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

[Ridgerunner]

I'll tell a story that might help you understand a bit about flock dynamics. Several times, I've had chicks, let's say two weeks old, being raised by a broody in the flock. A chick will leave Mama's protection and go stand next to the big hens at the feeder. Sometimes the adult hens ignore the chick, but usually before too long one will peck the chick to remind it that it is bad chicken etiquette for that socially inferior young one to eat with its betters. That chick runs back to Mama as fast as its little legs can carry it, peeping and with wings flapping. Mama ignores all this. That chick needed to be taugh a lesson. All is well in the flock.

On very rare occasions the hen that did the pecking will start after the chick. Mama does not ignore this but quickly teaches the aggressive hen that those are HER babies and no one threatens them.

I've had a hen wean her chicks at three weeks. These chicks slept in the coop with the big chickens without any protection from Mama. They fed themselves and took care of themselves. My coop is oversized for the number of chickens usually in there. Those chicks could get away from the adults. When they were out of the coop, they had lots of room to avoid the adults and they knew to avoid the adults. In my opinion, Harvey's idea of a safe haven is a pretty good idea if your space is limited. But if you have ample space, they'll find their own safe places. I do not provide a safe haven.

We all have different circumstances. There is usually no one right answer for all of us. It's just what works for us.

I grew up in the hills and ridges of East Tenensee. We had a lot of limestone there. The chickens used that limestone (which contains a lot of calcium) for grit. Our egg shells were really hard and we never bought oyster shell.

 

[Celie]

fact check, Al I will read and appreciate your advice on chickens but this statement is completely wrong.

Currently subsidies are paid to the "corporate farmers" to plant corn, soybeans, sunflowers, all sources of bio-fuel. I think we(as a nation) made some poor choices when the ethanol industry wasn't pushed to use sugar cane (example Brazil) but at the time the big farmers in the grain belt needed financial help.

Are you also one that suggests that the drought in the mid west is also the President's fault?

I'm not wanting to get into a political discussion it's certainly not the forum for it, please don't drag poor/bad info here to try and encourage the current trend of"lying being acceptable" as demonstrated daily in this election cycle

for those of you that care to read some good info on this topic here's a few links:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fresh-fruit-hold-the-insulin

http://greenliving.lovetoknow.com/Ethanol_Biofuel_Pros_and_Cons

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...r-subsidies-as-senate-farm-bill-debate-begins

FYI, there is no current farm bill in affect thanks to the "do nothing" House with it's current anti bi-partisan majority

I for one hope we stick with the topic as expressed in the name of this forum so all of us can learn about chickens

Dan
(a small market farmer just trying to make a living in the far north)

I agree with the fact that bio fuel would be a lot better made with sugar cane than corn, and I will not discuss religion or politics here, but corn for our farm animals has increased and it is too darn high, I think we can all agree on that? Back to chickens, I think I am feeding my flock too much corn. The eggs I gathered today had almost a red yolk? Isn't this an indication of too much corn? Since the feed prices have been sooo high, I have been supplementing my flocks of about 250 or so chickens, geese,ducks,and chickens with cheaper corn and deer feed from Accademy Sporting goods that is only $8.00 - $9.00 a sack. I let my flocks free range on good pasture grass and down south we always have a lot of bugs every morning. I have been feeding them an 18% protein pellet, plus a separate feeder bucket for oyster shell. They also got to forage from my overgrown garden, and fruit trees. They even clean up anything the dogs or cats leave. With poultry, nothing goes to waste. I even throw hatched egg shells from the incubator out and they eat those up too. Kitchen scraps from cooking, such as carrot tops, parsley stems, etc. all go to them too, but the potato skins, I cook first. My neighbor works at a bread store and brings me stale bread, containing whole wheat and multigrain flours, that helps too. They go nuts for the bread containing oats. They are going Through 2 to 3 bags of feed a day, and lately a bag of corn everyday, too. I will be reducing my flocks to about 3 dozen chickens, 2 dozen ducks(to keep down the mosquitoes)(the ducks also eat minnows out of the pond), and increase to 2 dozen Turkeys this winter. There is no way to even break even with selling eggs and birds. I will take your advice on the BOSS, now that I know what it is and also start feeding scratch grains or wild bird seeds to fatten up the birds before I harvest them. Is there anything I can do to With the birds I plan to harvest? Thanks so much for all the great advice! I really appreciate it, since everything I have done over the last 7 years has been trial and error. I was a city girl, before that!

 

[Missa Chickabee]

Politics (neo-political topics) often result in heated arguments that gets threads locked for cleanup.

BYC rules strongly discourage political or religious discussions for this reason.

Move on. The ethanol/corn/prices/subsidy issue is hotly debated everywhere. Not here.

Thanks

okydoky.

Hello Fred. It is so nice to see your avatar pop up,( even when when it's time for whoopin behind the woodshed.)

Thanks for your feed-tag. I took it to the feed-mill for comparison. Fooled them into thinking I actually might know something.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote: Can be, but more likely from your free ranging. The flock I just brought home were on very high corn based feeds and had average colored yolks but a bit pale to my liking. Within just a few days back on free range, those yolks started to deepen in color. They are so orange now that I see a mini sunset in that egg each time they are cracked open...this I like.

Our feed supplies are what they are going to be, substandard at best, and we all have to roll with the punches on that one. You are already offering free range and the best nutrition in the world cannot compare with their natural diet, so that's a big plus.

If you want them to benefit more from pasture and forage than the feeds you have, feed them once a day in the evening during high forage availability months. This insures that the bulk of their proteins are coming from a natural source and the feeds you give are merely a supplement. A hungry chicken is a foraging chicken...and then the feed gives them a full belly for bedtime if they were not fully successful while out on range. It saves you money, keeps your birds a little more lean and this will help with reproductive organ health, and it keeps the corn based feeds from being the star of the show in their diet.

 

[al6517]

So Bee how are the chickens coming along, you making good progress on their recovery and re-assimalation.

 

[Beekissed]

So Bee how are the chickens coming along, you making good progress on their recovery and re-assimalation.

You'll have to stop over on the thread and check 'em out, Al(look at page 51 and work back a little). Also you should come over because someone used your name in vain and it was in conjunction with chicken butts.....

I worked with some of them last night and was amazed at the weight they had put on since I had lifted them last week. Comin' along like a house afire!

Killed that ol' Black Star last night and she weighed a ton!

Oh, BTW, in the interest of getting some good layers of adipose tissue under their hides before cold weather, I took a page out of your book and added a little smatch of calf manna into their fermented feed mix. They don't like it much but it's only for a little while...they'll have to suck it up or starve. Priced it with BOSS and they were the same price, so used the CM instead.

I used to use the manna for conditioning my meat rabbits before show, so am a little familiar with the stuff(cannot stand the smell!

).

 

[al6517]

Quote:


Send me a link to the thread and I'll check it out.
I like the smell of CM it has that strong nasty Vitamin smell, my MIL was a vitamin freak and ate plates of those nasty things everyday LOL, she passed away at 55 so I guess they were useless, Bless her heart.
Why don't you think they don't like the CM ?? is it the fermenting, the change in feed or just chance ??.

 

[Beekissed]

They liked it dry, Al, but not so happy with it in the FF mix. Could be that they just have to eat less to get the same nutrients...don't know. They just cut back on intake rather abruptly as soon as it was added to the mix.

That strong anise smell is what is the big turn off for me.....cannot bear licorice candy.

Here's the link: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...rors-anyone-want-to-follow-their-progress/500

That will take you right to where it all gets interesting...comparison pics and a few pages later you get to see butt pics. I know you will enjoy those....

 

[Folly's place]

Back2MyRoots, every state has some kind of livestock protection laws. Much more importantly, YOU WERE BITTEN! If your skin was broken or scratched AT ALL, file a bite report with your county animal control people, or the sherrif, or whoever, and contact your doctor. That dog must hav proff of a valid rabies vaccination, and be quarentined and ALIVE AND WELL ten days after the biting incident. Mary

 

[bobbi-j]

Just a quick comment on less corn in the feed and prices going up. Mountain Momma mentioned not knowing about a drought. The three "I" states (Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa) where much of the country's corn comes from dried up this year. We live in western MN and have had no significant moisture since July of last year. No snow last winter (one snowstorm right before Thanksgiving, about 4" of snow, but less than 1" moisture content and was melted in a day). We had a couple of inches of rain in June, 7/10" in July, about an inch in August, and 9/100" in Sept. Nothing so far this month. That is part of the reason your feed cost is going up. There are several other states that are also in drought conditions this year. My husband and I farm and I can tell you right now that we are not driving around in new pickups paid for by the taxpayers because we're not planting corn. (Our newest vehicle is over 12 years old) I will not comment or get into that discussion. I just ask that if people really want to know what's going on, please do some research and remember that on the internet, you can find information to support anything you want to believe, no matter what side of a subject you may be on. Not all farmers play the system to get "free" govt. money. There are honest ones out there, too. Just like any other group of people, you have your honest ones and your crooks. The minority of those who give a group a bad name are the ones who get noticed and give the whole bunch a bad name...