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

[fultzie]

or elect. netting i mean..sorry

 

[Beekissed]

i wish i could free range my gals more ..but the neighbors dogs wont let me ..ive heard some say something about elect. fencing ..not sure how that works or what it is ...would this be cheaper than trying to fencing more erea in for them or no?

It's more versatile and more effective as a predator deterrent...no animal will be digging under or climbing over it to get to your birds. It can be easily moved to another area so as to give your pasture a rest, it can be stored away easily and one person can put it up or down within minutes. It has built in posts, so no additional cost of posts is needed.

One draw back is the need to keep the grass down along the fence line to keep it from shorting out your fence. This is easy to do when you get the hang of it.

 

[Zany Chick]

That is precisely why I started this thread. I finally had reached my BS limit and, in a fit of pique, decided to let it all hang out in a thread about things you won't find in all the cute little books with glossy pics of chickens in them.

I am writing a book this winter about just such things as this, so this thread is a little preview of the kind of tips, advice, and info that you will find in my book...good, old-fashioned, no nonsense things that your grandma knew and probably told you. The book will talk about making do in a poor economy and how to do it with grace, raising your own foods~animal and vegetable, etc. And guess what? It won't have one line about the pH of the soil, how much Wazine to give a chicken, how to clip coupons or how to create a gas chamber in a tupperware bowl to kill a chick.

It will be called What Mama Told Me...I'm working on the webpage now that will discuss the book and display excerpts, pics of our homesteading days, how to skin a deer, process a chicken, etc. I'll post a link in my siggy line when the website is up and running.

How did the book writing go? It sounds like a great idea.

 

[Zany Chick]

Hen house is well built and secure with a enclosed chain link with chicken wire over it run for night time security and has never been breached (2 of them)

Brooder house is also all wood and closed at night.

Each coop/run has a very large pen of 5 foot chain link as well that they hang out in until mid day when they are turned lose to free range. We do it this way because one of us or the dog is always out and about after noon or so. We have a Blue Healer that watches over the chickens very well even alerting us to hawks when they are above.

It is up to the chickens keeper to build to protect before disaster not after round here. The Arizona Desert has some crafty predators, but we built them out...

Is there anything over the top of the run?

 

[Beekissed]

How did the book writing go? It sounds like a great idea.

Still in the works....would anyone be interested, do you think?

 

[TonySorrento]

Quote:
Still in the works....would anyone be interested, do you think?

I sure am gonna buy it

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks! That gives me some encouragement. I have been kind of stalled on it, wondering about the need for it(is it there?) and the direction of it(it's not all about chickens at this point) and that I may do a small handbook on just chickens at a later point...sort of a field manual, so to speak.

I'll get back on it...I've been somewhat distracted lately by gardening, spring projects(building a rocket mass heater stove for my mother's house) and the CX that I'm growing out but I'll have to dust off this keyboard and get back to the book sooner or later.

 

[loanwizard]

Carrying your chickens upside down WILL kill them! Just last week, I loaded my Freedom Rangers in a trailer to take to the processor and I got them.... 100 of them by the feet to load into the trailer, and then to crate them at the processor. Gosh, it would have taken FOREVER to carry them out one at a time right side up! Anyhow, maybe it only kills them the 2nd time cause now they're all dead and the last thing I did was carry them upside down.....

Maybe I should put this in the chicken management thread....

 

[Beekissed]

 

[Leahs Mom]

Carrying your chickens upside down WILL kill them! Just last week, I loaded my Freedom Rangers in a trailer to take to the processor and I got them.... 100 of them by the feet to load into the trailer, and then to crate them at the processor. Gosh, it would have taken FOREVER to carry them out one at a time right side up! Anyhow, maybe it only kills them the 2nd time cause now they're all dead and the last thing I did was carry them upside down.....

Maybe I should put this in the chicken management thread....

Just as we always expected....