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

[Beekissed]

good luck on finding the right breed of dog.

In regards to preds, finding the right breed is important....and also finding the right DOG of any breed is just as important. If you had dogs that wouldn't even kill a coon or fox, then you don't have the right dogs of ANY breed. No wonder they didn't protect your flock...let alone deal with a tougher pred like a 'yote or bobcat.

Where I live you need dogs who will fend off a bear if need be...you don't mess with little foo-foo dogs or even a pitbull. You need dogs who are fearless to predators, who work as a team, who will die in their duties. If you don't have that, even all your Ft. Knox coops and pens will not keep out a black bear.

I get to HEAR the coyotes but they never come in to my place....not even in a pack.

 

[Clay Mudd]

Quote:
I'm always amused to read on a forum that something "can't be done" when I've either done it or seen it done. I've also read here that you can't plant forage for chickens, because they'll immediately graze it down. Good thing I didn't know that in the spring, when I was planting the buckwheat and peas my birds grazed on for four months.

But then, I also read that if you let them forage, it'll throw off the carefully-balanced feed that the nutrition experts have formulated. So, overall, I'm waiting for Chicken Protective Services to come take my flock away and declare me an unfit chicken parent.


Quote:
+1.

Er, I mean, I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!

 

[Beekissed]

This is a forum on the internet. You can't blindly believe anything any of us say. I might be lying to you, I might not have any experience about what I am talking about, or my conditions and experience might be so different from your conditions that it doesn't apply. I can't give you any advice as to how to weed out the wheat from the chaff. That's up to you.

Truer words were never spoken! One has to apply their own judgement to what they've read or heard, then apply it to their flocks if it seems to have merit and then weigh the outcome against the advice or knowledge gleaned. That is the only way one can really determine if something is "true" or not...does it stand the test of time?

Time is that thing you put into your flocks on a yearly basis....not that thing you waste every day cuddling chickens.​

 

[jvls1942]

Gypsi, what if somebody would have come into your yard right after the dog killed a chicken, or anytime before you found a dead one laying on the ground, and came to the conclusion that your chickens were not cared for, or that they had some horrible disease ? go to your friend and talk.. do it tactfully.

I know of nothing other than heredity that is transferred through an egg..

If your choice of chicken is not adapted to your cllimate, that is something you will have to work around..

However, most chickens are very adaptable.. some really surprise you..
I have some Thai fowl that are more winter hardy than most of my "winter" chickens.. (barred rocks and Delawares) and a few mutts..

btw. mutts are not a bad thing.. they are just cross breeds..
the only thing is it might e difficult to duplicate what might have turned out to be a great chicken/bird. Your chances are better if you have only one rooster and the same hens.. Now , which hen gave you that particular egg ??

 

[chisNchickens]

Quote:
This is what everyone used to think, but Food Grade DE, which is the only kind one should use around chickens, doesn't do this at all. What it does is act as a desiccant. It dries up the insect. This is also why it's good to sprinkle around the coop: it helps kill odor by drying it up. The pool grade does cut things, the food grade does not.

Excellent thread. I'm new to chickens but not natural rearing. Seems to be so much confusion and misinformation regarding DE. Hopefully this will help. And thanks all!

http://wolfcreekranch1.tripod.com/defaq.html

 

[Gypsi]

Can 8 week old pullets do ok at below freezing temps without a heat lamp? It hasn't frozen in the green house yet - I haven't put the lamp on unless it was going to freezing, but I just got my electric bill... They do have feathers.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

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Wish I had any insight into what you were trying to say here?

BTW-you don't have chickens yet you've posted here nearly 4,500 times? About what?

X2!

 

[Beekissed]

Gypsi~Yep...they do. I'd just provide some fluffy, dry and deep bedding and see how it goes. I've never had a chicken die from the cold...even the poor, bald late-molting hens. Never could figure out how they don't freeze in those cold winter winds and single digit temps but they seem to do just fine. Usually it's one of my older hens who are molting in this manner and you'd think their age would also be a factor in their tolerance to the cold but it never does.

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I've read a lot of studies on coyotes. Never seen any that mentioned interbreeding with wolves. They do sometimes cross with dogs, causing larger size and different colors, pack formation.
I saw a large,black one living on our property in NE OK once. I always thought it was a dog cross.
Given the limited range that wolves live in, I'd be extremely surprised that they are interbreeding with coyotes back east. I'd love to see DNA proof to back this up.

 

[featherz]

I had eight week olds in my barn (unheated) last winter when it was single digits (6-8F) and they were fine. It was probably 10ish in the barn, but the chickens didn't seem to mind.