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

[Beekissed]

I agree with all the above on the breeds. I buy the breeds I need for my particular wants and needs and then proceed to refine that group by culling for egg laying, health, appearance as it applies to health. Then I just breed a good, solid and meaty roo of an egg laying breed over those girls and use the mixed breed of their progeny for the same purpose...utility, utility, utility. I use chickens for an egg and meat source, while letting their egg laying defray the cost of keeping them.

I would not have one chicken on my place if they did not~bottom line~ save me money or make me money.

Fred: An Old Timer isn't likely to ever take a chicken to a vet and spend $150. That chicken would be culled and if the Old Timer had an extra $150, he/she would just get 25 chicks and have enough money to feed them out to replace the one sick bird, and still have enough to buy their spouse a pizza and a beer. Easy chicken math that.

Priceless!!! THIS is a huge pearl of wisdom that needs to be tattooed on some folks' hand so they absolutely will NOT forget it. THIS is the REAL chicken math.

 

[speckledhen]

We can't afford to take a chicken to a vet, either. However, if someone has the means to do so and knows a vet who knows chickens, that's none of my business. I really do understand the feeling of wanting to help a suffering animal. Would I do it if I had generous funds available for such things? To be honest, considering the short life of a chicken anyway, probably not.

You know, chickens can be as expensive and/or as complicated as you want to make them. They do make great pets if that's what you want them to be-or they can be just livestock, if you prefer them to be at arms' length. It's a personal preference. I'm very attached to a few of mine, as much as I've been to any dog I've ever owned. Do they need lighting, heat lamps, etc, etc? No, they don't need those things with proper dry, well-ventilated housing. It may make you feel better, sure, but feathers are fabulous insulation (as long as they aren't butt-naked from the molt). If you could put on a feather coat, I think you'd see that.

I don't heat my coops, don't provide extra light, though there are lights we can turn on for us. None of the birds has ever seemed the worse for it, but then, my predator-proof coops are well-built with ventilation up high and no drafts. When one of those special hens I mentioned, one of my originals, was aging and her feet were painful and gnarly with arthritis last winter, I provided her one heat spot over her place on the roost because I was not going to cull her. I will make concession for a special circumstance-no need to make one suffer for a principle or because someone else may not approve. Does that make me a softie? Yup, guess it does. She passed on soon afterward and the heat lamp was removed. On the other hand, if Lexie had been ill with a contagious respiratory illness, she would have been culled, not treated, pet or no pet. Hard stance to take when you're attached, but I can't see any other logical way to be on that subject.

mississippifarmboy, loved to read your post!

As far as breeds, won't have BBS Orps again because I've lost 3 out of 4 hens to crop issues. Not the best layers, either. Will not be raising Delawares anymore, partly because they are not as heat resistant as you would imagine they'd be. Interesting, huh?

Regarding mixed breeds, my favorites have been the Barred EEs we make (BR over Ameraucana or EE hen). They lay like crazy, consistently and never seem to have any reproductive issues at all. Great hens! Barred Rocks for consistent layers, Buff Orps for broodies and Barred EEs for my mixed breeds work well for us. Utility is important here, not just looks.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Excellent description of chicken keeping in days gone by...my grandma's house was a duplicate of a lot of the points in this post. And this is much the same way I raise chickens now....frostbite, happening rarely and lightly, is ignored.

Same with the culling info....exactly how it always was and still is handled here. You won't find many ugly birds(poorly feathered, pale combs and legs, etc.) in my flocks and you will never find one that is lame or sickly....all specimens who are not in optimal condition and health, as well as peak performance, are quickly turned into food. Only the best and strongest are left to pass on the best of the genetics. This is another way I practice preventative health management on my flocks...survival of the very fittest so I won't have to worry about the unfit being a liability.

 

[Beekissed]

I free range. Any other OTs consistently free range their smaller flocks of 30 or so?

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
How can this be true? Corn is a plant native to the Americas. European explorers got it from the native Americans and took it back to Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, and from there spread it throughout the known world. Here is a reality check: the native americans already had rotted teeth and poor nutrition (as did the rest of the world...thank the Lord for Crest toothpaste and vitamin supplements). Corn already was THE staple food of Native Americans, and their gift to the "whiteman". At that time there were known varieties of corn, two major groups being what we now call field and sweet corn. In 1779 the Iroquois introduced European settlers to sweet corn (what they called Papoon). The only varieties known in Europe at that time were field corn (which the got from the Americas via Spanish explorers a century earlier).

Corn gets a bad rap today, and corn-haters float many myths. It is truly the wonderfood (though I am not a big fan of Round Up ready corn). When kept within its proper use, of course....and when properly supplemented. Interestingly, many colonists suffered negative health cosequences because while they incorporated Native American corn into their diets, they ignored tradional Indian practices when cooking with corn, resulting in serious health deficiences. For example, when cooking corn and cornmeal, Native Americans had developed a practice of incorporating ash from the fire into the food, and the mineral mix in this ash increased the availability of vitamin B3 from the corn. Colonists thought the practice barbaric, and thus sufered unknowingly from poor nutrition.

Of course, I'm almost old enough to remember some of this history first hand.

You are right, Country Parson. I suffer from poor memory now and then

Indians suffered from poor health and rotting teeth as they incorporated more and more of white man's diet. Not to mention being pushed off their healthy areas and forced to live on more barren areas.

Sorry for going off topic, I won't do it again.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
I free range all the birds from mid summer until January 1st. The first of the year I pen up my breeders and start setting eggs the first of February. They stay penned up until around July or August, just whenever I stop hatching for the year.

Our growing birds and the laying flock for our eatting eggs free range year 'round.

This year we cut back to the bare bones on the flocks to feed through the winter, only have about 60 head total right now. During the summer/fall it can be as high as several hundred head.

 

[southerndesert]

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40 or so and yes....

 

[southerndesert]

Quote:
And this is someone I have learned much from among may others at this forum..... Old dogs can still gain as long as they can still pay attention

 

[Marthab1953]

Quote:
X2

Even if it's one of my favorites I could never justify a $150 vet bill for a $15 chicken.

No way in you know what I am taking a chicken to a vet!

 

[Beekissed]

I think that is just HOW old dogs get to be old dogs...by paying attention and making adjustments accordingly. I think that is one of the defining features of OTers...they pay attention. They don't mind taking a chance and applying a new concept~ as long as it sounds reasonable.