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

[Country Parson]

Hallerlake, Sure you can! Though I'm not sure this is really an Old-Timer vs Hobbyist issue. Its more of an utiliarian vs hobbyist issue with folks in both categories falling into both camps. With that said, the old timers seem to lean decidedly away from an hobbyist mentality. My folks are convinced the bantam fluffy flu-flu breeds are a sign of our society's eventual collapse. While I myself wouldn't lump in a little Silkie with the coming apocalypse, I do understand their bewilderment.

 

[Beekissed]

Are you saying hobbyists can't learn anything from old timers?

I guess that all depends on the hobbyist. Some old-timers ARE hobbyists who have been doing it so long they are old hands at it. The two do not have to be mutually exclusive...and there lies the problem with a lot of the thinking on this forum.

Here's the 411...old-timers who have managed to keep healthy flocks that pay for themselves for many years have some wisdom to impart to ANYONE who would like to keep their chickens alive; do it easily and without over-thinking, stressing out, feeling like failures, etc; do it cheaply and with as little wasted motion and time as possible.

Now...if you happen to keep chickens as a hobby but would still like that information in order to keep your flock healthy and thriving without breaking the bank and wasting your time and creating increased stress levels...then I guess old-timers can teach the casual hobbyists a few tricks.

If you enjoy the attention garnered by constantly pleading for help every time your chicken passes a sideways fecal particle...then you probably won't get a thing from this thread.

Again...it is a "take it or leave it" thread. You are free to do as you wish!

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Just catching up and reading all the responses and thought of something else about how very delicate and fragile chickens are.

When I was a kid "chick starter" was also called "corn meal"

I use store bought starter now just because it's quick and easy to buy, but for generations, the starter was plain old corn meal, usually home ground too. Ma had an open bottomed "cage" sorta thing with 2" X 4" wire inside one corner of the chicken house. She would put an old flat pan inside full of corn meal inside it and the chicks could get to it but the larger chickens couldn't. Our chicken house was just old barn lumber with a tin roof and dirt floor, not much different from my current one. There was a small run on one end that was only used when we wanted to breed a certain breed, we would put the rooster and the hens we wanted in there, after a few weeks would stop gathering the eggs and let a few broody hens sit the eggs, then open the door when they hatched and turn them loose. Other than breeding season, they all free ranged over the yard, patures, fields and woods. We did shut the coop door every night and open it again about daylight every morning. Feeders were galvanized store bought ones, home made wooden V type troughs with 2" X 4" wire over the top sitting on old bricks, old hubcaps and just thrown on the ground sometimes with grains. Waterers were cut down buckets, hot water heater tanks cut in half long ways, old bent up washpans and the ponds and creek.

Like most of the other OTs that have posted here, in our family it was the women who managed the flocks, feed, watered, done the breeding and such. Us boy kids done the butchering and cleaning and Pa took all the credit.

We fed a mix of cheap layer pellets, whole and cracked corn, whatever scraps and such the dogs and pigs didn't eat and they spent a lot of time digging through the "droppings" of the horses, pigs, cows and other animals. They also had run of the fields and gardens after we finished with them for the season.

I do not have, and no one I was ever around ever had electricity and running water in the coops or runs. I've never had a chicken freeze to death either, although I have had a few large combed roosters loose the points on their combs during a hard winter. The way I dealt with that was.... to ignore it. By spring they looked fine, the tips would turn black, eventually shed off and no harm done. And even this happend only a very few times during very severe weather.

We had a few that had names like "that red rooster" or "spotted hen", but nothing more personal. They were chickens, not pets. All were going to wind up in the cook pot at some point, when depended on when they quit being productive. Some never made it to a year, several would be 5 or 6 years old when dumpling day came. A rooster flogged us, he was dinner come Sunday. No exceptions.

I do worm if I see any sign that they have worms, but it is very rare. Growing up I didn't even know you COULD worm a chicken.

I remember just a few times that a chicken would have leg mites. Pa would catch it, dip a small rag in coal oil and tie around it's legs. After about a week or less they would pick it loose and the legs would be clean and clear of mites. He always coated the roost poles with burnt motor oil a couple of times a year too to keep mites away.

Culling was done anytime a chicken was hurt or wasn't growing right, and the culls we ate. We never even tried to "fix" a limping chicken, one that was a runt or such. Killing was quick and as humane as possible with any animal on the farm. It's not something you enjoy, but in my opinion, if you are going to raise chickens, you better be able to do it and do it right. Period.

Since I started trying to work with rare and heritage breeds, I admit I cull harder than ever. But on a working farm like ours, there is no waste, we just eat a lot of chickens.

I've always loved chickens. I love sitting out in the yard watching them, it relaxes me. I love the variety, the colors and just the individual personalities of them. I enjoy feeding, watering and taking care of them. I've got just a few I paid insane amounts of money for, just because I wanted them. But at the end of the day.....

They are still chickens.

 

[sourland]

Quote:
I don't think that solid husbandry based practices are only for 'utilitarian' oriented poultry raisers. These same practices work for hobbyist/show oriented folk and their birds. When I was showing my pretty little lt brown leghorn bantams, I did not treat them any differently than my broilers or egglayers. OK if I am to tell the truth, I did keep my best cockerels and roosters in the cellar during the winter so that their combs did not freeze.

 

[Mommy 2 Wee Ones]

mississippifarmboy, I enjoyed reading your post. You painted a very clear picture in my minds eye of what your life was like. Thank You.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
You are wecome. I get a bit leary posting the way life really is and was. I tend to get stoned when I do.

 

[NanaLantana]

Mississippi farm boy, I really like your posting! A man after my own heart. I j ust wanted to add that when I was a kid, I was impatient, so I'd often open a pipped egg, take the wet little feller out, and put it back under the hen! Nobody told me that was not a good thing to do - I guess kids didn't get so much 'hovering' parental intervention back then - well, I never lost a chick, either. (But if you were caught doing mischief, watch out - all adults had eyes in the backs of their heads, we kids knew it, and they didn't mind telling our parents what we were up to! ) I often walked around with a chicken tucked under my arm, even when I was as young as 8 yrs old. No TV in my house! My job at butchering time was to hold the chicken's legs, while my brother chopped the head. I stretched my arm out as far as I could, turned my head away, and as soon as I heard 'whack!' I'd let go and run!

We also culled a bad rooster after the first offense. Now,I keep hens only, and I enjoy them quite a bit, and my Church family enjoys our eggs quite a lot. This morning more people were asking me for eggs than what I had available. Now, that's life!

 

[sourland]

Quote:
You are wecome. I get a bit leary posting the way life really is and was. I tend to get stoned when I do.

MFB, see I am not the only person who thinks that you should write a book. You are guaranteed sales of 111,536 copies to all BYC users.

 

[Fred's Hens]

The "funny" thing I observe is that the hobbyist tends to be so vocal about desiring organic. There is a bit of gloating over our eggs being good and clean, unlike those awful commercial hen houses who use anti-biotics. The "funny" thing to me is to read thread after thread about anti-biotic use among hobbyists. I just note it, I'm not judging it. Shrug. My grandmother would never have known what all these medicines were. She was organic before it was vogue, not by choice but by reality. No anti-biotics. No worming, other than curcurbit seeds or black walnuts. If a chicken failed to thrive, it was culled. It could always be fed to the boar, if nothing else. The hogs might return the favor and provide certain bits and parts to the chickens when they were butchered.

Culling to a "utilitarian" (I guess that's the word of the week) is a fact of life. When you've got a couple hundred birds, if one limps, as Mississippi says, you cull it. Done. All chickens meet that end, it is just a matter of when, so it makes no difference if it is 18 weeks, a year old, or 2 years old. If a hen doesn't lay, it gets culled. If hens slow down and the economics aren't there for another moult and down time? They're culled. There's no chicken that doesn't get eaten or, on rare occasion, composted. Nothing is wasted. It's the "circle of life".

 

[oshun55555]

Quote:
I've never experienced any chickens with crop stasis, so this is not in my realm of experience. Like Speckled here, I would more than likely cull a bird with "issues" and just not have that breed anymore if it is prone to this malady.

This makes husbandry much simpler if one just eliminates the problems before having to live with or deal with them. Some problems are just going to happen and cannot be predicted, but a lot of the things I read about on this forum could have been prevented if the person would just cull for good genetics, purchase naturally hardy breeds, or practice preventative health measures.

Thanks Bee I have had to bite my tongue many a time when folks talk about doing things for their special needs chickens, if a chicken is not to my liking and can't make it on its own it goes in the pot, if it don't lay it goes in the pot, if its mean .. it goes in the pot, if its crippled it goes in the pot etc, but to each his own some folks keep them as pets and like to coddle them and lick on them, but for me I have pet dogs and I don't even like them in the house let alone a chicken.