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

[armorfirelady]

Ya ever drive by a house that has a huge, neatly stacked woodpile and get "wood envy"? My kids used to laugh at me about that, but my mother and I both do this...we'll be driving by a house and exclaim, "Wow! Look at THAT woodpile! NICE!". I expect most ladies would be admiring the beauty of the home or landscaping, but we always zero in on the woodpile.

I do the same thing but luckily this year with the supply I was given I have almost 20 cords of wood.......needless to say I think people have wood envy when they drive by my house lol
And nothing is better than heat by the wood stove. Def warms you up completely. I go to other peoples houses who heat with a furnace & I am still cold. I am never cold at my house

 

[chickencowranch]

Those are eggs...well...tiny, potential eggs. In all different sizes of development. In a good layer, that mass would be twice that size and you'd see a lot more of the pale yellow eggs and actual big, orange yolks of various sizes there as well. That's the ovary of the chicken.

Thank you. Did you just notice this hen wasn't right or have you been watching her for some time?

 

[smyers32]

I bought some week old chicks day before yesterday and they were being kept in brooders that in my opinion were too hot, so of course a few of them had poopy butts. I got them home around 630pm and after just one night with FF only 1 had a sticky bum and all the others had perfectly formed little tiny chicken poops. My first reaction was, "oh look at the cute little poops!" Yes, I think chicken poop is cute now....
Wrong thread for this FF praise, I know, but I also had a question. Or more of a pondering really: I have some eggs that I found hidden and don't know how old they are, so I was cooking them for the chickens this am and was thinking it might be a good nutrient boost for the chicks. But then decided against it since they're from a different flock on a different farm and because these eggs may have been laid when my hens were sickly, etc.
So do any of you ever feed eggs to little chicks? And what would happen if you fed eggs from a different flock to chicks, could they get sick from the foreign germs or could that be a god way to 'inocculate' them to your flock's germs? (although since I cooked them I doubt the germs would be an issue either way).
Just something I was thinking about....

 

[Miss Lydia]

I miss the wood stove, wonderful memories from my childhood. Yes we baked potatoes in the coals, and cooked beans, and a treat was a baked onion, yummmy. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I love this time of year.

We like to make tin foil dinners using deer or beef sliced thin, cut up potatoes cut up onion with butter slices over top then fold tin foil up to close all sides pop into stove very tasty on a cold winter day.

 

[Beekissed]

Thank you. Did you just notice this hen wasn't right or have you been watching her for some time?

This hen was pretty young and just coming to POL when she left my place for another home, at that time she was one in a flock of 30+. I hadn't gotten to really watch or examine that flock during the time they were away. She was over 2 yrs old when I got her back and in very poor condition. My first thought was to get everyone back to health so that, when I culled, I could actually feel safe in eating the meat. I slowly started to realize something was wrong as I watched her walking and then when her tail finally grew back in. As she started to put on weight it was all in the wrong places...flat chest, big middle, pinched bottom. Very weird shaped chicken. I'd venture to say that she probably has never laid an egg but I can't say for sure. If I had had her all the way through, she would have been culled in that first year.

 

[JeffOeuf]

Do you have Roosts for them in the coop ? they may be trying to tell you where are the roosts ?

...just a thought .

No, that's not it. They've got a nice cedar branch in the coop to roost on. I think the issue is the established girls picking on them. It's not bad in the yard, but once they're all cooped up, it picks up a bit. Think they got tired of getting picked on and decided to just try out the trees.

I've got them partitioned off in the part of the run that is under the coop. Once the big girls have all laid their eggs today, I'll let the young'uns have the whole thing for a few hours while the big girls free-range.

 

[Beekissed]

I bought some week old chicks day before yesterday and they were being kept in brooders that in my opinion were too hot, so of course a few of them had poopy butts. I got them home around 630pm and after just one night with FF only 1 had a sticky bum and all the others had perfectly formed little tiny chicken poops. My first reaction was, "oh look at the cute little poops!" Yes, I think chicken poop is cute now....
Wrong thread for this FF praise, I know, but I also had a question. Or more of a pondering really: I have some eggs that I found hidden and don't know how old they are, so I was cooking them for the chickens this am and was thinking it might be a good nutrient boost for the chicks. But then decided against it since they're from a different flock on a different farm and because these eggs may have been laid when my hens were sickly, etc.
So do any of you ever feed eggs to little chicks? And what would happen if you fed eggs from a different flock to chicks, could they get sick from the foreign germs or could that be a god way to 'inocculate' them to your flock's germs? (although since I cooked them I doubt the germs would be an issue either way).
Just something I was thinking about....

The birds of origin on those eggs would have to be very sick indeed if the illness/infection extended to their reproductive organs. Cooking the eggs likely kills any pathogens there but I don't know. If I were you, I wouldn't hesitate...let the chips fall where they may and the strongest survive...but I'm not you, so that will have to be a decision you have to make on your own.

You're like me...I like to ponder things aloud so that, if anyone has something to add to the pile of pondering, it can expand the "what ifs" that I haven't thought of yet.

 

[JeffOeuf]

I'd give them the float test, and if they're not rotten, I'd feed them to the chicks. But, that's just me.

 

[smyers32]

Yes, there's a never-ending stream of 'what if's and 'I wonder's flowing through my mind 24/7.
So you do feed eggs to chicks? it would be good for them in your opinion? or should I just stick with the FF?

 

[Beekissed]

I don't ever feed eggs to the chicks. Their formulated feed is nutrition enough and the FF makes it doubly so. I've fed raw eggs to the older flock before but not too many...just a stray egg now and again that was too poopy for my taste. It's always a race to see who gets it, the dog or the chickens.