. I only bought the place 3 years ago and have only lived full time here for about a year. I have holes in the roof, kind of high, but the steel panel supports are rusted and I am having trouble finding light weight materials to span the 25 ft space between supports.

A little expense and some paint and it could be really nice. I market those little carports and just this year they started selling agriculture buildings. Maybe it is time for a call to them.

 

[galanie]

Just for the record, I never could understand the ladder roosts. Why bother? They all want the top rail, and like Bee said, try to get one off the roost on those things. Yeah. I'm too short too. Plus, they take up WAY more space than anything in there should. I donno, I'm not an OT in chickens but I am an OT in common sense. At times. Maybe not always.

 

[armorfirelady]

Chickens like oats, but remember that oats shouldn't constitute an enormous portion of their diet, like all things, moderation.

They'll eat any kind of oat you want to give them Whole, rolled, cut, quick, etc. To be affordable, rolled oats can be purchased in huge bags at the feed store. Whole oats as well. Some birds simply do not care for whole oats and may balk. They are very high in fiber. What if you've purchased an expensive bag of whole oats just to find they balk? Rolled oats will never be looked at side ways. Just sayin. I've had to use up whole oats before by soaking them for 24 hours in a feed bucket. That's too much fussing for my taste. I watch the flock. If they eat whole oats, great. If they balk, that's it, I'm done with them and I feed them to the other flock that doesn't care. Whole millet can sometimes be the same way. Even cracked corn or whole corn isn't wildly popular with some of them.

Smaller flock keepers should test the waters on some of this stuff before investing in huge bags of various things, I suspect.

Thank you again Fred. I have a friend who works at the local feed store & he told me that they carry oats, alfalfa pellets, cracked corn & few other things. My hope is I can get them in small qaunities at first to see what the hens like. I have been reading the fermented food forum & want to try that. But since I only have 4 hens I don't need large quanities. But if they like it I don't mind buying in larger quanities and storing it. I assume as long as its in tight containers it will last. ANd with the way feed prices are going up I rather buy ahead as long as it will keep. And I have Mothers ACV on my shopping list. Hopefully I can find it around here somewhere.

 

[normanack]

Just for the record, I never could understand the ladder roosts. Why bother? They all want the top rail . . .

Totally not an OT here in any sense. Just had to mention that we put in a lower roost because one of my chickens (cough*silkie*cough) can't make it to the higher roost, which is maybe three or four feet high. (The other, um, silkies, cough, have no problem.) The few times we lifted her up to it, the next morning she'd still be sitting there long after the other chickens had stampeded out of the coop. She's not disabled in any way I can tell, just not terribly bright. Or something.

 

[stonykill]

Totally not an OT here in any sense. Just had to mention that we put in a lower roost because one of my chickens (cough*silkie*cough) can't make it to the higher roost, which is maybe three or four feet high. (The other, um, silkies, cough, have no problem.) The few times we lifted her up to it, the next morning she'd still be sitting there long after the other chickens had stampeded out of the coop. She's not disabled in any way I can tell, just not terribly bright. Or something.

I have 3 week old chicks that can fly to a 4 foot roost. Just saying.......

 

[Beekissed]

Totally not an OT here in any sense. Just had to mention that we put in a lower roost because one of my chickens (cough*silkie*cough) can't make it to the higher roost, which is maybe three or four feet high. (The other, um, silkies, cough, have no problem.) The few times we lifted her up to it, the next morning she'd still be sitting there long after the other chickens had stampeded out of the coop. She's not disabled in any way I can tell, just not terribly bright. Or something.

She sounds like a cull~ or a good one for tacking to the floor in front of the nest boxes for foot wiping....

 

[stonykill]

She sounds like a cull~ or a good one for tacking to the floor in front of the nest boxes for foot wiping....

aliens, silkies are aliens....

 

[cutechick2010]

I'm wondering if it's all in how it is used. Chicken wire worked for me also but the structures to which it was attached were substantial in nature and the attachment was such that it would have taken quite some doing for anything, animal or human, to breach it. The chicken wire sold nowadays seems to be much flimsier than in olden days, IME, so it just may be the source of the wire as well.

It may be true that chicken wire is not made like it used to be, I know hardware cloth I have had trouble with the last time I bought it. The only chicken wire I ever bought, with leather gloves on I could pop the links just by sticking my fingers in and pulling on it.

 

[bruceh]

i don't use chicken wire. i use chain link fencing. here i can buy off craigslist used dog kennels and used fencing for cheap. also check the state you are located in. you can find their excess inventory of used construction division for stuff the government pays high and dumps low.i know in places like maryland. they have a recycle department. i am in Pa. but not far from md. you can also call construction companies to see if they have left overs from a job.
if you have chicks you can use plastic fencing around the chain link to keep them in. it is the orange stuff used in construction. i think i payed like 15.00 for i think 50 ft.