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

[bruceh]

i am going off the topic here for rose bushes. i bought my home complete with an out on control 6' rose bush/ tree. i know nothing of a roses. so who wants to p.m on how and when and care for this yellow flowered tree.

now back to chickens. anyone can raise chickens. if i can do it that is saying something. i am no M.I.T. grad. in fact i thought M.I.T. was a glove you put on your hand to get something out of the oven.

chickens are self explaining. if you pay attention to your flock they will tell you what they need. as you can all tell by now i am not educated , in fact a high school dropout 10Th grade. however i have common sense. look at your flock and ask the questions. do they have enough space, are they clean, how do they look, are they lively, are the eating,am i giving enough food., is their egg production okay, and any other question you can think of about your management. there is no one size fits all answers. my flock is different from your flock. so the needs of the birds are different. chicken raising is simple. you just have to tweak the management. however most of all let them be chickens.

 

[foxrfarm]

Interesting topic - chicken manure! With all of the recent popularity of going "organic" and "natural", I think manure is about as organic and natural as it gets!! It certainly won't hurt our chickens any.

 

[bruceh]

Interesting topic - chicken manure! With all of the recent popularity of going "organic" and "natural", I think manure is about as organic and natural as it gets!! It certainly won't hurt our chickens any.

i make a tea out of it and use the tea on my plants. very high in nitrogen so i dilute it.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Lordy...

I'm sick and miss a couple of days of checking in and there are 265 unread posts?

Ya'll sure are a yackity bunch.

To whoever asked about turning the chickens out in the rain I can relay this little tidbit. It has been pouring here the past couple of days and I open the pop door every day anyway, regardless of the weather. Most of the time if it's pouring rain the chickens go pouring out... look at the rain and go right back in the coops if it's raining hard. If it's just a light rain they just ignore it. Yesterday I had a young buff hen stand out in the pouring rain until she was soaked to the skin. Too dumb to come in out of the rain.

Had chicken for supper tonight and my flock is geneticly smarter than it was yesterday.

 

[Beekissed]

 

[Briezeechicks]

speaking of your flock telling you what they need...

Tonight, we got an egg that Samantha is calling a "rainbow" egg. It fades from a lovely brown on the top to almost white on the smaller end. Do you think this is just a normal occurrence, or could it be a first sign of something missing in their diets? These are the first chickens I've ever had, so I just don't know, but I want them to be happy and healthy.

For 12 chickens :
We are feeding 18% layer pellets, some scratch (not fermented - yet), a hand full of BOSS about every other day, a cup full of calf manna -(evenings only). They get kitchen scraps and yard clippings when available. They have free choice grit and oyster shell. Since there is very little vegetation when we let them out to free range, I give them a flake of alfalfa about every other day. Their water is changed daily, and has ACV added.

Thanks,
Brie

 

[JeffOeuf]

speaking of your flock telling you what they need...

Tonight, we got an egg that Samantha is calling a "rainbow" egg. It fades from a lovely brown on the top to almost white on the smaller end. Do you think this is just a normal occurrence, or could it be a first sign of something missing in their diets? These are the first chickens I've ever had, so I just don't know, but I want them to be happy and healthy.

For 12 chickens :
We are feeding 18% layer pellets, some scratch (not fermented - yet), a hand full of BOSS about every other day, a cup full of calf manna -(evenings only). They get kitchen scraps and yard clippings when available. They have free choice grit and oyster shell. Since there is very little vegetation when we let them out to free range, I give them a flake of alfalfa about every other day. Their water is changed daily, and has ACV added.

Thanks,
Brie

I dunno, but I caught my chickens reading this post and the next thing I knew they were all packing little carry-on bags, Googling your address and searching Orbitz for cheep airline tickets.

 

[Beekissed]

I think I might join them....sounds like a nice place to settle down.

I think this is just one of those things...happens from time to time. As time goes along you will find all kinds of egg anomalies that make you scratch your head and wonder. I've gotten eggs that were in perfect concentric rings of different shades of brown and some that faded in shades like a tie-dyed shirt. I've had tan eggs from a Leghorn hen and speckled eggs from a flock that didn't lay any speckled eggs previously. I've had eggs with calcium "warts" and some like sand paper..ouch!

In the real world of chickens, unlike what you will find in stores, there are a lot more imperfect eggs...and I love this! It's like an Easter egg hunt every day and the odd eggs are fun to find.

 

[bruceh]

@briezee nothing to worry about. egg shells are painted by the chicken in their systems. i know of nothing that you can add or subtract in feed to change the painted coating.
like bee i get all kinds of eggs that are painted strange. i have a black sex link that leaves me a brown egg with white speckles, an easter egger that lays a white egg, a converted freedom ranger that lays a brown speckled egg and a hatchery rhode island red that broods a golf ball.

.

 

[foxrfarm]

After carrying 43 Cornish Crosses invidivually from one stall pen to another today, I totally agree and wish I'd read this last night. Although, I did get some much needed exercise, I guess!