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

[JulieNKC]

Sorry if this has been asked before, I have read the whole thread but can't possibly remember everything, but in your guys' experience does every flock carry crd? Because on another group I belong to the opinion of quite a few seems to be that all flocks have it, and they feel no need to quarantine or think twice about selling birds from their flock who were recently ill without saying a word about it. There are only a few people who seem to quarantine, or even isolate sick birds. Am I just being super paranoid and is this really something that will happen sooner or later?

 

[Beekissed]

Don't know CRD...must be something I've never had in my flocks. Never had a bird show any signs or symptoms of any kind of illness, so I'm doubting that my flocks ever had this mysterious CRD, whatever it may be. So, I guess my answer is "No, not all flocks have latent CRD in them."

Maybe that happens for folks who are constantly swapping out and acquiring new birds from other areas and flocks?

 

[thedragonlady]

My roosts are continuous poles I cut from the woods and they span from one side of the coop to the other. Then I have a few that run diagonally in the two back corners to make different levels of roosting pleasure.



Oh, yes! At first I thought I should get on to the lamb but he couldn't really hurt them so I let him do this sheeple surprise on the chickens all he wanted...it never got old to watch.

As for the crow headed whatever thingy...must confess I've never even heard the term. Must be a breeder lingo term about something not being SOP? Might ask Walt, Fred or Al on that one because I'm a person who doesn't really care what my chicken's heads look like as long as they look healthy.

How 'bout it, all you OT breeder guys and gals? Crow-headed?

Years ago in this horse town I used to gallop steeplechase horses. I made friends with some of the English and Irish guys who had gone through the "Head Lad" system in Great Britain. Since I was Jail bait, thery all took me under their wings. One piece of advice I've never forgotten is: "If you have to open the box door to tell what sex it is; don't bother." I've found this to be true in ALL species of birds and mammals, including Hommo Sapiens.

 

[nyanamia]

I'm certainly not an OT, but I also opted OUT of the ladder roost due to space issues. I would think a ladder roost with hardly any slant would end up with lower echelon chickens with very poopy backs/heads.

True, I had wondered about that, even with regular ladder roosts. Single-pole roosts it is, then!

 

[therapydoglady]

Went to Odessa today to see Anatolian Shepherd puppies. They aren't as flashy as a Great Pyr., but are nice looking dogs, with very little coat to take care of. We picked a female, and will pick her up when she is 8 weeks old (2 weeks after h er 1st puppy shots). She will be too little to put with the goats (mean hussies that they are!), but we have 3 ducks that have "come home" from wherever they were taken. BJ says they are definitely Mimaw's mutt ducks. We filled a pool for them, and picked up some feed today. Maybe they will be a good start for the pup in case we don't have chickens by then.. We want her to guard poultry, and the man said to introduce her as soon as possible. One of the male ducks is quite pushy, so maybe he can hold his own with this pup. Hope so. Any other suggestions?

I hope y'all don't get tired of me!. I will be asking many questions, though I have already learned a lot from you guys. Thanks!

Brie

 

[Beekissed]

I can tell you how I trained my pup on poultry. I made it real clear to him that the chickens were MINE. First I held one on my lap and called him close, let him sniff it and lick it...then turned it around and the hen pecked him on the nose real hard. At one point I had him lie down on his side and I held the chicken on his neck...he basically had to submit to the chicken. Then I left some of the chickens tied up and lying out in the yard and I went in the house to watch his reaction to them and when they flopped around a little. Every time he showed more than a passing interest in them I'd yell out the window, "MY chickens!". The dog got a little gun shy of even walking in the chicken's direction!

It was comical. You could almost read this dog's mind~"How does she DO that??? How does she know when I'm thinking about the floppy, squawky thingies?" Took all of 20 min. to condition this dog to recognize these birds as my property and were not to be bothered. Of course, I have to reinforce that this pup had already had basic command training from me and recognized me as pack leader, so it makes all things easier at that point.

He's 6 years old now and I have only to say "MY chickens" in a certain tone to get him to duck his head and turn away, even if there isn't a chicken in sight. Smart dog. He babies the chicks, gets upset when one dies or is about to butchered...you could say he takes care of my stuff pretty well.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

Hey y'all, searched the tread (and a few others) to see if anyone else had experience with this new little development. The general consensus was to not worry, but it just seems wrong.... So here I am.

Ever since one of our birds started laying about a month or so ago, she has laid every single day, except three. The first two times she skipped, the next day she laid an unusually large egg---a jumbo. One was a double yolker and one was a triple yolker! I didn't even know triple yolkers were possible! Anyway, so she skipped yesterday. Today she laid the biggest chicken egg I have ever seen in my life! We're talking like a large duck egg! And the worrisome part is that there was blood smudged on the shell like maybe she had trouble passing it. Not that I blame her---it was huge! I haven't cracked it to see how many yolks it is! I am flabbergasted. Should I be worried? Blood's not normal, right?

 

[fowlman01]

Crow head: narrow, shallow head and beak, usually a sign of an unthrifty bird.

Lots of posts while I was gone...

Walt

 

[bobbi-j]

Hey y'all, searched the tread (and a few others) to see if anyone else had experience with this new little development. The general consensus was to not worry, but it just seems wrong.... So here I am.

Ever since one of our birds started laying about a month or so ago, she has laid every single day, except three. The first two times she skipped, the next day she laid an unusually large egg---a jumbo. One was a double yolker and one was a triple yolker! I didn't even know triple yolkers were possible! Anyway, so she skipped yesterday. Today she laid the biggest chicken egg I have ever seen in my life! We're talking like a large duck egg! And the worrisome part is that there was blood smudged on the shell like maybe she had trouble passing it. Not that I blame her---it was huge! I haven't cracked it to see how many yolks it is! I am flabbergasted. Should I be worried? Blood's not normal, right?

Blood happens sometimes. I have seen blood on my regular-sized chicken eggs from time to time. I have a mixed breed flock that lays a variety of colored eggs, and I can tell you that it happens to more than one. IME, there's really nothing you can do about changing the size of the eggs she lays.

 

[Beekissed]

Yep, blood happens. Nothing to worry about. What is not normal is the double and triple yolks and though it seems fantastic now, this indicates a bird that may have reproductive issues later. Oft times you will see this in high production breeds, particularly as they age and everything starts to misfire a little.