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

[mississippifarmboy]

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No one who doesn't live here goes into my pens. Period. Ever. For any reason.

I see a sick bird, culled.

New birds come on the farm? Put in a small coop alone for a month or more before joining the flock.

I've medicated twice in all the years I've been raising chickens. Both times were a waste of time. Now I just cull.

 

[Lollipop]

Fred's Hens :

An Old Timer isn't likely to ever take a chicken to a vet and spend $150.

Boy, ya got that right! Sizzles my gizzard when I read about it being done.......Pop​

 

[ladyride]

Bekissed you have the makings for a great book right here. Look forward to reading it !! The most common sense approach for raising chickens during "vogue times " . The OT's involved are plain spoken people that are realistic on expected outcomes they have managed for years with success. This thread has been informational, quite emotional & humorous at times,

good writing material.( spewed coffee everywhere on the screen).
I can't unsub it's like ok what next , then oh this is gonna be good . ie: you just poked Al hatchery vs breeders.

The culling criteria excellent.

. But Bekissed I mean this in a nonhumorous way but how or what are you checking anatomically on whether a hen is laying or about to lay ? Humor

please tell me ky was used in this procedure . My chicken anatomy is not that great, having never done this procedure.
Many different people on here have given me new ways of thinking of things given it had been awhile since I had chickens. I have a little fru fru pom for my pet & companionship he don't give me much but he got love, he is personalized with my feelings , carries my darkest secrets. And he won't peck your eye out . I fully expect my chickens to give me breakfast & dinner. In return they will have decent coops, nothing fancy but functional, decent feed & neccessary suppliments oyster shell, or egg shells. Clean by chicken standards bedding, that don't require daily messing with .DLM.Protected as much as I can. Shotgun by back door.LGD in training . They will be well cared for & provided for as long as they provide.
Looking forward to next installment biosecurity. Everyone involved thanks for your input this has made for a great read.
By the way can I get an autographed copy of your book ???

 

[Beekissed]

You know? I tried using a lubricant but found out it just wasn't necessary and it didn't last past the first bird or two anyway....

I actually read about that method somewhere...could have even been on here, who knows? I found it to be the best and most foolproof way of determining laying. Believe me, I tried all the other methods first...who wants to give a chicken a rectal exam???

After using all the old and time-honored "ways to know" and finding I had butchered a few good layers after killing the dry vented, pale combed, yellow legged, narrow pelvic-ed birds of the flock, I concluded that the finger up the butt method was worth a shot.

Haven't killed the wrong bird since starting it!

I just insert the tip of a finger gently into the vent and palpate for an egg through the intestinal wall...if I don't find one lower down, I may go a little further...if one is in the making for the next day's lay, I'll be able to feel it.

 

[al6517]

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I also hate that word.......... in a year they will have an accronym for it ......... like BS........so it will sound even cooler and make someone pretend to be smart LOL. I try not to over think the issues of bringing in unwanted oooooglies into my program, so I don't really do all that much except be vigilant. I have new birds coming into my pen's a few times a year, and I think the main key is to know chickens and how to evaluate them. We read so often how folks are so concerned with this and that and so on & so forth and that's fine but these same folks can quote the symptom verbatum, at the same time couldn't tell if the chicken actualy even has it. Their lack of common knowledge is the key here, if you think a bird has a respitory issue you had better know how to see it, hear it, how to cure it, and do it right, by hands on, not just muddle through, but get knee deep in it.

I have never had an issue in my pen's medicaly where I brought something in that a bird had.............. Why you ask........... because I fully inspect the bird for all things and can do it in about 1 minute by handling it and giving it the once over better than any exam by avian vet this side of the Missesip. It's not hard, I let folks come into my breeder house if they want, but I have walk way's and they can stroll and parruse the isles without needing to enter the pens. Everybody always say's and I repeat............ I NEVER LET ANYBODY IN MY COOP'S UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES !!!! Why because they read it on some forum by a pet chicken person

. If your chickens are healthy and have a good immune system in place, then it's not all that big a deal............... sure if I know a guy has sick birds at his place i might tell him to wait outside the pen's or go wipe your feet in the sandpit, no worries. I can see if my birds are coming down with something before the bird does LOL.

I prefer to prevent as a regimine rather than rush to treat, Sure I have a wall chest in the pen's that has a few of the must have med's, and remedies but they have dust on them and rarely get used due to not needing them. prevention is easier........... why don't people get that. LOL I know more people who like to rescue chickens cause it gives them a sense of empowerment and it sounds better to their friends at a dinner party, but they couldn't cure a shaving cut with a towel and most of those birds stay sick because their owners like to say they rescue birds without really knowing how to treat them, so once again the bird suffers.

Ok I'll slow down a bit here................. this is the extent of my med's.......... they are on the left in the 2 cabinets and some on the shelfs, it's all I need.

 

[Beekissed]

I rarely ever add outside birds to my flocks...just the occasional now and again. The only time it bit me in the butt was a group of donated birds, retired layers really, that had been kept exclusively indoors. I checked them out physically and it all looked good...but not too long afterwards my home flock started showing signs of scale mites. None on the visiting birds but my birds were afflicted.

That being said...lesson learned. But as to worrying about bringing diseases, actual diseases, I don't give it a second's thought and anyone can walk into my coop anytime they like...my run is my backyard, so it's hard to limit that kind of exposure.

I just work from day one to develop the strongest immune systems in my animals and then take my chances. I've never had any illnesses in any of my flocks, so it just might be working...we'll see.

I did bring in a few BAs once from a "breeder"....BAD idea.

They all were pooping yellow, bubbly diarrhea with blood streaks in it(didn't see that until I got them home, of course)....as soon as I saw that, I knew I had been ripped off. None of the birds would lay and they didn't recover to a healthy GI status...they were all culled from the flock within a couple of weeks. But no ill effects were noted to my own flock from that incident.

I will admit I didn't get to examine the birds properly before purchase and was just trusting someone I shouldn't have...live and learn, once again.

Oh...meds? I don't have any except NuStock, bag balm and ACV.

 

[dirtsaver]

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Bee you really ought to include at least a chapter on the traveling handyman,knife sharpener fellows that went house to house, trading eggs or dressed chickens for sugar and other staples at the community store....just trivia that most "under 50" folks may never heard of or experienced that was a part of life up into the 1960s. Some of those may things return someday!

 

[darkmatter]

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Never even heard of biosecurity until I got on this site. Turns out I was practicing it all along. I have never brought in an adult bird to my flock. Either hatched my own eggs or purchased chicks/keets. When incubating your own eggs or brooding hatchery chicks, you still have to introduce the young uns to the flock carefully. I use an introduction cage I made out of a old ferret cage picked up on the side of the road with a "free" sign on it:

Of course it's better to have the hens do it themselves, I prefer dual purpose "Mutts" with a wide genetic base, and sometimes slip the eggs of my choice under them:

 

[al6517]

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[Beekissed]

DirtSaver, that would certainly be an interesting chapter! This first book will mainly be a general book to help people who are poor and getting more so that are wanting to help themselves and provide more ways to feed their family and save on expenses...without all the complicated advice currently being offered. Just plain and easy ways to get by and make do that are easy to put into practice and won't cost extra money in the process.

I also have a sequel planned that will involve different people who are putting such things into practice in their urban/rural yards, like cheese making, soap making, fiber production, etc(sort of a modern day version of Foxfire)...so a chapter on someone who earns extra money doing that sort of thing would definitely be of interest. Do you know anyone currently doing this?