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

[therapydoglady]

But this house is smack dab in the middle of Green Country in Oklahoma. And there is grass everywhere (or even weeds) except his place b/c he had sooooooo many chickens in make shift lean toos and running around free all over the place that there is literally nothing left living in the ground. I have never stopped and smelled, but I would bet it's not good.

I was just kidding you...I know EXACTLY what you mean. " Those conditions" are RAMPANT out here!

 

[therapydoglady]

Wow! I knew macaws could live a long, long time but that is very ancient. I bet he's a beauty! I have a little conure named Maggie that I love and adore. I'd bring her in too, if she got sick.

He is beautiful, but, like most macaws, I am t he only one who can handle him. My older son was trying to take care of him when I was in the hospital (and, I must say NOT following instructions to not try to do more than feed and water the bird) and put his hand in the cage and the bird bit all the way through the meaty part of his hand! I can't believe the bird is still alive after that, but my son did not kill him. These birds commonly live to be 120 years old if kept well. Like any animal, they are a commitment that lasts a life time. He's a cannible, tho. He eats chicken!

 

[bruceh]

i raised parrots. the hyacin ( i can't spell) is the most beautiful and exspensive parrot their is if i remember right a pair can go for 15,000
a big blue bird with yellow skin around the eyes. i raised african grey (congo) and mexican red head

 

[ldutch123]

Hey OTs it's me again!! I'm having a heck of a hard time trying to break a broody hen! She is a 9 month old golden comet and she is showing all the signs. I I'll her off the nest and put her in with the teenagers and she finds seem way to get back over there. So I made her a seperate cage inside the coop for nighttime and a seperate cage outside the coop for daytime and yes it makes her angry but hen I let her out tonight after work she picks at the ground a bit and then it's like a switch goes on and she heads RIGHT BACK TO THE COOP! THIS IS MAKING ME NUTS!

2 days of pulling her out of this nest and a whole day away from it and she continues to go back.

I don't want her being broody in this heat. It's 100 degrees out and I can imagine not the best time not to drink and eat regularly. Also, I recently lost a hen when I allowed her to try her hand at motherhood and 4 days into it I find her dead.....so I'm kinda scared to even let a hen be Broody.

Suggestions??

 

[therapydoglady]

i raised parrots. the hyacin ( i can't spell) is the most beautiful and exspensive parrot their is if i remember right a pair can go for 15,000
a big blue bird with yellow skin around the eyes. i raised african grey (congo) and mexican red head

They are now illegal (they are endangered) and you must have a license to even own one...and then only a captive bred one. I am sure that Rudy was wild caught, that many years ago. I love him, wouldn't take anything for him, but he dictates how long I can be gone, who can come in my house and have him loose - most times I have to put him in his cage and close the bedroom door when company comes. Then no one can visit 'cause he's screaming. He's a PIA for sure, but I figure if he's survived for 70+ years, why not? Actually, he is one of the reasons I have so many chickens (and goats and horses and...and...) I can't go anywhere anyway, so I might as well enjoy myself while I'm staying home with this PIA bird! Right? That's not really true, but it sounds the way HE thinks it should go! Ha! I'd have all the animals anyway, esp. the chickens, just because I love being around them!

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I must be an awful grandma, to think of all the dirt...and playing with chicks, so a bottle of hand sanitizer shows up on the poarch. "What's this?" We're supposed to use it after we play with the chicks" the kids say. Oh really? So, now I have them walking barefoot in the coop to give the bugs they caught to the chicks. Funny how after a few days of sunshine dirt grass fresh air without a/c all day and they aren't sick anymore...no sniffles either. Oh, and that bottle of sanitizer, I think the dogs drug it off and buried it under the house.

 

[ldutch123]

I must be an awful grandma, to think of all the dirt...and playing with chicks, so a bottle of hand sanitizer shows up on the poarch. "What's this?" We're supposed to use it after we play with the chicks" the kids say. Oh really? So, now I have them walking barefoot in the coop to give the bugs they caught to the chicks. Funny how after a few days of sunshine dirt grass fresh air without a/c all day and they aren't sick anymore...no sniffles either. Oh, and that bottle of sanitizer, I think the dogs drug it off and buried it under the house.

I agree! People are way too careful these days! You need to be exposed to germs to build immunity to viruses. Anytime someone comes over to see the chickens they act like they are going to leave my house with bird flu or salmonella and it makes me want to scream! These chickens have the life. Fresh clean air, grass, shade, a safe place to sleep.... And how many of my ancestors raised chickens and they sure didn't use sanitizer. How many of them died from touching a baby chicken!???

 

[FuzzyButtsFarm]

Hey OTs it's me again!! I'm having a heck of a hard time trying to break a broody hen! She is a 9 month old golden comet and she is showing all the signs. I I'll her off the nest and put her in with the teenagers and she finds seem way to get back over there. So I made her a seperate cage inside the coop for nighttime and a seperate cage outside the coop for daytime and yes it makes her angry but hen I let her out tonight after work she picks at the ground a bit and then it's like a switch goes on and she heads RIGHT BACK TO THE COOP! THIS IS MAKING ME NUTS!

2 days of pulling her out of this nest and a whole day away from it and she continues to go back.

I don't want her being broody in this heat. It's 100 degrees out and I can imagine not the best time not to drink and eat regularly. Also, I recently lost a hen when I allowed her to try her hand at motherhood and 4 days into it I find her dead.....so I'm kinda scared to even let a hen be Broody.

Suggestions??

An old time remedy would be to dunk her in a tub of cold water. I have not tryed this, I just let em hatch a few. I got 3 broodies bin sitting a week now. No ones croaked yet.

 

[ldutch123]

I have tried hosing her down with some cold water but I didn't dunk her head first r anything. Her silly butt went right back to being broody.

 

[NYREDS]

Hey OTs it's me again!! I'm having a heck of a hard time trying to break a broody hen! She is a 9 month old golden comet and she is showing all the signs. I I'll her off the nest and put her in with the teenagers and she finds seem way to get back over there. So I made her a seperate cage inside the coop for nighttime and a seperate cage outside the coop for daytime and yes it makes her angry but hen I let her out tonight after work she picks at the ground a bit and then it's like a switch goes on and she heads RIGHT BACK TO THE COOP! THIS IS MAKING ME NUTS!
2 days of pulling her out of this nest and a whole day away from it and she continues to go back.
I don't want her being broody in this heat. It's 100 degrees out and I can imagine not the best time not to drink and eat regularly. Also, I recently lost a hen when I allowed her to try her hand at motherhood and 4 days into it I find her dead.....so I'm kinda scared to even let a hen be Broody.
Suggestions??

First of all it won't hurt her to brood a clutch of eggs in hot weather as long as she has water available. I just had an 11 year old hen hatch 8 chicks. Your hen that died didn't die because she was broody, it's a natural process. She would have died anyway.
However, if you want to break your broody it's easy. Put her in a wire bottomed cage with nothing to sit on except the wire floor. She'll stop within a few days.