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

[therapydoglady]

OK. . .I am new to the chickens, raised on a farm. I am not sure about the litter in the coop. . . I have read to clean the coop every week wipe down the roosts with bleach then start all over for the next week .. . I have also read to only clean the coop a couple times a week. Now I have read amonia build up can cause issues I am just so very confused with all this info. . . . I am on page 29 of this thread and loving every minute of it!!! I remember as a child my grandma and her hen house I just loved it. She had an old dirt floor in hers.
I also want to know what is the best to use on the floor of your coop? I have ground corn cobbs in mine and pine shavings in the next box not sure if I can use the same in both?

Use your nose! If you can smell it, clean it!

 

[Beekissed]

Hoist by yer own petard, my boy! So funny! Well, there ya have it, Al,now you know what to do with your cute little darlings and no mistake about it. See? You can draw more flies with honey than with vinegar.

 

[Beekissed]

Use your nose! If you can smell it, clean it!

Or...add more bedding, create more ventilation, aerate your litter, etc. If you clean it, it will be back in just a matter of days. Manage it instead, I say.

See? All sorts of opinions, options, methods from which to choose. You just have to go with what suits your husbandry goals.

 

[pigeonguy]

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.

Oh thank goodness I didn't think so but ya scared the bejebees out of me guess I wasn't payin enough attention. But in my stupidity defence ya did it for three pages or so and Bee was backin it up. Sorry. (uhg that word leaves a fowl taste in my mouth) I try not to do things that I have to say it.
Still hope some of the med advice helps someone. I have saved a lot of birds that way. With my own just to eat don't want to pass weak jeans along but already had money invested so I should get something out of it. Other people just to make them happy cause as I said everyone should be happy.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

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.

Thanks for the info! It sounds like a heritage breed will be best for me and I'll stay away from hatchery birds now. I don't mind culling but I don't want to cull most of the flock just to get good birds either.

 

[Beekissed]

You really don't have to cull most of the flock to get some good, steady layers and hardy birds from hatchery stock. At least, I didn't. The core of my flock is straight from the hatchery and they are still laying strong after 6-7 years of life, with their offspring coming on just as strong.

Not all hatchery stock is inferior, as not all heritage stock from breeders is superior....it's all a crap shoot, really, and you just get some birds and manage your flock until you have good, productive birds...no matter the source from whence they came.

Unfortunately, if you want to pare down your flock until you have the best of your best, culling is a necessary evil~hatchery or heritage alike.


My fave breeds, no matter the source, are:

Black Aussies
RIR
White Rocks
Barred Rocks
New Hampshire
Leghorn, brown or white

In whatever flock I have had over the years, these breeds have out performed all others on a consistent basis in all my flock criteria. They respond well to my husbandry methods and are the most productive for the longest time with the hardiest constitutions.

 

[stonykill]

You really don't have to cull most of the flock to get some good, steady layers and hardy birds from hatchery stock. At least, I didn't. The core of my flock is straight from the hatchery and they are still laying strong after 6-7 years of life, with their offspring coming on just as strong.

Not all hatchery stock is inferior, as not all heritage stock from breeders is superior....it's all a crap shoot, really, and you just get some birds and manage your flock until you have good, productive birds...no matter the source from whence they came.

Unfortunately, if you want to pare down your flock until you have the best of your best, culling is a necessary evil~hatchery or heritage alike.


My fave breeds, no matter the source, are:

Black Aussies
RIR
White Rocks
Barred Rocks
New Hampshire
Leghorn, brown or white

In whatever flock I have had over the years, these breeds have out performed all others on a consistent basis in all my flock criteria. They respond well to my husbandry methods and are the most productive for the longest time with the hardiest constitutions.

BEST post on the entire thread!

But then I'm not a chicken snob

 

[Fred's Hens]

My mistake here is that I use the word "cull" as in remove from the flock. I don't "kill off most of my flock" to get what I want in future generations. They are healthy, fine birds and they get sold. Bills have to be paid. I'd not sell a sick, weak or broken down bird, but I certainly sell off much of the flock over a three year period.

For me to keep a bird over winter, a very high degree of importance, given where I live, they have to be worth something. I run over 40 pullets/hens through here each year, and not all make the grade. Hatchery or heritage. I am old and I now am at the place in life where a hen who lives with me for a long time is a very special hen with traits that please me. The rest get sold off.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

You really don't have to cull most of the flock to get some good, steady layers and hardy birds from hatchery stock. At least, I didn't. The core of my flock is straight from the hatchery and they are still laying strong after 6-7 years of life, with their offspring coming on just as strong.

Not all hatchery stock is inferior, as not all heritage stock from breeders is superior....it's all a crap shoot, really, and you just get some birds and manage your flock until you have good, productive birds...no matter the source from whence they came.

Unfortunately, if you want to pare down your flock until you have the best of your best, culling is a necessary evil~hatchery or heritage alike.


My fave breeds, no matter the source, are:

Black Aussies
RIR
White Rocks
Barred Rocks
New Hampshire
Leghorn, brown or white

In whatever flock I have had over the years, these breeds have out performed all others on a consistent basis in all my flock criteria. They respond well to my husbandry methods and are the most productive for the longest time with the hardiest constitutions.

Thanks for the list! I checked them out, I like the black Aussies, New Hampshires, and brown leghorns best. I may have to get some of each to replenish my laying flock and decide which I like best from there.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

My mistake here is that I use the word "cull" as in remove from the flock. I don't "kill off most of my flock" to get what I want in future generations. They are healthy, fine birds and they get sold. Bills have to be paid. I'd not sell a sick, weak or broken down bird, but I certainly sell off much of the flock over a three year period.

For me to keep a bird over winter, a very high degree of importance, given where I live, they have to be worth something. I run over 40 pullets/hens through here each year, and not all make the grade. Hatchery or heritage. I am old and I now am at the place in life where a hen who lives with me for a long time is a very special hen with traits that please me. The rest get sold off.

That makes sense. It's my bad really for assuming that cull means kill.