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

[Beekissed]

Keep reading...you'll get to the part about coop cleanliness and litter. There are many different opinions on here about it and you can choose which makes sense to you.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is confusing because we keep chickens in so many different ways in so many different condtions that no one answer can be right for everyone. Some people keep a few hens in very tight quarters in the middle of town. Some have much larger mixed flocks out in the country where space and neighbors are not a problem. Some keep them as pampered pets while some treat them as livestock. Some people have chickens perched on their shoulder while they are chatting on this forum, while others would throw a fit if they saw a chicken in their house. I'm in that last group, by the way.

I haven't cleaned my coop bedding out in three years and I've never wiped the roosts down with bleach. I do occasionally remove piles of poop when it starts to get too thick under the roosts. Occasionally. But mine don't spend much time in the coop. They are out eating grass and chasing bugs. My coop is well oversized for the number of chickens I have so I have to work less than someone that shoehorns their chickens in a tiny space. There are a lot of people on this forum that do things a lot different than I do.

I see by your signature line that you have a pretty good sized flock. If you can tell us a bit about the size of your facilities and how you manage your chickens, somebody might be able to give you some more specific ideas, but my coop will get cleaned out when it starts to stink or this fall, whichever happens first. It's time to put that bedding in the garden and start over.

You don't need to keep everything sanitized. I think chickens are healthier when they are allowed to build up immunities to what is in their environment. A wet coop is a dangerous possibly disease-ridden space, so try to keep it dry. It will probably stink if it gets wet. If it is not stinking, you are probably OK.

You'll find a lot of people use a lot of different things in the nest boxes and on the coop floor. None of them are right or wrong, just what we use. My preference is straw or long grass cuttings in the nests and wood shavings on the coop floor. I don't like straw on a coop floor. I mucked out too many stables and barns in my youth and that straw can mat together and make it a bit hard to clean out once I decide to actually clean it out, but plenty of people use straw. It's just personal preference. What you're doing sounds fine to me, but I don't know your specific cirumstances. If ground corn cobs are cheap and available, that sounds pretty good to me for the coop floor. I prefer something a little more substantial in the nests though. I like the way straw or grass holds its shape.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

I don't know if this is addressed in the thread or not, I've only read about 1/4 of it so far, but what are you guys favorite layers? The biggest thing for me is that they be hardy. They need to be able to stand a wide range of temp from 10 degrees to 110 degrees. I don't want a bird that gets limps often or sometimes lays not so good eggs. I like my birds to look good as well. If it were a chicken that could show well, that's a definite plus. So far, my favorite layer is the production red. She lays a smaller egg than what I would like but it's always consistent with a nice shape, color, ect. She is hardy and doesn't get limps or become overweight like the red sex links.What are you OT's favorite layers?

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

No no...when they brood I just let them alone and make sure they can get to food and water on a break....it's after they hatch and have their chicks. The first go around this year was OK, this time they are just attacking me. I don't try to handle the chicks, I have caught a few outside the pen that can sneak out through a small gap by the water can I haven't fixed yet---well now there are stones there. I needed a steri strip on my skin from yesterday...I know they are protective..but come on. I can't figure out what's different this time...the chicks are also terrified of me, ok, but this isn't the happy medium. Maybe it's food, bugs are so plentiful they don't need me at all...maybe I should make a point of handling them....and the hen....but those hackles go up immediately...and I've had about enough. Oh yeah, in my day the saying is, it's all fun and games till somebody looses an eye. It never worked.

 

[pigeonguy]

Thank's Bee it means allot to have others who understand how difficult it is to be surrounded by all this culling and freezer camp crowd. I just have such a hard time reading some post that think the axe is the only way to fix a sick or injured chicken, I love my little babies and would never think to harm them by putting them outside if they are sick and have the sniffles. they look at me with those cute little sad eyes, I get choked up sometimes. I am taking several of them to the Vet on Monday, the Vet say's he can see them all and it will only cost me around $200.00 per bird before med's/perscriptions and any treatment they need. The Vet is really nice and she said she will be glad to see them on short notice, and the price is great don't you think, it's worth it for my girls.

Don't mean to offend anyone here but you did say (don't you think?) As you can see from my post count I don't post much but I am always reading (since 2008) and this is my favorite thread cause it's not foo foo as ya'll say and this sounds foo foo to me. That is the only reason I'm typing now.
No I don't think the price is great if my vet told me that I would look at them and say you know it's a chicken right. It cost $25.00 for a good grown one and $2.00 for a day old and for $200.00 dollars I can buy 2400 eggs.
I'm not saying don't take care of a sick chicken but $200.00. Can you explain what the symtoms are maybe someone hear can help figure it out for you and if they all have the same symtoms take one in and get meds for all.
I have raised birds since I was around 12 years old I am now 53. Not chickens but pigeons and when one gets sick I confine it to a cage with a wooden varnished floor the varnish keeps the poop from soaking in because In most cases the health story is in the poop of a bird no matter what kind (no poop now ya have problems worm, crop impaction could even be egg bound)I say thier all the same because niebors bring me sick chickens to take care of and I have fixed them the same way I do my pigeons.
My methods are simple.
1 Confine the bird
2 Check doppings
3 If runny feed sweet 16 and chopped fresh garlic and jalopena peppers (small bird put sweet 16 in blender dont make to fine just crack it up) I add Aureomycin to water (I get it at farm & fleet here but maybe TCS has it think Foys has it also) Now if they won't eat the sweet 16 try mixing it with the treated water untill a little more than pasty. If they don't eat that mix sweet 16 half and half with cracked whole grains. If they dont drink enough water because of the Aureomycin
stop mixing with water and mix little bit with food. When stool starts to tighten stop sweet 16 feed cracked whole grains but continue Aureomycin decide on your own for how long I do between 5 and 10 days depending on how sick bird looked (common sence goes a long way here) If the bird still dies the vet probly couldn't save it either.
I am not going to get into pasty or to solid of a stool because I could type pages on those.
I will say this on it though to much fruit give you the runs. So fruit and fruit juices.
No poop could meen crop impaction, egg bound, too many worms, constpated list goes on. Like I say common sence.
Don't take this wrong if you have the money take em to the vet its your choice.I just do things the old fashon way.
Al I have heard you give a lot of sound advice to people so don't think I asking you to stop giving it. Mostly cause I don't post much and somebody's got to help them. My typing hoovers as does my gramar. Took me an hour to type this. Besides I don't know of anyone that can tell about a bird from a picture they can make guesses but pictures lie. People give advice on a birds health all the time without saying let me see the poop.
In my new flock I will nurse a chicken back to health if sick but then I'm going to eat it cause I don't want the weak breeding forward. If you have watched the movie Paul he brings a bird back to life and says "What you didn't think I was going to eat a dead bird did you" well eating a sick chicken would be worse than that. I've even eat some my niebors brought me after they were nursed back to health with thier permision of course. I've done the same with pigeons.
I've rambled enough al don't be mad at me cause I do hope the vet finds the problem and you can relax and be happy no sarcasm intended everyone should be happy at all cost.

 

[Fred's Hens]

It is confusing because we keep chickens in so many different ways in so many different condtions that no one answer can be right for everyone. Some people keep a few hens in very tight quarters in the middle of town. Some have much larger mixed flocks out in the country where space and neighbors are not a problem. Some keep them as pampered pets while some treat them as livestock. Some people have chickens perched on their shoulder while they are chatting on this forum, while others would throw a fit if they saw a chicken in their house. I'm in that last group, by the way.
I haven't cleaned my coop bedding out in three years and I've never wiped the roosts down with bleach. I do occasionally remove piles of poop when it starts to get too thick under the roosts. Occasionally. But mine don't spend much time in the coop. They are out eating grass and chasing bugs. My coop is well oversized for the number of chickens I have so I have to work less than someone that shoehorns their chickens in a tiny space. There are a lot of people on this forum that do things a lot different than I do.
I see by your signature line that you have a pretty good sized flock. If you can tell us a bit about the size of your facilities and how you manage your chickens, somebody might be able to give you some more specific ideas, but my coop will get cleaned out when it starts to stink or this fall, whichever happens first. It's time to put that bedding in the garden and start over.
You don't need to keep everything sanitized. I think chickens are healthier when they are allowed to build up immunities to what is in their environment. A wet coop is a dangerous possibly disease-ridden space, so try to keep it dry. It will probably stink if it gets wet. If it is not stinking, you are probably OK.
You'll find a lot of people use a lot of different things in the nest boxes and on the coop floor. None of them are right or wrong, just what we use. My preference is straw or long grass cuttings in the nests and wood shavings on the coop floor. I don't like straw on a coop floor. I mucked out too many stables and barns in my youth and that straw can mat together and make it a bit hard to clean out once I decide to actually clean it out, but plenty of people use straw. It's just personal preference. What you're doing sounds fine to me, but I don't know your specific cirumstances. If ground corn cobs are cheap and available, that sounds pretty good to me for the coop floor. I prefer something a little more substantial in the nests though. I like the way straw or grass holds its shape.

That. There's no one right way. Not even for our three pens. One is dirt, the other's have floors. All get straw as the price of wood shavings has risen, and I don't know why, but they are no longer affordable here. Straw is. I love straw so much, that when we re-built our barn I intentionally built two lofts. One is more or less dedicated to storing equipment, fencing, pipe, etc and the other is the straw loft. Not hay, but clean, fresh, yellow straw. Biggest bedding bang for my buck and the easiest to work into the gardens, for us.
Cleaning in some pens is monthly, while in others, it is every 3 months. Just depends on the bird density and age of birds and how much time is spent in the pens versus out roaming.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

It is confusing because we keep chickens in so many different ways in so many different condtions that no one answer can be right for everyone. Some people keep a few hens in very tight quarters in the middle of town. Some have much larger mixed flocks out in the country where space and neighbors are not a problem. Some keep them as pampered pets while some treat them as livestock. Some people have chickens perched on their shoulder while they are chatting on this forum, while others would throw a fit if they saw a chicken in their house. I'm in that last group, by the way.

I haven't cleaned my coop bedding out in three years and I've never wiped the roosts down with bleach. I do occasionally remove piles of poop when it starts to get too thick under the roosts. Occasionally. But mine don't spend much time in the coop. They are out eating grass and chasing bugs. My coop is well oversized for the number of chickens I have so I have to work less than someone that shoehorns their chickens in a tiny space. There are a lot of people on this forum that do things a lot different than I do.

I see by your signature line that you have a pretty good sized flock. If you can tell us a bit about the size of your facilities and how you manage your chickens, somebody might be able to give you some more specific ideas, but my coop will get cleaned out when it starts to stink or this fall, whichever happens first. It's time to put that bedding in the garden and start over.

You don't need to keep everything sanitized. I think chickens are healthier when they are allowed to build up immunities to what is in their environment. A wet coop is a dangerous possibly disease-ridden space, so try to keep it dry. It will probably stink if it gets wet. If it is not stinking, you are probably OK.

You'll find a lot of people use a lot of different things in the nest boxes and on the coop floor. None of them are right or wrong, just what we use. My preference is straw or long grass cuttings in the nests and wood shavings on the coop floor. I don't like straw on a coop floor. I mucked out too many stables and barns in my youth and that straw can mat together and make it a bit hard to clean out once I decide to actually clean it out, but plenty of people use straw. It's just personal preference. What you're doing sounds fine to me, but I don't know your specific cirumstances. If ground corn cobs are cheap and available, that sounds pretty good to me for the coop floor. I prefer something a little more substantial in the nests though. I like the way straw or grass holds its shape.

What Ridgerunner said!

 

[Fred's Hens]

I don't know if this is addressed in the thread or not, I've only read about 1/4 of it so far, but what are you guys favorite layers? The biggest thing for me is that they be hardy. They need to be able to stand a wide range of temp from 10 degrees to 110 degrees. I don't want a bird that gets limps often or sometimes lays not so good eggs. I like my birds to look good as well. If it were a chicken that could show well, that's a definite plus. So far, my favorite layer is the production red. She lays a smaller egg than what I would like but it's always consistent with a nice shape, color, ect. She is hardy and doesn't get limps or become overweight like the red sex links.What are you OT's favorite layers?

Erin, I've kept hens since 1959. My mother and grandmother taught me and meemaw learned from her mother in the 1890's. Things were much different back then. Unless you kept somewhat higher strung Leggerns', as they called them, you probably kept a dual purpose bird precisely because you needed dual purpose birds. Life was tough for my immigrant, agrarian grandparents and they were self reliant, peasant farmers.

Today, you have more choices. The "meat birds" development means you can raise out meat birds in as little as 8-9 weeks. Done. The other end of the spectrum has seen the poultry genetics companies breed ever more specialized layers. These are early maturing, huge egg laying, great feed conversion, light weight birds who will lay up a storm for a few years, but who's carcass is very thin. These are the commercial red sex links, specked white leghorn based hybrids, etc. The intention of the producers of these birds is that you'll be back each spring for another dozen pullet chicks while a dozen older layers are going out the back door of the coop. Nothing wrong with that system, just saying, that's kinda the way it is designed.

The dual purpose birds have also changed, however. The birds being sold today only somewhat resemble their fore bearers from the 1920's. A hatchery barred rock or hatchery white rock isn't really the same bird after 100 years of hatchery breeding. Virtually every strain of hatchery bird could now be called something of a "production" strain. They are laying more than the birds of the same breed did years ago. The coloration, body type, feathering, temperament, ability to brood, etc, is far different than those same breeds possessed in great grandma's day in the early 1900s.

I do believe that you can take a 40 bird flock of hatchery stock and be very, very selective and in a few years, you'll likely have a stout flock of healthy, stronger birds. Or, you can start right off with a few breeding trios of heritage stock and continue on with them. I'm not talking about showing, per see, just strong, healthy, productive birds. In my view, you'll have to become accustomed to heavy culling and strict selection. If not? Just getting 40 hatchery birds and allowing them all the offer eggs for the incubator will produce a lot of mediocrity. Well, I've gone on too long.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I once took an owl (little one) to the vet...I'd found it on the road.just sitting there. So i threw a towel over him and stopped at a vet...he said the bird had a concussion (one eye closed, feathers messed up on his head) just feed him meat, feathers and small bones with hair...he did fine and i released him when both eyes opened, few weeks. Maybe a CB attenae had smacked him. The vet didn't charge me anything, maybe cause I was fifteen, but he said if I could work for free so could he.
I couldn't take a chicken to a vet, sometimes I pay 2dollars for one, usually I pay nothing..I'd prob ask someone around what could be wrong, but so far nothings been sick...if it got sick it'd prob be eaten fast - by a predator...not me...

 

[al6517]

Quote:


Maybe perhaps I should stop making parody jokes for fear some will actualy take me seriously, I was making a joke and to prove a point. That point for those who know me know there ain't a snowballs chance in haides that I would consider taking a chicken to a Vet under any circumstances. Nor buy diaper or aporons, or keep a chicken in the house other than freshly hatched lil brooders. or put up with antics of roosters, or pay attention to wimpy hens. Sorry folks was just looking to parody the other side of the obsurd in chicken husbandry as you most certainly see running rampant on other Foo-Foo threads. I promise from now on I will stick to what I do best............... keeping it real.