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

[al6517]

I think many have missed what the newby's were trying to get at in the how to boil an egg thread. They were struggling with the fact their naturaly laid homegrown eggs were tough to peel. The thread was designed to tell them the difference between a huge farm egg production facilities eggs and what you actualy get in the store. As opposed to their own fresh eggs fed differently, and the fact that fresh eggs don't peel as easy when fresh as opposed to a 4wk old ragedy walmart egg with a weak shell and membrane. Then it morphed into god knows what as every single newby person is now completely confused LOL.

 

[thedragonlady]

I haven't tried this myself but so many people around here are claiming that the best bedding for chickens is peat moss. The type you use on gardens. They say it eliminates smell and after it's first spread there's no dust. Also by mixing diatomaceous earth in it, you do away with lice and such like. I thought I'd maybe give it a try this winter.

If it were my birds....I'd never bed on peat moss. It carries spores that can cause severe respiratory problems, as many greenhouse workers know. So does spaghnum moss, which is what Peat moss came from. Mixed with the ammonia in droppings could be a lethal mix, even if your coop is very dry.I use dry wheat straw, and have for years.

 

[pigeonguy]

Said you don't mind hijacking
Which came first the chicken or the egg?













The egg dinosaurs laid them.

 

[deek]

Said you don't mind hijacking
Which came first the chicken or the egg?













The egg dinosaurs laid them.

 

[bruceh]

i am so confused. my chicken layed an egg 3 days ago an nothing since. could it be they just don't like me
.it just could not be the fact i had disrupted their laying pattern by clipping their wings because they were getting in the neighbors trees, penning them up to show them where to lay , and removing other birds that are not layers. i think i need to re-home them because they just don't like me and refuse to lay.
please help.

 

[therapydoglady]

My egg-laying flock I keep strictly for eggs, and I replace them every other year from a hatchery. There are always a few-maybe- two or three out of 50 that you could call "keepers" but after the first couple of years, I even quit that. The layers are paying their way, taking care of my customers, and between the sale of the eggs and the goat milk and goat milk products, ALL of my animals are fed and maintained (as well as my "habit"LOL)

Now my Dominiques are a different story. These chickens were my grandmother's and my father's pride and joy, and since I'm the only one of "us kids" the caught "the chicken bug" they are now my pride and joy. They are the only ones that don't have to "earn their keep" just because of who they are and where they came from.

Every year, I let them hatch their own little ones, and wait until the chicks are mature birds before I make any selections (unless there is an obvious defect upon hatching.) I choose the very best of these offspring to keep, and sell the rest. I have never shown a chicken, but I know what sticks out in my mind as "the perfect bird." As Fred said, a really good one comes along rarely, both in dogs and chickens. I have a pal up in north Texas (Texarkana) that shows Doms, and every other year or so, I go buy a nice rooster from him. It brings new blood into my flock, and tho everybody says line breeding isn't all bad, I just don't like to do a lot of it. Just me. On his rare trecks out to my neck of the woods, my friend is always very taken with my girls, and always says I have "the nicest rooster he's ever seen" (since it came fro HIS stock). He'll look them over, and if he sees faults, he'll point them out and I can decide whether that bird stays or goes. This selective breeding has been goin on for over 50 years, so three generations of us have pretty much run the gambit. Nice plump birds, rose combs, heavy feathering, good mothers, great layers, docile hens.

I think, the best advice I could possible pass on to anyone, newby or not, would be:

"Be Patient!" You can't breed faults out of a line in one generation. You can't breed perfection into a line in one generation.

Go shopping! Look at more than one person's chickens before you buy your starter birds. "Be Patient!" Buy the best birds you can afford, and let them do their thing. BTW: Having a fancy schmancy chicken coop will not have any effect in the breeding of your birds. You see, chickens don't care! They want food, water, shelter, and they're not too picky about the shelter. If a fancy coop makes YOU feel better, well then get after it!

When you have babies, "Be Patient" and wait to see what they'll be when they grow up. Then make your selections. Try not to become so attached that you can't let them go...keep only the best.

Meanwhile, sit back, relax, and enjoy them.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I am better at being a visual person. I've read and re-read the SOP for breeds I care about, over and over. Yet, my eye is better trained by seeing photos, old photos from the turn of the last century. I love those prints, those old photographs and old paintings. I can "see" the lines, the shape, the wing, the back, the legs, the head, feathering etc.

When Al, Bob, KathyinMo, NYreds, Walt and other really great breeders post photos of their birds, I can see immediately what they say in words, what they are going for in their breeding.

I hate pinched tails and narrow butts on hens, for example. Faults aren't all that easy to miss. Where the skill and experience comes in is in breeding to "fix" or correct faults. Breeding to maintain and propagate the good features. THAT is what I am just a freshman student when enroll in these experienced breeders discussions. I am at the place in life where I now have the time and the interest in such things. I'm afraid I have little to contribute, really. I'm just a newbie.

 

[donrae]

We bred beagles for years and years. Even when I really, really like the dog and the *****, still, one pup in 20 was what we were looking for. The others were OK, but the real eye catchers, the real deal, with heart, smarts and nose is rarer than a lot of folks might think.

The past few years, we've been breeding chickens and I'd say it isn't much different. Last year we hatched out over 100 chicks. I'd say less than a dozen were what will go on toward the future of the program. That would be my first point, I guess. If you have specific goals, you have to hatch out a lot of chicks and be determined. It might take some time, as in, a few years (generations). We need all the roosters hatched for food and the hens for laying, so we don't dispatch a bunch of birds just to be rid of them.

I'm learning a lot by listening and paying attention to Fowlman (Walt) and Bob Blosi and Nyreds(Bill) and all others who post on various threads. I've so much to learn and I am enjoying the education. It is an aspect of chicken keeping that I find fulfilling and hope to "grow in" into the future. I now have the time to be able to study and commit to this.

I also now have my first starter line of true, rare, heritage fowl, something I wouldn't have messed with in my younger, more utilitarian days. Not too old or too stuck to learn new things.

* apparently, BYC won't let me say the word for female dog. hmmmm.....

I hope things went different for the culled beagle pups than the cull chickens............

 

[al6517]

Breeder top 10.................. thats a tough one because so many folks breed for so many different reasons and outcomes for it to have a blanket......... this is the best way.......... kinda deal. so in all fairness we will start with an Ideology.

I raise my breed to bring it back from the brink, as in it's true heritage form is extremely rare to find even decent quality in the USA. Also to breed the best of that bird like it was 60 yrs ago in it's hey day.every breed has a story so we won't get into that portion.

In true OT form here is the deal, WARNING !!!!! if your faint of heart move onto the next post please.

Top ten tips for wanna be real poultry breeders.

1. Pick a breed, one breed and stick with it, choose your breed carefully and with many hrs of thought and be sure it's the bird for you. Don't choose several breeds and get overwhelmed, also don't get too many different color varieties of that one certain breed, KISS........... newby's need to..... Keep. It. . Simple....Stupid.

2. Base all of your choices and decisions on on breeding and the breed itself from information that is true/correct and from very trusted sources. Find several real live people you can speak to on the phone or in person, eye to eye, ear to ear. get information that has been gleaned from years upon years of hands on experience, the proper do's & dont's from the horses mouth. NONE !!!! of what I said can be found on internet forums, where information is researched and just copied and pasted to make someone look like they know what their doing, if you do meet someone online call and speak to then at length over a period of time to get a feel for any red flags.

3. Be prepared for the endeavor, don't half a33 the deal be & stay vigilant, if your a cheapskate and can't afford this operation don't do it, cause you will never recoup your cost, it's a hobby so spend and make limitations that are within your means. Have proper housing, for chicks, breeder pairs and trio's, seperate live adult birds, reserve breeder birds and the like. and you had better be darn good at incubation and throw away those cheap foam bators in the trash, YOU WANT TO BREED, YOU WANT TO GET GOOD AT BREEDING GOOD BIRDS BUY A DECENT CABINET BATOR !!!
By proper housing I don't mean some super fancy painted cutesy tootsey coops nor do I mean a bunch of ragedy pens made from reclaimed materials, ( otherwise reffered to as junk ).

4. Keep your emotions in check, don't bring them to the breeding pen's if your an emotional basket case, get in hatchery birds or go raise cucumbers or something. Be prepared to make tough decisions at the drop of a hat, and continue to march. Cull means to kill in my barns so when I reffer to cull it means what it means to a breeder KILL !!!!. as in not put them back into the system in any way shape or form, I don't care how you kill it but this is a must, don't sell them, don't give them away, don't put them on CL or ebay for free just kill them. the only exception being to give your Grandma-ma a few to help her weed her garden and keep as yard art and for fresh eggs for her famous baked treats. if you can't do this for your home mutt flock you won't be able to do it in a breeder barn, if you can't and be truthful.......... go raise cucumbers.

5. Do not name any breeder bird, adult/chick/juvenile ever at all, name your breeder line in 10 years but not your birds, with the exception of a small round tag on their leg that say's 346 or 872B leg bands are the only names allowed in a professional breeder barn, ask any real pro.

6. Educate yourself on feed and care that is particular for your breed in all stages of development. you care for breeders differently at certain times than mutt birds and they need special attention when nessesary. Keep your pen's clean, keep your birds clean, keep them free of parasites and preditors, and do it to the extreme. if not you think you cried when your favorite hen Daisey died, just think the waterfall of tears that comes with losing a full barn or several pens of really valuable stock, when a coon strikes your operation killing indescriminately.

7. Start with the best you can get, not the best you can afford, the best that is out there bar none, don't start with crap cause your going to just be breeding crap after crap. if you can't afford good stock try those cuccumbres. It's not cheap, breeding truley good stuff never is, if it were everybody would have great birds and the hatcheries would be no more LOL. What you will tolerate in your flocks is what you'll get, breed the best to the best.

8. Know your Genetics very well and study often, and know what your looking for and how to Identify the particular traits. Know your SOP frontwards and backwards, know that what your seeing is what it actually is and not something your unaware of. know what a good bird looks like, and you darn sure better know what a crappy bird does also. Know how to get there, how to correct defaults quickly by proper pairings so your not spending years undoing one single bad mistake. Talk to the pro's you respect often for advice and instructions and how to stay on track.

9. Don't be afraid of corrective critisism from othe pro's who are wanting to help, go to at least a few real ABA or APA santioned events and see your breed, see what they are realy supposed to look like, bring some of your birds in your truck and have them evaluated by a real pro and stay engaged and intrested. if your hurt by the fact that your on the wrong track and several folks are telling you so and shooting good advice from the hip. go raise cuccumbers.

10. Stay the course it's a very hard and rewarding field and it's not easy. work work and then go do more work, it's always an ongoing program. be strong be true to yourself and your breed and most of all be proud of what your doing, you will get knocked down to your knees many times, get up, get back and keep driving on. when the day comes and it should in a few long hard years, where you can stand back and say to yourself as other have said to you about your birds, that MAN !!!! shoot fire !!! I made it Iam here. the birds are the best I can get them. you will have a smile bigger than Gommer Pile. if you feel that day will never come because of one reason or another, you can always rely on the cuccumber bidness.

So there is my take on it................ glean from it anything you can use, everything else regarding breeding specifics are details............... these are the top 10 you need just to get started, the rest will come.

 

[Fred's Hens]

I hope things went different for the culled beagle pups than the cull chickens............

Any breeder of beagles, in the circles I traveled in for decades, was brutally honest about their hounds. You could no more scam ARHA type folks than the man in the moon. There was always a small market for pet grade dogs. But, we made some great pups, it's just that not all were the whole package. A double winner on the bench and in the field is rarer then hen's teeth. You only get a couple of those dogs in a life time. I was fortunate and blessed to have had a couple. You never forget 'em.