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

[Linn Bee]

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I spent my younger days barefoot. Even on Aunts' farms. I remember walking through the warm. . .er. . . mud(?) behind the barn and I always beat my cousins and sibling into the house 'cuz feet were easier to clean than shoes. I guess all that cow/house/chicken manure was good for growing things - my feet are several sizes above feminine. Sigh!

Love, Linn B (aka Smart Red) Gardening zone 5a - 4b in south-est, central-est Wisconsin

 

[thasista]

Quote:
I spent my younger days barefoot. Even on Aunts' farms. I remember walking through the warm. . .er. . . mud(?) behind the barn and I always beat my cousins and sibling into the house 'cuz feet were easier to clean than shoes. I guess all that cow/house/chicken manure was good for growing things - my feet are several sizes above feminine. Sigh!

Love, Linn B (aka Smart Red) Gardening zone 5a - 4b in south-est, central-est Wisconsin

You know come to think of it my feet are pretty large!!

 

[perchie.girl]

Gawd I am on page 19 and still reading.....

Its like listening to my dad. I miss my dad terribly.

My Grandpa was a sharecropper they raised everything from cotton to pigs. And worked their way from Florida to California. But they always had a flock of Chickens. Grandma would cook lunch for the field hands. Fried Chicken. They raised up hundreds at a time. There were no pets not even dogs and cats. If they lived on the farm they had a job. If the dog wouldn't hunt or herd Grandpa would put em down. Dad called it butchering They did all their own animals. No refrigeration they used the pump house because it was cool to hang sides of beef or hams.

deb whos had chickens since 1989 and still learning

 

[chisNchickens]

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I am only on page sixteen but wanted to say I am sooooo enjoying this thread. And the above as well as Mississippifarmboy's posts (and many others!)are making my day. My face is starting to hurt!!!!

 

[ajlynco]

I'm planning on planting some sunflowers this spring and was wondering if I could grow my own BOSS? Are the BOSS seeds that the chooks eat already hulled or do they get them inshell?

 

[Angiebubs]

Thanks for the great insight(s)!
Several people have mentioned not bothering with the worming, dusting, locking up, etc.: Did you ever have problems with Mareks?

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I spent my younger days barefoot. Even on Aunts' farms. I remember walking through the warm. . .er. . . mud(?) behind the barn and I always beat my cousins and sibling into the house 'cuz feet were easier to clean than shoes. I guess all that cow/house/chicken manure was good for growing things - my feet are several sizes above feminine. Sigh!

Love, Linn B (aka Smart Red) Gardening zone 5a - 4b in south-est, central-est Wisconsin

You know come to think of it my feet are pretty large!!

There's lots of good probiotics in all that poop! Why do you think city kids who grow up with antibacterial everything get sick all the time?

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
Honestly, I've never actually had a roo grow up to be a brat. I did have a tiny banty roo who liked to intimidate one of the women who boarded horses with me but it was so hysterical (he weighed about 14 ounces, she was nearly 6 feet tall) and I kept showing her how to intimidate him but she couldn't stand up to the little demon. He knew it and I'm sorry but it was just hilarious. The worst he ever did was try to hump her boot.

if he was dangerous, I would have taken care of it but it was simply comical.
Had a bratty bull, a bratty stallion a couple of times but no bratty roosters. So, when I say crockpot, that's what I would do, but I guess, like Bee, I've never allowed my Roos to become bratty.
Now, the bratty bulls and stallions. They are a lot of work and very, very dangerous. Unfortunately, they always seem to be the most expensive animals on the place so I do have to fix them and usually can't crockpot them, although I have done that to a bull when he climbed one too many 8 feet squeeze pens and I'd had enough. I also had a National Champion stallion meet with the surgical knife and lose his jewels one spring when he got to big for his britches. Bulls and stallions go through the most obnoxious adolescent period and you must keep the upper hand or they become horribly dangerous.
Male animals deserve respect and must be treated/trained differently from the beginning. I don't think most people are even capable of handling them. Although, a rooster is probably a good " learners" animal, due to its size. Better than a one ton longhorn chasing you around the pen.
I think anybody considering raising male livestock should rent the documentary about Buck Branaham on Netflix. You can see the sad truth about what happens to a stallion and a person ( thankfully nobody died!) when somebody who has no business raising an intact male animal attempts to do so. Excellent movie, by the way, with commentary by Robert Redford.

 

[oshun55555]

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Sunflowers grow wild all over my property and in the ditches, every year i go around and cut the heads off and store them in kinda of mesh bags i use for storing onions, i hang the bags in the barn and just throw the whole seed heads out to the chickens in the winter, gives them something to do since in the winter there is not much free range to be had in the pastures. Funny when i was coming along we did not even know what free range was, they were penned or not. My grandmamma's egg money came from her penned leghorns, the other barnyard chickens just went where the pleased, just like my chickens now.

 

[Tracydr]

Here's some tips.:
Alfalfa, I use it in my coop as the bedding for my deep litter. They eat the leaves and the stems become bedding, which is amazing for the garden. High protein, high calcium and full of other trace nutrients. If you have brown egg layers, it will help those blood spots, too.
If you can get kelp in bulk, or even one pound packs at a reasonable price, it's fabulous as well. A pinch goes a long way. I use it in the garden as a fertilizer and a supplement for my growing chicks. If I lived anywhere near the ocean, I'd be collecting that stuff and using tons of it. It has so many amazing properties, including some properties that just cause the plants to grow and be healthy for some unknown reason. Lots of trace nutrients.
Dark green fresh veggies are sort of this way, too. I sprinkle mustard seed, which I buy in bulk from a spice store, around in unused garden spaces, where other stuff won't grow well due to shade. Mustard grows very easily, drought, cold and heat tolerant. I throw a little kale, radish and other greens in there as well, beets or chard are really great. Everyday, I pick an armload of "salad" and toss it in the run. I truly believe it improves the health of my flock.
You can buy seeds like mustard and fenugreek online at spice stores in one or two pound bulk sizes, don't waste your money with little seed packets on this stuff. Before a rainstorm, I just go sprinkle the seed around any bare spots where I need a "cover crop" or don't have anything else growing at the time.
I do the same with amaranth in the summer. I can buy amaranth grain at the health food grocery which is the green variety, or, I've saved seed from the beautiful, red large variety which is so ornamental. Amaranth provides greens when small and grains when larger. It's about as easy to grow as weeds in the summer and the red variety is stunningly beautiful. You can cut off the seed heads to give to the flock and they will do the harvesting themselves, make sure you save some seeds to replant next year. Give them the green leaves throughout the growing season and at the end the whole plant. The stalk can get run through the shredder to go into the compost pile or even used as bedding after being shredded. Amaranth is high protein, complete amino acid profile and high in omega 3s, plus about the easiest plant you'll ever grow.