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

[Zany Chick]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Beekissed

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.

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Well, whaddayaknow! A woman after my own heart.

Wasn't it Hank Williams Jr. that wrote the song with, "...and I can skin a buck, run a trot line and a country boy can survive..."

Hey! What about us country GIRLS? I can hunt 'em, gut 'em, skin 'em, process 'em, and cook 'em up so they taste GOOD. I can catch 'em, clean 'em, filet 'em and cook up a big fish fry.


....but I can't PLUCK a chicken.

We used to do 50 to 100 at a time and I was the scalder and plucker. Memories of that smell still make me gag! I'll butcher the pig, the steer, the deer, cook 'em up for ya, but PLEASE... Someone pluck that chicken for me!

Nice buck!

 

[Ivywoods]

............tasted really good, too!

On the spur thing... I HAVE to use pliars. I'm old. I'm arthritic. Pliars work. Not much blood. Besides... ALL bleeding stops...eventually!

 

[adgcountrygirl]

Let's hear it for all the country girls and boys here!

 

[al6517]

Quote:

LOL I figured it was coming sooner or later LOL, It's just an opinion and everybody has them. I am just as entittled to raise my chickens as real chickens outdoors as many of you others are to raise theirs on the living room couch and free ranging on the shag carpet. it's all fine Iam often chastised for raising my birds in such an awful enviroment such as a chicken coop outdoors, I know I am so cruel LOL, I am surprised I havent been turned in to the ASPCA for raising livestock outdoors. I also don't name any of my birds even my show stock, and nobody has sued me yet LOL I say yet.

Seriously it's all good seriously

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I really prefer to do things the easy way, I'm so much more qualified for daydreaming than actual work...if the potatoe makes it easier then hey, why not, I just recently had to remove half of my fingernail since I tried to snap the end of my finger off and it kept snagging and coming open and bleeding again...I really wish I'd known about that potatoe thingy, I really do, maybe it works for fingernails too! Haha...ha.

 

[ldutch123]

It has been a hot one here lately. The temps have been consistently 90 and up. I have the 2 week chicks and one turkey and four baby ducks in the garage. I usually use a heat lamp but clearly there is no need right now. As I raise more and more chicks I get a little less scared each time but this time is apdifferent. I have never bought chicks from a farm store before I usually ordered them from the hatchery and had them vaccinated and d them medicated feed. This time I got some tophats and a few RIR's from rural king and I imagine they are NOT vaccinated and I feed them non medicated feed. So when I'm ready to kick them out into their coop should I worry they will get my flock sick? Of course they will not have direct contact at first but eventually they will. Any suggestions??

Also in the summer time when do you send the babies out to live in the coop with no heat lamp? Obviously I know they can't be with the bigger birds but it's so hot in the garage and much nicer outside. The chicks are 2 and 3 weeks old now.

Oh and on another note....this is my first attempt at ducks and boy did I not believe they could be this messy and THEY ARE!!!! I never have flies with my chickens or even chicks and I have a ton with these darn ducklings. I change the water like 4 times cause they get it smelling and their whole brooder bedding is soaking wet!!!!! Thief anyone knows how long these sweet lil ducklings need to be indoors that would help too. They are so much more work than my chickens lol

 

[Back2MyRoots]

I appreciate so much all the cut and dry information provided in this thread. From some of the OT's posts, I have decided against heating and lighting. I have adjusted some feed practices and stopped worrying so much about vaccines and such. However, I have to tell yall, I am so happy to ignore all the well-intended advice to not get too attached to your chickens or build froo-froo coops, painted to match the house or what not! I named, adore and spoil, to the best of my ability the chickies that we brought home just a few months ago. I have built a cute little coop-and-run combo and painted it to match my house. I pet them and play with them and find it so fascinating that one of them has been following me around like a puppy for the last several weeks.

 

[jeancordelia]

Right on! One of the first things my mother taught me when I was about 6, wild animals don't eat what they have not killed. If they find it dead they don't touch it. That may not be the case always but the smart ones don't. They later went to a stock show and my grandfather was taking care of the stock and us. We had a sick calf and then one day we had meat for dinner. I told my sisters, "don't eat it, it is the sick calf" Of coarse they did not eat it. My grandfather was not happy with me. Now that I am older I understand that animals need to be bled when they are butchered. You don't leave that blood it the carcass. I also do not eat the chickens that I have butchered that the liver does not look right. I used to do about 8 a day and generally one of them would have a yellowish, liver that was sort of, cheesey, , it would come apart, The texture was not normal. The rest of the carcass looked fine, but that is the reason I like to raise and butcher my own. If there is something not right I can see it and not put it on the table. I didn't like just throwing it away but I knew something was not right. That said I have also learned to pray for the soul of the victim. Native Americans do so and so do Kosher Rabbi's. It is in appreciation of their offering that we may be sustained. Promotes humility.

 

[jeancordelia]

I don't know just what you mean by bio security. It seems healthy? It is imperative. unless you like eating sick food, and feeding it to your family. A vet told me at a cost of $125, to not ever buy anything but healthy in food animals, to keep them home, nothing in nothing out. As the years have gone by I have become aware of just how unhealthy our food supply is. I keep stumbling into new information. It has taken me two years this round to get healthy chickens. Very expensive also. I now have healthy chickens. I do everything to keep it that way. That means you make the hard decisions. Appreciate what it takes to get that way and stay that way.

 

[jeancordelia]

We were raised on a ranch in the 50's. Everything went, only the collie was exempt. We knew it and that was the way it was. Just be honest. Your DD is smart, really smart, don't lie to her. She will know and you loose.