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

[loanwizard]

Yes I is all Man............... LOL, girls don't tend to curse as often as I do LOL.

Al, I know you are a man... we spoke on the phone... unless you had a cold lol!

 

[Beekissed]

If Al's a gal, I'm Miss America!

No questions there....Al is male.

 

[stonykill]

I just stroll out to the coop at night, gently pluck them off the roost, do what I need to do and put them right back. Little bit of flapping or squawking at times but no real problems there...it's all over before they know they've been disturbed and I can stroll right back to the house without breaking a sweat. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy!

I don't chase chickens unless it's one of those rare, few times I need to school a rooster and that only lasts mere minutes.

for my RIR's and other cooped birds no problem. I do the same. BUT, I have a lot of Sumatra's. I'll keep a potentially long story as short as possible. I rescued the Sumatra's from a local Village. They lived in tree's in this village. As Sumatra's prefer. They are actually still quite wild as a breed in general. So I brought them home almost 3 years ago, and cooped them. Non covered run. They were happy caged until dusk, then the flew 15 feet straight up into a tree. They fly REALLY well. So the short version is, this flock of Sumatra's lives in tree's as they would on their native island. They look to me for a morning meal, then free range the rest of the day. They go broody and take care of their own numbers. Truely a case of only the strong and smart survive. They are the 1st to get lost to predatation, but again, the strong and smart survive. I wish they would go in a coop at night, but once they get of breeding age, they always choose tree's over a nice safe and secure coop at night. And at 15 to 25 feet up a tree, I can't get to them at night.
So, I kill a LOT of predators.LOTS. My traps are always busy, are my .22 and 16 guage

 

[seamsewnice]

I am wondering if any of you OT'ers might have an idea of what is going on with my Roo. He is 1 1/2 years old. Hatched him out in January under a broody that would have sat on a rock then, crazy girl; but she hatched out three birds one hen and two roo's. I culled the one roo as I only wanted one but as I look back at it that roo had similar symptoms. Which at the time I thought to be bumble foot. Later I noticed Rocky my rather big barred rock roo who, by the way, is a super roo no signs of aggression and just has been a great roo. Sometime last winter I noticed he couldn't fly up to roost at night, that lasted a couple months, then when spring arrived I noticed he was back up on the roost for a short time maybe a couple of weeks or so. He is steadily losing his ability to walk out of the coop the last couple of days and he is loosing his feathers now, I know the right thing to do would be to put him out of his misery but just can't seem to bring myself to get rid of him, he still calls his girls and tries to protect them the best he can under the circumstances, he still eats and drinks and crows. Now he has fathered a few other roos, and I am noticing the same odd pinkish to red legs on them (no signs of lameness yet), the hens seem to show no signs of this ailment at all. I haven't noticed his son Captain who is the biggest off spring he had to show any signs of this, but Henry and Freddie both do. Henry and Captain both are approaching one year of age, Freddie a month younger. Freddie is a much smaller bird part barred rock and Easter egger, his legs are more noticeable with the discolor, he free ranges and has never been in that coop with the other birds. I have lost several hens to a strange paralysis some a slow death like his and others seem to meet their demise rather rapidly. I must say I have lost a good number of birds in that coop with similar symptoms but they do seem to vary a bit, like the roo's that have this . About a week ago I lost a Barred Rock hen that showed no signs of disease since last fall when she did seem to be paralized but recovered but I don't think ever layed an egg since then, when I picked her up she was nothing but feathers, skin and bones. Any thoughts?

 

[Seslar]

I have a question if anyone has any feedback on it. I have four 10week pullets that had just started roosting reliably on the top roost of their coop at 8 weeks. Then, I brought in 3 new adult laying hens. Now the young ones are back to snuggling up in one or two nesting boxes together. Appears that when they try roosting they eventually get kicked off the roosts by the older birds. Should I be worried? Will this work itself out? Is there any reason to really even try to stop the pullets from roosting in the boxes at night? BTW, the coop is the Purina design for a suggested 8 adult large fowl birds. Thanks folks.

 

[Beekissed]

I am wondering if any of you OT'ers might have an idea of what is going on with my Roo. He is 1 1/2 years old. Hatched him out in January under a broody that would have sat on a rock then, crazy girl; but she hatched out three birds one hen and two roo's. I culled the one roo as I only wanted one but as I look back at it that roo had similar symptoms. Which at the time I thought to be bumble foot. Later I noticed Rocky my rather big barred rock roo who, by the way, is a super roo no signs of aggression and just has been a great roo. Sometime last winter I noticed he couldn't fly up to roost at night, that lasted a couple months, then when spring arrived I noticed he was back up on the roost for a short time maybe a couple of weeks or so. He is steadily losing his ability to walk out of the coop the last couple of days and he is loosing his feathers now, I know the right thing to do would be to put him out of his misery but just can't seem to bring myself to get rid of him, he still calls his girls and tries to protect them the best he can under the circumstances, he still eats and drinks and crows. Now he has fathered a few other roos, and I am noticing the same odd pinkish to red legs on them (no signs of lameness yet), the hens seem to show no signs of this ailment at all. I haven't noticed his son Captain who is the biggest off spring he had to show any signs of this, but Henry and Freddie both do. Henry and Captain both are approaching one year of age, Freddie a month younger. Freddie is a much smaller bird part barred rock and Easter egger, his legs are more noticeable with the discolor, he free ranges and has never been in that coop with the other birds. I have lost several hens to a strange paralysis some a slow death like his and others seem to meet their demise rather rapidly. I must say I have lost a good number of birds in that coop with similar symptoms but they do seem to vary a bit, like the roo's that have this . About a week ago I lost a Barred Rock hen that showed no signs of disease since last fall when she did seem to be paralized but recovered but I don't think ever layed an egg since then, when I picked her up she was nothing but feathers, skin and bones. Any thoughts?

This is one of those things where you may never find out just what is going on. One has to look at all the variables and there are probably more than we can ever know. It doesn't sound genetic as I'm sure all these birds didn't descend from the same genetics, did they? If they did, that might be the factor...some genetic anomaly that involves some kind of organ system failure.

It doesn't sound like any disease I have ever heard of and the symptoms seem to be inconsistent, with some birds dying quickly, some lingering for a long time before symptoms appear.

I'm sure you aren't missing anything on nutrition...it would have to be pretty darn severe malnutrition to bring on this range of symptoms and fatality. Niacin deficiency has a lot of the symptoms you describe.

What I would be looking at, if this were my flock, is a metal toxicity or something similar. I'd be looking for some kind of thing in their environment or something they are ingesting that would affect their joints, nerves and causes such a wasting away with the accompanying feather loss. They sound as if they are slowly being poisoned in some manner and the males are having a harder time eliminating this toxin from their bodies, thus it affects them more.

If I were you and you could afford it, you might want to send one for a necropsy or even do blood testing on your living birds to see if they can detect any obvious poisons. The reason I suggest metal toxicity is because it can really affect nerve conduction, can settle into joint tissue, can affect circulation to extremities and even cause the hair loss and wasting away that happens when the kidneys are affected by the metals.

I've never dealt with poultry illnesses but there are quite a few very knowledgeable people out there who have and have researched them....anyone care to weigh in on this?

 

[Beekissed]

I have a question if anyone has any feedback on it. I have four 10week pullets that had just started roosting reliably on the top roost of their coop at 8 weeks. Then, I brought in 3 new adult laying hens. Now the young ones are back to snuggling up in one or two nesting boxes together. Appears that when they try roosting they eventually get kicked off the roosts by the older birds. Should I be worried? Will this work itself out? Is there any reason to really even try to stop the pullets from roosting in the boxes at night? BTW, the coop is the Purina design for a suggested 8 adult large fowl birds. Thanks folks.

I solve pecking order issues by providing roosts at different levels so the young birds can roost below the older, pushier hens who prefer top roosting. I would definitely stop them roosting in the nests as you will be cleaning out their poop there all the time and also be dealing with poopy eggs.

Just provide other roosting options and this should take care of it.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I was hoping for some advice, but I think my post got overlooked. Could anyone look at post #3296 on page 330? Thanks

 

[Leahs Mom]

I have just finished reading the first 50 pages of this post. Only 280 more pages to go!!??

By the time I finish reading to look for an answer to my question, it will be too late! (Sorry if this is a repeat.) Is there a way to tell when a pullet is about to start laying? I'm asking because some of "the girls" wanted to sleep in the nest boxes instead of roosting, so I blocked the boxes off, but want to have them available when egg time comes. Also, should I keep the chickens locked up longer so they don't start laying elsewhere? (They are usually let out of the closed run to free range and run amok in the "chicken yard.")

This is a small backyard flock of 9 pullets, each a different dual purpose breed, except for one changeling leghorn. There is one cockerel that I will probably not keep (unless he stays freakishly quiet!). They are all 12-13 weeks old. I got them as chicks for the eggs and because I enjoy having them around. They have a coop for roosting with a few nest boxes and no litter on the floor because in our mild climate, they spend every day outside in the enclosed run, or preferably, free ranging.

I have to thank all the OTs for sharing their experiences. Until I found this thread, I was getting worried that I was a neglectful owner because I pretty much let the chickens do their own chicken-y thing. (Seems like a bit of overindulgence goes on with some of us chicken enthusiasts!

) Most of my decisions have been based on how my folks cared for our barnyard flock for over 20 years, and what I remember is that the chickens mostly took care of themselves!

Thank you!

I'll be wating to hear too.

 

[stonykill]

I have just finished reading the first 50 pages of this post. Only 280 more pages to go!!??

By the time I finish reading to look for an answer to my question, it will be too late! (Sorry if this is a repeat.) Is there a way to tell when a pullet is about to start laying? I'm asking because some of "the girls" wanted to sleep in the nest boxes instead of roosting, so I blocked the boxes off, but want to have them available when egg time comes. Also, should I keep the chickens locked up longer so they don't start laying elsewhere? (They are usually let out of the closed run to free range and run amok in the "chicken yard.")

This is a small backyard flock of 9 pullets, each a different dual purpose breed, except for one changeling leghorn. There is one cockerel that I will probably not keep (unless he stays freakishly quiet!). They are all 12-13 weeks old. I got them as chicks for the eggs and because I enjoy having them around. They have a coop for roosting with a few nest boxes and no litter on the floor because in our mild climate, they spend every day outside in the enclosed run, or preferably, free ranging.

I have to thank all the OTs for sharing their experiences. Until I found this thread, I was getting worried that I was a neglectful owner because I pretty much let the chickens do their own chicken-y thing. (Seems like a bit of overindulgence goes on with some of us chicken enthusiasts!

) Most of my decisions have been based on how my folks cared for our barnyard flock for over 20 years, and what I remember is that the chickens mostly took care of themselves!

Thank you!

the only clue my pullets have ever given me is the egg song. But sometimes the only warning is an egg in the coop. Maybe someone else has better clues than I do and will chime in. Your girls are still a little young.