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

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Two very different answers. Biodiversity is both a function of time scale and how often you import new alleles into flock. With totally closed flock without occasional imports and time is indefinite, then hundreds of actual breeding birds needed which is not practical. If your flock is part of a local landrace where exchanges of breeders is relatively frequent between chicken keepers, like in truelly olden days when many of the less refined breeds where developed and used over the millenia, then minimum size for food and fiber kicks in. That is a function of your protein and / or energy needs met by consumption of poultry products. Then you need to figure how many birds and eggs do you consume annually? Then you need to consider how many breeder hens and roosters are needed to supply said products plus replace themselves before they are retired or lost (predators, disease, trade). You will be limited by productivity of your landscape and availabilty of feeds and feedstuffs needed to supplement the landscapes ability to meet the flocks nutritional needs. Their is also the issue of seasonality of production and its vulnerabilty to natural disasters (i.e. drought). Lots feed into this and is reason chickens on farmsteads generally supply only a small portion of old time farmers nutrition. Chicken on scale we enjoy today is a very recent event.

so then I should plan on not being able to keep a sustainable closed flock. Bring in new bloodlines every couple of years to ""freshen up the flock"" And assume I will need to feed em all. then play it by ear when they start free ranging and check on their condition periodically to see if they are keeping up on their weight. Probably at processing time. Lots to think about.....

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
that does make sense...........heres another one to think about. pure cornish. this was one i was considering one time. they are meaty birds. not the best at reproducing, slow growing, but good at foraging. and can reproduce. or use a cornish brood cock over another meaty type, that can lay. and make your own hybrids. then you can use the hybrid type offspring, and breed back to either side of the cross and still produce meaty types that lay to some degree.

never tried it, but it was somethin i was considering. course like most things, it sounds like it would work on paper. true life my dictate differently.

Yeppers! That's what I'm noodling....... Lots of learning to do! The big problem for me is lack of foraging. My current yard is "Albuquerque Natural" (please read: rocks, dirt, sandy dirt, more rocks....).

x2

I used to live in Roswell.

 

[navasima]

al!

I beg to differ! I'm truly wet behind the ears here! It IS all a big secret to me. Isn't this where us clueless kids come to learn this stuff? Now, I'm not expecting a 2 sentence summary of years of work,but please - couldja give me a starting place?

Any reading you would recommend? Studies to be learned from? Just looking for guidance please. Thanks!

 

[centrarchid]

perchie.girl :

Quote:
Two very different answers. Biodiversity is both a function of time scale and how often you import new alleles into flock. With totally closed flock without occasional imports and time is indefinite, then hundreds of actual breeding birds needed which is not practical. If your flock is part of a local landrace where exchanges of breeders is relatively frequent between chicken keepers, like in truelly olden days when many of the less refined breeds where developed and used over the millenia, then minimum size for food and fiber kicks in. That is a function of your protein and / or energy needs met by consumption of poultry products. Then you need to figure how many birds and eggs do you consume annually? Then you need to consider how many breeder hens and roosters are needed to supply said products plus replace themselves before they are retired or lost (predators, disease, trade). You will be limited by productivity of your landscape and availabilty of feeds and feedstuffs needed to supplement the landscapes ability to meet the flocks nutritional needs. Their is also the issue of seasonality of production and its vulnerabilty to natural disasters (i.e. drought). Lots feed into this and is reason chickens on farmsteads generally supply only a small portion of old time farmers nutrition. Chicken on scale we enjoy today is a very recent event.

so then I should plan on not being able to keep a sustainable closed flock. Bring in new bloodlines every couple of years to ""freshen up the flock"" And assume I will need to feed em all. then play it by ear when they start free ranging and check on their condition periodically to see if they are keeping up on their weight. Probably at processing time. Lots to think about.....​

Following dead rabbits strategy of line breeding can make it so linebreeding is needed every few years or even decades. Exchange though would also enable faster acquisition of desireable genes not already in your flock and must be an option when coyotes gets into hen house. When I was a kid, each of our game familes was actually split into multiple farms / walks with some simply held in pens purely as backup in the event something wiped all brids of a flock out. Having neighbors with same type of birds would serve same purpose. Sustaininng a breed is not something for an individual to do, especially if undertaking is to involve multiple human lifetimes (think long-term or spend more time in outhouse).

 

[Cetawin]

Quote:

I have been misunderstood many times, even on here. SpeckledHen and I have gone around many times on the ability of chickens to process bacterias... molds.

That doesn't mean I dislike her. She may dislike me, I don't know, I have never met her. I have looked at her farm and deduced solely by the look of it, that I would like her.... I am guessing that she is a she.

Just because you have a difference of opinion with someone on one particular point, doesn't mean you wouldn't get along on others. Anyone married? Anyone agree with your spouse 100% of the time?

Anyone want to discuss politics or religion? See how fast THAT conversation goes south lol!

Lighten up guys and gals.... the person that ticks you off the most here COULD be your neighbor.... or Mother in Law lol!

I have NEVER seen a post on here that has made me feel unwelcome, but I am a landlord and a used car dealer so am rather used to haters.

BTW, I have a cochin hen that is brooding 1 egg. Does that mean that I know anything? Nope..... As someone here posted before, it's just IME, or in my experience. I have an incubator that is ALWAYS broody.

Yes she is a she, a wonderfully knowledgable helpful person. As to the mold, it KILLS chickens. I lost 7 to it. How do I know? First, found mold in bottom of feed bag Dumor to be precise from TSC. Second necropsy at Univ. Of Kentucky Center for Animal Diseases in Lexington said so. Crop stasis due to ingested mold spores found spores in crop, gizzard, stomach, esophogus and intestines. Rethink your moldy opinion.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Quote:
The difference is in how much a particular chicken eats, to put on the same amount of weight or how many eggs you get, for the same amount of feed. It varies a lot more than you would think, when you first get into chickens.

It's about a difference in money or feed resources, whether a chicken lays every day or only a few times a week, while eating every day. Whether they eat 1/4lb of feed a day or 1/3lb a day to produce those eggs. That's one of the reasons people choose different breeds that are more specialized or different strains, that have been selectively bred for a particular purpose.

If the cost to produce the eggs or meat isn't as big a deal, any chunky chicken with a fair amount of meat will provide a good meal and some eggs. That works for a lot of people, too. Some people also prefer the taste of a chicken that takes longer to get to butchering size. You might end up wanting to try different chickens and see what you like. A few straight run dual purpose, a few really good layers and a few meaties. See what you like.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I guess I am not interested in line breeding. My home is in a place where there is very very little in the form of agriculture, mostly a cow or two or horse or two. Mostly city people disgusted with neighbors wanting space around them, or Desert people who are there because they have been there forever.... So any flock I have any bloodline I have will be brought in by me. Guinea Fowl is my focus right now so I will do my best to get at least four to five different sources. I am 56 years old and probably have another forty years left to enjoy poultry.... (my genes are long lived if we don't do something stupid)

 

[scottcaddy]

=ChickenCanoe

ETA
I forgot to mention, they love a foot bath when they're hot. I put a rubber hog feeder filled with cool water in each pen - they take turns standing in it.

I have noticed the same thing here in NC, Now I go around and and cool water to the rubber horse feed tubs <BG> when it's hot outside, that I use for water.

thanks Scott​

 

[centrarchid]

perchie.girl,


Guinea fowl as I understand it are much more suited to arid conditions than chickens are so they should be a wiser choice. Keeping of birds poorly suited to local environments seems to be a frequent violation of wisdom. Some because of selective breeding or what they are derived from should only be kept under a certain range of conditions if free ranging or continous exposure to climate is expected.

 

[Gypsi]

OK, 7 days til I can eat an egg from my hens? Or 14. Wormed yesterday with Wazine.

My pullets went from free ranging to perch in the run with the hens tonight!

Yeah - no more chicken-chasing. They thought the greenhouse was home.