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

[Dead Rabbit]

X2 Gross!

nasty?

a chicken will drink outa a pool of piss and love it, a chicken will scratch through manure all day, pecking through it. a chicken if given horse manure, will eat mouthfuls of it. i dare say eating oats soaked in stud urine is worse than anything else ive mentioned.

if you observe true farm raised fowl, you'd see why they are called yard buzzards. they are nastier than hogs if given the chance.

 

[Beekissed]

This I know...but I don't know if I could bear actually FEEDING them the stuff. That's like tricking the dumb kid in the class...."Here! Try this Mountain Dew!"

Not that I ever did such a thing......

 

[ldutch123]

its hard for me to say how i determine WHEN to cull. if one seems a little off, i give her a number of days. i may even hit her with some type of drugs. but that is extremely rare. and i dont usually go that route for a regular ol laying hen. i rarely have a laying hen get sick. but after a few days if she is getting worse, i just cull her..............as in kill. culling is killing in my book. i dont run a hospital.

any sick or week chicks get culled immediately. if thery are running around active and eating, but sneezing i may run a bout of respiratory antibiotic. but this to is extremely rare, as in a few times in the decades ive had chickens. i just dont have to many sick fowl. im a firm believer that if you raise them like babies, you will always have babies. and like you, my fowl are chattel, livestock. so if i was pinned down for an answer, id say if any doubt, cull her. before she spreads something to the others. you can get layers anytime, anywhere (most places at least)

I agree. When my chicks came in the mail from the hatchery( I know I know it isn't the best place to get them but that's all I had available at the time) I had 1 that just wouldn't walk so I sent my husband out to take care of it and then another died and then one of my tophat chicks just had a large crop and didn't seem to be growing. Just all around seemed like it wasn't right so he had to take care of that one too. I told myself I'm not going to stress out over these chickens. Now don't get me wrong I really like them and I DO get attached to a few special ones who just seem to like me but for the most part I stop myself and say hey sh*t happens and sometimes we have to take matters into our hands. I'm also a huge animal lover. My darn weimaraner is the most amazing dog I have had and he sleeps in bed with us. We have no children u see so he fills in for that role lmao! But I told myself I refuse to do this with every chicken I have. I have absolutely no problem giving her a few days and see how she is or maybe give her some yogurt or something to see if she perks. I wonder though does it get easier to kill them or make this decision? Last night was the first older chicken he has killed and he isn't thrilled about doing it and I'm not thrilled for making him lol

 

[Kassaundra]

This I know...but I don't know if I could bear actually FEEDING them the stuff. That's like tricking the dumb kid in the class...."Here! Try this Mountain Dew!"

Not that I ever did such a thing......

 

[ldutch123]

Are you guys and gals gonna beat up on me because I put fans in the coops??? I worry on days when the temp reached 90 and higher because that darn coop can get over 100 degrees. There are Cochins trying to lay in there LOL!

 

[Beekissed]

Nah...I've tried to use a fan before. When I noticed that all the chickens were outside in the shade instead of basking in my fan, I just turned it off.

 

[ldutch123]

I'm gonna need some help on this deep litter method cause I thought I was doing it but I clean that darn coop once a month and I'm tired of it. So she'd some light on me here. And how do you keep the shaving out of the waterer. They kick stuff everywhere.

 

[Beekissed]

Well...I used to keep the waterer in a place that needed less bedding(by the door) and placed it up on cement blocks. Now, however, I am using poultry nipples attached to a bucket for a waterer...so no more mess in my water at all, of any kind! Yay! Same with the feeder...a trough style feeder up on blocks but now I've changed that to a trough style feeder hung from the ceiling.

 

[ldutch123]

Nah...I've tried to use a fan before. When I noticed that all the chickens were outside in the shade instead of basking in my fan, I just turned it off.

I just pointed the fan at the boxes for when they re laying. My white Cochin looked pretty miserable in that box when the coop was about 100 degrees! HOW in the heck did she get so many dang feathers lmao. But oh my chickens love to hang out under the bushes or down by the pond. They aren't in that coop EVER unless they are laying. The best part is I don't have to cut down the dead tree because it's downed logs provide an awesome playground for them! And overgrown bushes seem to be their favorite! But I do have to admit when I walk the property I have 36 full grown birds following my EVERY step. My 93 year old neighbor (who has chickens also) just watches them and laughs

 

[Beekissed]

Try it with 30 chickens, a milk cow, three sheep, two dogs and a cat....my kids called me Ace Ventura!

When I'd sit down all the animals would settle around me and the cow would fight the dog for the spot next to me...actually would try to horn him out of the way.

They didn't follow anyone else like that...I think animals know full well who is their guardian and protector. My boys would feed regularly but they never got any of the animals to follow them around like they do me.

Yeah..that's me, the heartless killer of my chickens when they stop laying.