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

[wsmith]

You do realize there are now over 2800 posts...right...

I think I do remember your method though.....

 

[Beekissed]

That's the trouble with a thread like this one...it becomes too cumbersome and lengthy to read and from which to glean the wonderful nuggets of methods tried and found to last. But...if it were a book that held that information within it's pages, you would read that book until you found that for which you were looking. This "book" just happens to not have an index/glossary, which is regretful.

If I repost that method each time someone asked, then it too would soon get buried in the post each and every time until it would be in the thread several dozen times and would have to be repeated ad infinitum. I'm too old and crotchety to type all that same stuff over and over, so now I just point in the general direction and hope that it's worth it to the person to read up...could be one would find all sorts of things along the way that would also be helpful in the world of chickening.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

YEH TRYING TO CONVEY TO MY CHILDREN THAT OUR 3RD ROOSTER IS SUPPER. ALMOST THERE.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

SPEAKING OF THINGS YOU NEEDED TO HEAR, I guess i will get rid of my plastic totes.

 

[Lollipop]

That depends on what size yer fingers are!

I've found this method to be faulty many times and have developed a different method because I got tired of killing perfectly good layers by going by this gauge.

Hmmm, I learned this method from an uncle when I was 11. He was a county ag agent and it's worked for me for 54 years. Nothing is written in stone with fowl and I'm not saying my method is better than yours, just that it has always worked for me........Pop

 

[Beekissed]

That's nice.

I'm sure it works for many people...but for those for whom it doesn't work, there is an alternative method that keeps one from losing hens from smaller flocks like mine(30) when you really didn't want to lose that good of a layer. After using that 3 finger method and killing a couple of my favorite old hens whom I thought were done only to open them up and find eggs in all stages of formation and plenty more to come, I started looking for a better way~for me.

When you run huge flocks, using the 3 finger method is probably more expedient and doesn't matter as much because you can afford to lose a layer here and there. Some really can't when working on less money and less hens, some of which are just exceptional above and beyond their flockmates and that you really didn't want to lose. After the first couple of times, I became scared that this would continue and each year I'd mistakenly kill off all my very best layers just because their pelvises were not as wide as the books say they should be...soon I'd be down to only birds that had wide butts but weren't tried and true good layers. That's fine if you are looking for mediocre layers with a wide pelvis and don't want exceptional layers if they just happen to have a narrow pelvis, but I didn't want to cull for mediocre laying and wide hips.

So..I went searching for a different method and found it and found it to be 100% effective...no more mistakes, no more losses of valued old hens before their time. Now I have top layers that are in their 6th and 7th years that may or may not have narrow hips but they will sure lay the heck out of most other flocks. Never had a hen that was egg bound either...just good, solid laying.

Everyone finds a method that works for them...that is why we have many contributors to this thread. One expounds on one way and the other another and the reader can have a choice of methods that have worked for others and they have choices if one method doesn't work for them or their flocks.

I'm sure the next person will say, "Bee, that method didn't work for me...but I found one that did." When they do, I'll perk up my ears and may even give it a try if it is an easier method than mine. I like easy and I like it to work...which is why I really, really WISH the 3 finger method worked for me~who in the world would prefer to stick their finger up a chicken's butt?

That's the beauty of this thread....one can take or leave the advice but they will have plenty of advice from which to choose.

 

[fowlman01]

Hmmm, I learned this method from an uncle when I was 11. He was a county ag agent and it's worked for me for 54 years. Nothing is written in stone with fowl and I'm not saying my method is better than yours, just that it has always worked for me........Pop

I have used this method as well,that is the way it was done by all the old timers of my day. ..... but it is probably only a matter of how pliable the pubic bones feel. Finger sizes are different ....my 4H kids can put 4 fingers on some birds. I have done it so many times, I don't pay too much attention to how many fingers, but more on how it feels with my fingers....if that makes sense.

Bee...I can understand why you would not want to keep posting info. If you have a post up near the front of the thread maybe you could edit it and put all the info up there. If people are interested they will find it in any case..you don't have to read every post to find something.

Walt

 

[furbabymum]

Here's one, Seminole~Dog+ Chicken= HELP post.

Train your dogs to do something useful for you~like guard chickens, keep them outside so they can actually do what a dog is good for, and enjoy the perfect peace of no predators, no "my dog killed my chicken" scenarios and also enjoy a dog that has developed a thick, winter coat of hair so that he can thrive and be a REAL dog out in the night air doing what dogs like to do best....smell, lope around, bark at foxes or coons, sleep all day after a night of being normal.

Do yourself, your dog and your flock a favor by using a dog for his intended purpose...working AND companionship.

This only works if you have a breed of dog that gaurds. You put my viszla and weimeraner out in the freezing night air with the chickens and the dogs and chickens will be dead. Those dogs don't get undercoats and they are hunters. Chickens = food to them.

The great pyrenees, however, can fit the bill.

 

[Beekissed]

This only works if you have a breed of dog that gaurds. You put my viszla and weimeraner out in the freezing night air with the chickens and the dogs and chickens will be dead. Those dogs don't get undercoats and they are hunters. Chickens = food to them.

The great pyrenees, however, can fit the bill.

I agree...both are breeds I'd never own in the first place...at least, not after learning their true nature. I once got a couple of pups that were Newfie/Visla cross~which I agreed to take because I was hoping the Newfie would outweigh the Visla) and found they could not be trained off of chickens with the normal training methods, so I promptly removed the problem.

All my dogs are lab or lab mixes and most people think they won't guard nor will they bond with a flock and they will most definitely kill chickens~but they didn't and they don't. The one I have now will actually mourn like crazy if a chick dies and will carry it around in his mouth and keep trying to put it back in the coop with the others. I have to dispose of them where he can't go and bring them back because he will do this for days...endless pacing, whining, carrying a stinking, long-dead chick around in his mouth and keep trying to get me to take it, make it live, make it go back into the flock. Makes himself~and me~miserable.

Some breeds just don't have the nurturing nature that it takes to care for a prey species despite their predatory instincts...but it isn't always breed specific and the GP aren't the only dogs that can fill that bill. Many people on here are using mutts and non-typical livestock dogs to guard their flocks and it works wonderfully~and didn't cost them a dime or the acquisition of an additional dog. You only hear about the ones that go horribly wrong and it's usually dogs that have received absolutely no training around livestock and who live indoors all day, only to find a delightful new exercise toy outside that squeaks when you bite into it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Quote Ridgerunner: 
[COLOR=FF0000]Hot air rises. If you have a hole high up like that roof vent and under that overhang, the hot air has a place to go out. But you need a hole down low for cooler air to come in. Windows are great for that, plus you can close them off in winter. I put a panel down at ground level where air can come in as low as possible, probably 6” wide for about 8 feet. I can block that off in winter.[/COLOR]

 
 *****
One more [COLOR=008000]question[/COLOR] on this...  [COLOR=008000]On what side would you put the ground level panel[/COLOR]?  FYI, the double doors and window side of the henhouse face north; pop door faces east.

Each coop and location is different. I'd try to position it so wind does not blow directly in it. For most, that will be away from your prevalent wind in summer. It's probably not going to be open in winter.

My prevalent wind is from the south in the summer, but my coop is the north side of a shed I closed in. Since the south is protected by the shed, that's where I put mine. You might have something blocking the wind or providing protection that gives you an obvious place to put a vent. It's not all that critical. If you were talking about a cold winter wind, that would be different.

I don't know Bee's method for checking if a hen is a good layer or not. My flock is small enough that I generally know which is going into the pot next, but I sometimes look at the vent. If it is big and moist, she is probably laying or getting ready to lay. If it is small and dry, she is not currently laying. That does not tell how often she lays, but if it is peak laying season, she is not broody, and her vent is small and dry, then she has a lot of explaining to do.