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

[HappyHenMama]

Yep, I have to say...and certainly no one has to listen, but I have been on this thread since it was started up. The reason??? Because my Great Uncle Lee was a rancher who raised Cattle and Sheep and he didn't sugar coat ANYTHING! I loved him and he was a decent caring human that grew up in the 1800's with very little but what was on the land and had much experience to offer...so please, if you ask a question on this thread or if you read an answer that you don't like, we don't need 4 pages of guff to follow after. Take it or leave it! I think that is what Beekissed has said here over and over again. I've gotten SAGE advice on this thread from OT's that I have followed because I believe their experience to be invaluable and it has been good advice that worked! Enough Said.

Thank you OT's for putting up with our GUFF!

 

[mississippifarmboy]

I don't know why chickens are so picky, but they are. I have an Easter Egger hen who was born with a cross beak. She has to have deep bowls to eat/drink from. Well when she drinks, some of the water falls from her beak and leaves a trail down her neck. I don't why but my Brahma hen will pick the feathers off where the trail of water runs down her neck. She is completely bald on her neck but only in the spot where the water drips. She also will rip out feathers from my growing ducks' wings and eat them. I too tried putting Blu Kote on my EE's neck but it didn't help. Why she does this is beyond me but I don't have a problem with any of my other chickens except her. They are all on the same food so I don't think it's the protein. It's possible she may be deficient in a certain vitamin so she eats bloody feathers to satisfy her craving. I separated her from all the others and gave her vitamins/electrolytes in her water. It eased the pecking considerably but I still put vitamins/electrolytes in the flocks' waterers every so often to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Going out on limb here but...


Cross beak is one of those things I cull. Even if I see it in the hatcher, that chick never makes it to the brooder. Just me. Feather pulling is the same way. Unless it's a rooster pulling a few head/neck feathers while "doing the deed", if I see a chicken pulling another's feathers (Or their own) they met Mr. Hatchet and there is chicken on the menu that night. I must admit, I've seldom seen it in our flocks though.

I've heard several old timers over the years tell me that feather plucking was due to a lack of animal protein, but I can't vouch for the truth of it as I never try to "fix" it... I just make the problem go away.

I think Bee, Al and Walt and others all have stated somewhere in this thread that a balanced, proper, natural diet and breeding will cure most problems.

Since it is just the one Brahma hen doing the picking... I doubt it's your feed.

JMHO

 

[loanwizard]

Let's change the subject for a minute. I just bought eggs yesterday to fill an order from a man that has 600 layers and says he changes his entire flock annually.

He slaughters and eats the one year olds. I commented, that is an awful lot of chicken that you can't fry. See, my limited experience is, I cleaned an old bird, probably 3 years old. I put it in boiling water 10 minutes after plucking it, made my noodles, and it tasted like rubber.

After relaying the story, he told me that he rests his birds in a walk in cooler for 4-5 days and they are tender.

Was it rigor that made it tough, age or both? Is there a difference in toughness between a 1 year old and a 3 year old?

Can I freeze a bird before resting it? Will the resulting thawed bird be tough if it wasn't rested?

Anyone use a pressure cooker?

I have just been canning my young roosters and old hens and would love it if I could rest them and turn them into fryers, which somehow doesn't seem logical.... but... I am new to that arena.

As far as the pages and pages of fallout, Bee, I love ya and your responses.

DragonLady, I love ya and your responses.

Look forward to both of your advise in the future. Even many years experienced people in all walks of life sometimes differ. From my understanding, Bee would never have bought birds at auction, or those birds at that auction.

Dragonlady may never have either, but gave what I thought was sage advise for that particular situation, being wormed for eating a lot and not gaining a lot.... wish that would work for me, not that I want worms, and whatever other advise she gave.

When asked about her experience, she wrote the resume, which I thought was hilarious being on the side but sure would have gotten me going if I were involved.

Ooops! Doing what I always do which is talking too much....

Help me with my chicken as food questions please.

Love you all,

Shawn

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

I have had alot of experience dealing with mud. so i have to ask...why is inside the coop full if mud? Dirt needs water to make mud so I would look at how is that happening...should you slope and add drains outside the coop first...I would be leery of putting down flat rocks (seems you are too) maybe for a walkway, but it will still be damp underneath that and a good place for slimy crawly things to hang out. (And rats when it dries out) if anything I would add crushed rock and dirt to elevate the coop floor and a few feet around the outside to get above the water table if you are flat and low area. Go outside in the rain and watch where the water is coming from...you even could just keep adding straw until the bottom layer turns to dirt and add on top of that...since I can't see myself shoveling rock and if it weren't a water run off issue, that's prob what I would do. Besides, chickens like dirt. And ventilation.

It's not the inside of the coop that has mud, it's the pen that's attached to the coop. It's much to large a run/pen to be completely covered, so when it rains, we get mud. I feel like a stone floor with straw on top will be better than a mix of mud and straw. The whole pen floor won't be covered by rock, just 1/3 of it, so the chickens will still have lots of dirt.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don't fry older birds. I don't grill them either. I generally cook them in a crock pot, long, slow, and with moisture. I suppose after you cook it long, slow, and with moisture you could fry it off or grill it, but I've never done it.

I generally freeze my birds the day I process them. I don't age them then. But I let them thaw in the refrigerator for a few days and consider that the "aging" time. To me, the thing is cooking them long, slow and moist if they are older.

The older the bird gets the tougher it gets. I think there is a noticeable difference in a one year old rooster and a three year old rooster, but not really much between a three year old and four year old. I'll eat any of them, just cook them as appropriate for their age and to my tastes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Erin, I'd put in the stepping stones and forget the straw. You mulch a garden to try to keep the moisture in. Why mulch a wet run? On this thread I'm confident someone will advise you differently but that is my take on it.

Any run of any size is going to get wet and muddy when it sets in wet. That's just a fact of life. Mine is on a slight rise so it drains fairly well and I built a swale just above it to divert the rainwater runoff away. It still gets muddy when it rains much.

 

[al6517]

In regards to the stone floor to prevent your muddy runs, I think is a good idea. I have 4 pens now that have concrete in them, it was an after thought as I had the issues as you did years ago. These pens were covered and had sides on them but it was really open and had a large run. It was the best thing I could have done, no more mess no more mud. I do however use straw hay laid down to help with keeping it more natural for the birds. They love it and it has made cleaning and caring for them a snap, I keep a shovel in there and every few days I just push the stuff to one end and they will then scratch the fire out of it, in a few short weeks that stuff is ready for the garden. I even clean out the dirt pens and put it in the concrete floor pens and let the chickens break it up and condition it. Before I shovel it I may throw in some scratch and it helps them dig through it in nothin flat. Anyway I really like it and in time will have all the pens done in a hard floor, the advantages are endless especialy when they stay in that breeder barn the whole time and never free range. Nothing like having a clean barn that smells good and the birds are happy as all get out day in day out, it just works for me. And for the record their feet and pads are just dandy with narry a bit of problems.

 

[al6517]

Of course we have! This is exactly why we participate in this thread and convey the results of our mistakes to newbies so that they don't have to make those same mistakes. If the tone or tenor of that advice seems rough or not sugary enough for said newbies, it's merely because we just don't get into all the mushy, huggy, oh, honey stuff like the other threads. It seriously isn't meant to sound mean or jerkish in any way we are just tired of having to preface all our advice with all the polite, gentle chit chat that seems required reading on BYC.

The first few pages are the explanation for that tone...we are participating in a thread that gives you free, valuable advice so that you won't have to make the same mistakes that we made and if it sounds like tough love, it is. We have better things to do with our lives than nurture and nurse along a bunch of newbies, just like all the oldsters had better things to do that we have learned from...and the advice they gave us was pretty much just as gruff.

And we learned that the OTs seriously didn't care if we followed that advice....but they cared enough to give it. And, for me at least, that was enough....it might not sound sweet, it might even sound mean, but it was still the best advice I ever got and when I followed it, it worked. Did I care if the OT made me sound like an idiot when I asked about the things I needed to know? Nope. I asked because I didn't know and they answer because they didn't mind sharing what they did know but they certainly weren't going to tie it up in a red bow and try to make me feel good about it....nor did I expect it. I'm a big girl and I don't need to be treated like a child if I'm old enough to care for animals.

The fact that we even take the time to answer the questions should be something to be thankful for...it's not something we simply HAVE to do. Some days we feel mellow and try to sugar it up some, some days we just simply don't have the time or will to make it into a nice package. Either way you still get a valuable product...it's up to you if you want to use it~ or throw it away simply because it came in an ugly, brown box. No one's being mean to you or trying to hurt your feelings and that is made pretty clear on the first few pages...this is just how we talk amongst each other and on this thread. If that sort of thread isn't something a reader wishes to experience the first pages made it sufficiently clear enough that one could opt out of using this thread to garner advice.

There are much sweeter threads and people out there who are eager to PM you and offer you all kinds of advice and you have many options besides this thread, which is a great thing!

Well said as usual Bee......................... for 99% of the BYCer's the cute and fluffy baby talk is almost it seems a nessesity to communicate, but for the 1%er's out there this thread works more becuase of the need for a reality check. Sure for the newbies who have been on the other threads and then come here to look around they may seem offended a little by the attitudes here, but shoot coming from the fuzzy I never cull anything crowd, I am sorry for your loss every other post type threads, they all seem offended. Offensive is the new catch phrase on BYC, we don't do that here and it is evident by the loyal following here that our brand of advice and they way to dole it out works for that 1%. I consider myself a fairly nice guy but will get sideways real quick if I have to pretend about something for the sake of others. To be honest if I am standing around hanging out with my chicken buddies leaning on a coral fence talking chickens and such, we don't say stuff like Awwww and cute and I feel so sorry tfor this and that. We talk about real issues with real answers and many different takes on the subjects and with just as many opposite veiws on whats the right or wrong way to do stuff. We don't argue or bicker or dang sure never get offended LOL, and the main thing is we tell it like it is and walk away from the day with stuff we can use that works, in the end it's what it's all about, real answers to real questions without having to pull out a hanckerchief and wipe the tears from Billy Bobs cheek because he has a mean rooster to his girls hehehehee.

I think the OT thread can best be discribed as the Larry the Cable guy of chicken threads LOL. fun and informative, check your feeling at the door and let's get some stuff done. It really get's you to thinking when on other more respected chicken forums they reffer to the BYC as the Special Olympics chicken forum, we here at the OT thread are doing our part to change this in the land of rainbows & unicorns.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

In regards to the stone floor to prevent your muddy runs, I think is a good idea. I have 4 pens now that have concrete in them, it was an after thought as I had the issues as you did years ago. These pens were covered and had sides on them but it was really open and had a large run. It was the best thing I could have done, no more mess no more mud. I do however use straw hay laid down to help with keeping it more natural for the birds. They love it and it has made cleaning and caring for them a snap, I keep a shovel in there and every few days I just push the stuff to one end and they will then scratch the fire out of it, in a few short weeks that stuff is ready for the garden. I even clean out the dirt pens and put it in the concrete floor pens and let the chickens break it up and condition it. Before I shovel it I may throw in some scratch and it helps them dig through it in nothin flat. Anyway I really like it and in time will have all the pens done in a hard floor, the advantages are endless especialy when they stay in that breeder barn the whole time and never free range. Nothing like having a clean barn that smells good and the birds are happy as all get out day in day out, it just works for me. And for the record their feet and pads are just dandy with narry a bit of problems.

This is very helpful. Thank you. The stone floor I'll be putting in won't be quite as good as your concrete, but this is the best I can do for now.

 

[bruceh]

for cooking and resting i do a couple things. one is i freeze the chicken that i am not going to eat soon. the other is i rest the ones i am going to use in the fridge for a couple days or so..if i use a frozen chicken i let it thaw in the fridge. once it is thawed i wait an extra day. as far as cooking. if you boil a bird it will get tough. simmer is better. an older bird i, cook in a crock pot or slow cook in am oven at 250 f. takes longer but it is tender. i also baste the birds as they cook. you can also brine for tenderness and flavor. if it turns out not to your taste you can always feed it to your chickens.