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

[Leahs Mom]

Are your barn doors facing south?

 

[Fred's Hens]

Are your barn doors facing south?

yes

 

[JoshU]

40 + years here and I know nothin'




The older I get, the less I know.

My late Grampa used to say " I've forgotten more than you will ever know".

 

[JoshU]

40 + years here and I know nothin'




The older I get, the less I know.

My late Grampa used to say " I've forgotten more than you will ever know".

 

[Robert Blosl]

This is one of the best chicken houses ever invented. It was called a Semi-Mointor house and invented by Dr. Prince Woods in the early 1900. He was a lung doctor early for that time and wrote a lot of articles for old chicken magazines. If built correctly your birds would have clean dry littler during the winter time and free from colds. bob

Quote:

 

[Leahs Mom]

This is one of the best chicken houses ever invented. It was called a Semi-Mointor house and invented by Dr. Prince Woods in the early 1900. He was a lung doctor early for that time and wrote a lot of articles for old chicken magazines. If built correctly your birds would have clean dry littler during the winter time and free from colds. bob

If anyone is interested, this thread is very interesting reading on the Woods style house. (Funny that people immediately start telling him how he can close it up....

)

Anyway, here's the thread. I just purchased the book out of interest to see what I could to w/ my existing hen house (or should I say coop .. ha ha)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/445004/woods-style-house-in-the-winter

 

[CSisley]

I currently have just 3 little RIR's. I wanted to make sure I was up to messing with them before I bought more than I could handle. I am pretty positive I want to get more down the road (not far down the road). So my question is this. Am I better off continuing to buy more RIR's (I'm looking for eggs, meat is a maybe at this point), or should I mix in different breeds? If so, any in particular?

Thanks.

I do not like RIR at all so my answer may be somewhat biased. I've found them to be "cut-throat" chickens in the chicken world. They are hard on new chickens, weaker chickens and the roosters are nasty, mean, creatures. Now for the positives: they are extremely good layers, good foragers and are generally hardy. You can mix breeds if you want to but be careful about what breed you choose because you'll need to pick something that can measure up to their tenacity. Breeds I've found to be equally tenacious from experience: Blue andalusians, New Hampshire Reds, Silver Spangled Hamburgs, Production Reds. I'm sure there are many more, these are just the ones I've had some experience with. I prefer more easy going hens like wyandottes, speckled sussex, buff orpingtons.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I do not like RIR at all so my answer may be somewhat biased. I've found them to be "cut-throat" chickens in the chicken world. They are hard on new chickens, weaker chickens and the roosters are nasty, mean, creatures. Now for the positives: they are extremely good layers, good foragers and are generally hardy. You can mix breeds if you want to but be careful about what breed you choose because you'll need to pick something that can measure up to their tenacity. Breeds I've found to be equally tenacious from experience: Blue andalusians, New Hampshire Reds, Silver Spangled Hamburgs, Production Reds. I'm sure there are many more, these are just the ones I've had some experience with. I prefer more easy going hens like wyandottes, speckled sussex, buff orpingtons.

I couldn't agree more. It sounds like DBrewer may have limited space in which case I would definitely stick with RIRs. If you have LOTS of room and multiple waterers and feeders you could mix in some other breeds but if not, I wouldn't do it.

 

[Ivywoods]

I couldn't agree more. It sounds like DBrewer may have limited space in which case I would definitely stick with RIRs. If you have LOTS of room and multiple waterers and feeders you could mix in some other breeds but if not, I wouldn't do it.

I couldn't agree more! I still have a scar on my knee from a RIR rooster that nailed me when I was a teen. OFF WITH HIS HEAD!

This is just my own personal BIASED opinion. If you want chickens for laying eggs, get a layer. If you want to raise them for meat, get a meat chicken. The dual purpose birds are just not as efficient at either one. I don't know why more people don't keep a leghorn or two for eggs. They are awesome layers. Some folks say they are flighty, but I don't think mine are any worse than a lot of other breeds, and they can't be beat when it comes to cranking out eggs on a little bit of feed, even less if you free range them.

Of course I've got quite a few "useless" chickens, other than they are pretty and I like to watch them scratching and pecking around in the yard.

 

[Fred's Hens]

This is one of the best chicken houses ever invented. It was called a Semi-Mointor house and invented by Dr. Prince Woods in the early 1900. He was a lung doctor early for that time and wrote a lot of articles for old chicken magazines. If built correctly your birds would have clean dry littler during the winter time and free from colds. bob

Bob, you are so right, as usual. Dr. Woods pushed for new, fresh air designs. This is one of his half-monitor or semi-monitor hen houses.
As you can see, I borrowed heavily from his design idea when building our barn three years.




In 1920, a book was published, "Poultry" by Herbert Virgil Tormohlen. In one chapter, Professor H. A. Bittenbender, of Iowa State College of Agriculture offers drawings and construction layouts for the semi-monitor and speaks highly of it's many virtues. Here is that chapter, in readable Google Book form.

http://books.google.com/books?id=UD...=onepage&q=semi-monitor chicken house&f=false