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

[Maven]

Thank you for this. I am sort of doing the same thing, adding to it when they start to kick up dust and shovel the poopy parts out under the roost every few days and pitch fresh stuff in there. I have been meaning to pick up some DE but I keep forgetting to check if they sell it at tractor supply. I know the health store has it sold by the ounce for food grade, but I am sure I can find it cheaper if I look around. I will have to make sure I go get it before winter. I will have to also check into BOSS, since I have no idea what that even is! Ha!

I want to be practical about chicken care. Since I spend a good deal of time out here with the kids, the care needs to be doable by myself. My grandparents were off the farm long before I was born, and so I pretty much am self taught with the information from this site. (And I did read lots of those other threads before I found this one)

I did do a lot of reading up for about a year before I brought the chicks home but this is really my first real "livestock" experience. So far so good!

OOPS! Sorry - BOSS is Black Oil Sunflower Seed - very good protein source, very good for the birds and they love it once they are a few weeks old.

And you definitely want the food grade DE! But not at the by the ounce price. I get it through my feed store.

 

[Maven]

Quote:
Oh, and I wanted to say - our local feed store doesn't 'carry' it per se, but when I need it they are happy to order it and it just comes on the truck with the rest of their order then they call and let me know when it is in. Because of that, I have to order it a couple of weeks or so ahead of when I'll need a bag, but that's ok. A 40# bag lasts for months and months even using it as often as I do.

 

[Mountain Momma]

Hello everyone!
I am a new chickener. The kids saw chicks at the hardware store at Easter and talked their daddy into them. We got 6 hens, 2 roos, a goose and a turkey that day. I refer to them as my early birds. I then discovered there were chickens that lay colorful eggs and added to the mix about 6 weeks later. I added 10 hens. They are known as the babies at our house. Then a friend had a rescue situation and I took another 8 hens of her 14. We call them Cori's kitchen chickens,even though 5 of them were old and combined with hers 2 months before we got them. They lived in bad conditions with too much heat, 6 geese, and the wrong kind of food. Some of them were old and some were the same age as my early girls. So in 7 months we have lost 1 that jumped the fence, 1 baby who jumped the wash bucket, 1 old lady who became egg bound (I think), and 1 was brutally murdered by the goose.

I am up to page 75 reading this post and am happy to finally find a real life site. It took me forever to find out information which, even though I am a green pea, might be useful. So in complete humility I would like to ad my 5 tips to the array of great info I have already found here.

1. Geese are not chickens. Geese are mean and cause trouble. We had Josephina, our hand raised goose, for dinner on Sunday and already my flock seems more content.

2. If your chickens eat dropped feathers it really does mean they are craving protein. I started mine out as complete vegetarians and finally found a post that was against that. When I started suplimenting their scraps with leftover dinner- including the meat -their production spiked and stayed steady. My family is uncomfortable feeding them chicken so I do it on the sly. They love smoked oysters though, an ham.

3. Lash is very weird. There is not a lot on the net for new chickeners so I thought I would bring it up. I made some mistakes that took a long time to figure out. Among the mistakes was over feeding. When we got our third (rescue) flock I was also given about 50lbs. of whole grain and whole corn. I fed it to them every day and boy did those biddies fatten up fast. Especially the skinny Cori's kitchen chickens. My own girls stopped laying. One of the rescue hens came up with a serious lash issue and another one became egg bound. I think this is an increasingly important issue especially for people who are used to pets rather than farm animals. We gave both chickens the spa treatment. The lash chicken was a young one and we were able to soak her and remove the weird thing that was attached to her. She has been fine since. the other one though, she died. I think it is worth noting what happened though. She had deformed feet and could not roost at all. She was less likely to go outside from the beginning. Her comb was bright and her eyes were bright. She was a solid layer, even when my own stopped laying. One day she huddled deep under the nests and refused to come out. Two other chickens stayed with her all the time. We bathed her and I noticed she had a lump on the right side near her vent. It was painful when pressed. I seperated her and she drank water but never ate. This bathing seperating etc went on for a few days. The other chickens never left her alone. 2 or 3 would always sit as near to her as they could get. The final day one of my early birds cooed to her for an entire afternoon. I sat in the coop and listened. I had never considered that there would be an emotional event with chickens. My daughter had named her princess Diana and that night she passed. I think that the month of over feeding them caused the laying problems that led to her death. Now I only give the whole flock about 1 cup of scratch in the morning and the rest is laying feed and kitchen scraps. My production is back up and the hens seem happy. I have 20 hens, 2 roos and 1 turkey left. At least I think that is what I have since chicken math is not my strong point.

4. My roosters, Mater and Mcqueen, have successfully defended the flock from hawks and foxes on several occasions. They were raised together in the early bird flock and they show no violent tendencies toward each other. Sometimes they raise their manes and dance but they usually work as a team. They send the hens inside with certain calls and they have dazed and confused foxes that actually got into the run. Those foxes were frantic to get back out. In addition we have bb guns by the door. My DH is an excellent shot and now the foxes stop at the edge of our yard, look every direction and race past as fast as they can. lol. My DH and I share the same rubber boots when we go into the chicken area. The roosters like to spar the boots. My DH likes to spar the roosters. So, for about a week they would see the boots and cry "battle" every time I went into the area. I have a broom that I used to swish them away and after about a week of that they finally realized that if I am wearing the boots they cannot spar them. Now they look up when they see those boots to see who is wearing them. I do not consider their behavior as aggression to man. I think they enjoy testing themselves and my DH enjoys blocking them with his Taekwondo moves. We have a lot of wildlife and I am confident that at least a fox wont get the girls and the roos may be able to even defend against raccoons and the odd dog off a leash if they need to. The roos also act as peace keepers with the girls. If anyone gets too pecky the roos will intervene and stop the madness. They occasionally keep some hens under their wings at night which I think is so sweet. I know, human emotions and all...At the end of the day I think the flock appreciates the roosters for the most part and their abilities to protect give me peace of mind. My neighbors are awesome and actually enjoy the crowing and the fresh eggs and the beautiful array of colors and physique the roosters offer.

5. My hen breeds are varied. I have noticed that my Plymouth Rocks are the best "survivor" oriented chickens. I guarantee that if you throw a grape into the yard a PR will get it. I had one PR that jumped the fence early on. She was gone- in a fox, bear, coyote, raccoon, dog, owl, mtn lion, feral cat infested area for over 24 hours. She came back and was fine. I have 8 PR chickens, one was from Cori's kitchen flock and the others were early birds. Which means I dont know where the other one came from. lol. I have 3 surviving Acuanas with the lovely Spanish faces and greenish blue irredecent feathers on a shiny black bird. I have 4 Americaunas which are my favorites. They might be Easter eggers but were labled Americaunas when I got them. They have a lot of greys and oranges and are quite beautiful birds. They are always less interested in the scraps and usually just eat the regular feed. They are lower on the totem pole and I think it is related to comb size. Having combined 3 flocks and seen the rearrangement of hierarchy the smaller comb chickens always get bumped down. Of course they were part of the "baby bunch" so that along with the difference in their colors and face might play into it as well. My Orpingtons which I think I have 3 possibly 4 of are just polite girls. One, Honey, who was in the early bird bunch is the gentlest chicken I have. She was even kind to the babies and is always lowest on the totem pole. She is the most likely to follow her people around, eat out of your hand and sit on your shoulder. The others were Cori's kitchen chickens and one of them is my new top hen. Her comb and cheeks are much bigger than all the other chickens. We have a red and white lacey looking chicken that I think is also an Orpington. Her name is Speckleberry and she went a little nutty when we brought in the rescues. She tried hard for a week to move up on the totem pole but in the end she is still a lower rank. I have noticed that all kinds of bad behavior can be cured in a week. The roosters sparring my boots, stepping on eggs in the nest, furiously trying to raise her rank, and trying to hatch eggs. The remainder of my flock are probably Rhode Island Reds and 1 white long horn? The reds seem like the more loyal chickens as they were the ones that stayed with P.Diana until the end. They hang together and I know for a fact that they were not raised together.

So, that is some of the stuff I think I have learned that might be useful to the new crop of chickeners that are making the attempt. To us they are some place between pet and farm animal. They are so much fun to watch, so cute and whimsical. I think they are smarter than I thought they would be, more emotional and more survival oriented than I expected. They are definitely more than lizards with feathers. I suggest clipping their wings, which is very easy if you have a 7 year old whisperer help you. I suggest wood shavings in the coop mixed with alfalfa and lavender to control the smell. Cleaning the coop every week is crazy. I did that for the first few months. Not necessary at all. Now I am doing deep method in prep for winter. I dont know what BOSS is but I give mine a half cup of ACV in their 5 gal waterer once a month. I give them olive oil mixed with rosemary and garlic and layer feed mixed together once a month and I use the DE liberaly in the coop. Two walls of the coop are cedar and we have red wood floors that are about 6 inches off the ground. My mistakes with the coop are...it might be too small. It was the kennel for our dogs for years and the coop area is 9x10 with a ceiling height of 6 on the low and 8 on the high. It is under the deck and one wall is the outside wall of the house. The total building is bigger but I keep them seperated so the storage area does not get messy. The storage area is about 12 x 10. This winter if they stay in and get cabin fever I plan to let them have the whole building, but only if they get cranky. I also think they are too close to the house, which is good and bad. We have two windows that we bought from a window supply for 25.00 and a large door with a dog door in it. They have galvanized fencing totally enclosing the coop and storage area, kinda like fort knox. The building is insulated and finished. The run is the old dog run and it is very huge...probably 40'x 100'. There is not vegetation in it at all. A few pine trees and rocky Colorado dirt. We bought the chickens before we changed the kennel to a coup. I let them stay in the house for about 16 hours. After that they were in the coup with a red light. So this winter will be a learning experience. I am not planning to heat them. All summer it has stayed under 50 degrees in the coop which is under the deck on the North side. The Sun shines in the windows but not enough to really heat them, so we shall see. I am using rain water collected in a new garbage can to water them and the last thing I want is a high bill for heating chickens! The heat lamps use a lot of watts so no matter what I will not use it unless there are babies. I would like to find a cheap solar solution for the coop as well as the waterers. Anyone that comes up with that would be able to cash in with the number of chickeners there are right now.

Thanks for listening to my chatter. I am having a lot of fun with this chicken thing. We are not breaking even money wise because we dont sell the eggs, just give them away, and we buy alfalfa fort hem once a month. Otherwise I think they would pay for themselves, which is more than my Golden even considers! Its been a great expereince for the kids and for me. And DH and I have a glass of wine in the coup viewing area on occasion or a cup of coffee overlooking the chicken yard. It leads to great conversations and relaxation. I recommend chickensfor anyone who is tired of sit coms and political ads.!

 

[Beekissed]

What in the world is "lash"?????

 

[normanack]

What in the world is "lash"????? 

 

I think it's a lump of reproductive tissue that the hen sheds.
If you don't have a really strong stomach, don't google (images) it. Kinda really yuccky!

 

[Beekissed]

And how is that a death sentence? Just reading the newbie post above and was very confused about all the descriptions therein....

 

[Mountain Momma]

In my case it was a purple oval shaped mal formed looking eggish thing with vessels. In the post that I had found on line the gentleman put a photo of his which was more eggish and whiter but obviously mal formed. His hen had laid it in a nest. My chicken did not die. She is fine. Her weird lash thing was still attached to her inner area and when we bathed her we thought we would need to cut it. After getting ready to do this I gently pulled it taught while my DH held the scissors. When I pulled it a little tighter it just sort of popped off. There was no blood and the inner vent portion it had been attached to just pulled back into her. I did not take pictures, which might have been useful. I flushed it and we rinsed her with organic puppy shampoo and olive oil. She has been fine since. The other one died but I think she was egg bound. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[bruceh]

interesting behavior ?. my special cross beak chicken has been very curious of the 32 cx's chicks. she would not go in the pen at night for the last 2 days. in fact she roosted on the fence above the chicks. this morning i went out to feed the birds. low and behold the cross beak chicken was in with cx's . she was mothering them.
thanks to her my job will get easier. this weekend the cx's will go out on pasture and my cross beak will teach them how to scratch and protect them. the only problem is i will probably have to get more chicks for her.

 

[galanie]

I do understand that I can get away with a lot here in this area. Luther Burbank called this area "God's chosen spot". Things grow really well here and the climate is temperate........except yesterday was 102.....in Oct! We had a Master Gardener and Rosarian (spl) living across the street and she would call me when she saw me outside "pruning". She had 500-600 rose bushes that she trimmed by hand. I can't imagine doing that.

This is a great place to raise chickens.

Walt

Yep you spelled Rosarian correctly. Small world, that's what mother was as well. And a Lifetime Master Rose Judge for the American Rose Society. She'd have heart attacks seeing anyone around here do that but "up north" (which you are as far as we're concerned lol) She's probably just laugh.

 

[Beekissed]

interesting behavior ?. my special cross beak chicken has been very curious of the 32 cx's chicks. she would not go in the pen at night for the last 2 days. in fact she roosted on the fence above the chicks. this morning i went out to feed the birds. low and behold the cross beak chicken was in with cx's . she was mothering them.
thanks to her my job will get easier. this weekend the cx's will go out on pasture and my cross beak will teach them how to scratch and protect them. the only problem is i will probably have to get more chicks for her.

Excellent, Bruce! You will be so glad she is doing this...she will teach them so much about avoiding aerial preds and such. You should get some pics of it all and post it on your meat thread. I had a rooster that did that but..you know roosters..he didn't quite get the mothering thing down right and had to be killed.