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

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MoonAngel12: Oh! How I wish we were closer! I just bought my neighbor's (broke his hip last month, and is not going to come home) entire flock so his kids could sell his place. There are a dozen lovely Buff Orp. hens, tho no rooster...I killed him day before yesterday in defense and revenge for my bloody knees. He (the neighbor) says they were a year old in June. I did worm the whole flock because they had fleas and I suspected tapeworms. They are beautiful, even through the horrible heat we've had. Has some black ones that he can't remember what are, and some white leghorns. And there are 18 fuzzy chicks, but there is a leghorn rooster that was in with them, too, so they may not be full blood Orps. All 3 mom hens are Orps. Sure wish you had 'em!

I would take anything at this point!! I'm so bummed to be at this point with my flock - not at all what I had in mind when I planned everything out for the year. Only slightly frustrating... Too bad you're not at least within driving distance - that might be too tempting!
 
Bee - thanks for all the input! We can pretty much do what we darn please where we live. We have two acres - one half of which will soon be a rental property. We are surrounded by family pasture and hay fields though so we're not really limited on free range space - oddly enough they never cross our unmarked property lines. I guess thinking about it though, the coop is located pretty much smack in the middle. Ideally I would love a 15-25 bird flock... that's what I was working towards this year with the 8 RIRs. I have lost 2 of my BSLs also - one just up and disappeared one day and the other I think had poultry lice that I discovered too late pared with heat. That's my best guess. My current coop setup(s) could accommodate around 15 birds each (30 total), but not sure I would want that many in that small of a space. It seems like it would be too much. I really want to bring back DH's great gmas old chicken house, but he's not fond of the idea b/c of some family logistics (whose land it's on vs. who actually is using it for junk storage and what might happen in the future with the property if it never becomes officially ours... it's backed right up to our property line though so it would be neat to work out the details!). We're heading out for a few so I'll have to come back with some mroe thoughts. Definitely going to be looking into the BAs and BRs. Really kicking myself for not picking some up a few weeks ago when I had the chance!
 
With that much space you can have a decent flock! The sky's the limit now....just take your time, choose your breeds and chicken sources wisely and see what you can do with them. Can't wait to see how you finally work it out...you'll have to report back from time to time and let us know how things are working, what you've tried, what you think about the results, etc.

It's all a big learning curve and I'm still on it...always learning how to do things better, if I can. Good luck!!!
 
With that much space you can have a decent flock! The sky's the limit now....just take your time, choose your breeds and chicken sources wisely and see what you can do with them. Can't wait to see how you finally work it out...you'll have to report back from time to time and let us know how things are working, what you've tried, what you think about the results, etc.

It's all a big learning curve and I'm still on it...always learning how to do things better, if I can. Good luck!!!

I was hoping to get to at least 10-15 birds this year for layers for next year, then just start adding a few each year to keep the flock going (a broody would make that so easy!)... and here I am with 3 (I looked at those BLRW again tonight and they sure are looking red up top. I'm not holding out any hope that I'll be getting any eggs from any of them
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). Argh! I was really discouraged for a while which is why I hesitated doing anything else this year, but I really want to make this work. Maybe it's just not the right time in life for me? Which makes me really want to cry. The fact is that I have 3 LOs, with #4 on the way which doesn't make things so easy when it comes to keeping up with anything farm/homestead related. I see it as a hobby at this point, but it's still hard to get away, even for a few minutes at a time as needed.

Here's a pic of the chicken house I would love to bring back to life. I had a glimmer of hope for a little while, but DH is coming up with a bunch of weak excuses which tells me he just flat out doesn't want to deal with it. I thought he would be more excited about it since he remembers his gr gma walking down the path with her cane in one hand and egg basket in the other. We've started collecting pallets to build something new and a bit bigger (I plan on making it so I can section it off for various purposes as needed), but he was losing a lot of steam just with the little we did to the hoop coop this past weekend so I don't know if it will ever happen. This obviously needs a LOT of work to be functioning again, but the small sentimental side of me thinks it would be awesome to have her great great grandchildren collecting eggs from that same house many years later (we already use the old nesting boxes and feeders we found still in it).



I'm really hoping your book plans work out b/c I can see it being a great source of information. My brain just can't retain it all as I read it, especially online... I like paper in my hand with a table of contents to guide me. I wish I had a good chunk of time to copy and paste a lot of the feeding and supplement info all together in one place - UPACV, fermenting, garlic, powdered milk, etc. It all starts to blur together after a while! Eventually I'll get it all figured out - just overwhelming at first for essentially a newbie! Thanks for taking the time to respond so detailed to my questions.
 
I was hoping to get to at least 10-15 birds this year for layers for next year, then just start adding a few each year to keep the flock going (a broody would make that so easy!)... and here I am with 3 (I looked at those BLRW again tonight and they sure are looking red up top. I'm not holding out any hope that I'll be getting any eggs from any of them
tongue.png
). Argh! I was really discouraged for a while which is why I hesitated doing anything else this year, but I really want to make this work. Maybe it's just not the right time in life for me? Which makes me really want to cry. The fact is that I have 3 LOs, with #4 on the way which doesn't make things so easy when it comes to keeping up with anything farm/homestead related. I see it as a hobby at this point, but it's still hard to get away, even for a few minutes at a time as needed.

Here's a pic of the chicken house I would love to bring back to life. I had a glimmer of hope for a little while, but DH is coming up with a bunch of weak excuses which tells me he just flat out doesn't want to deal with it. I thought he would be more excited about it since he remembers his gr gma walking down the path with her cane in one hand and egg basket in the other. We've started collecting pallets to build something new and a bit bigger (I plan on making it so I can section it off for various purposes as needed), but he was losing a lot of steam just with the little we did to the hoop coop this past weekend so I don't know if it will ever happen. This obviously needs a LOT of work to be functioning again, but the small sentimental side of me thinks it would be awesome to have her great great grandchildren collecting eggs from that same house many years later (we already use the old nesting boxes and feeders we found still in it).



I'm really hoping your book plans work out b/c I can see it being a great source of information. My brain just can't retain it all as I read it, especially online... I like paper in my hand with a table of contents to guide me. I wish I had a good chunk of time to copy and paste a lot of the feeding and supplement info all together in one place - UPACV, fermenting, garlic, powdered milk, etc. It all starts to blur together after a while! Eventually I'll get it all figured out - just overwhelming at first for essentially a newbie! Thanks for taking the time to respond so detailed to my questions.
I may get banned for this, but have you ever heard of nailing a donation cup to the headboard? Then you can own the Fountainbleu, or get that coop fixed!
 
I thought I would share this info with my favorite group, in hopes it will save a few birds for the folks who haven' heard yet. I don't have an answer as to how to avoid this but perhaps we could bounce it around and see what sticks. I imagine these are produced in China seeing as how the US no longer produces any light bulbs whatsoever, and we all know how the Chinese love to put poison on everything and get busted left & right for it.

Anyway OT's read this and pass the word to our apprentices.

AL




Shatter Resistant Bulbs: A Potential Danger to Your Chickens
Shatter resistant or safety coated light bulbs are a potential source for toxic fumes that can be dangerous to your chickens and other poultry. There are a number of shatter resistant light bulbs on the market today. These include heat lamp bulbs, work lamp bulbs, and appliance bulbs. These bulbs have or may have a coating made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) which makes them shatter resistant.

When these bulbs are used, they heat up, and if the glass wall of the bulb becomes hot enough the coating can release toxic fumes. Birds (such as chickens or other poultry) are very sensitive to airborne toxins and can die from the exposure to such fumes. This can happen quickly.

We were recently contacted by a small flock owner whom this happened to. She went out to her chicken coop to find all of her chickens dead. The cause? She had recently purchased a shatter resistant light bulb and used it in her chicken coop. The bulb’s packaging contained no information on the potential dangers and did not tell the composition of the shatterproof coating. The deeply saddened flock owner had her chickens examined by the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension Service’s Veterinarian, a pathological specialist. The veterinarian examined the chickens, and could find no disease. The only thing that had changed in the management of the chickens was the installation of this light bulb. The veterinarian researched the light bulb and found that it has a PTFE coating. The conclusion was that the coating heated up during the use of the bulb, and in the enclosed coop produced high enough concentrations of toxic fumes to kill the chickens.

Something similar occurred on a larger scale in 1999 in a poultry research facility in Missouri, where many birds in a 2400 bird broiler flock died over the course of several days. According to clinical results, the death of the broiler chickens was due to exposure to noxious gas. No change had been made to the management of the birds other than the installation of 48 PTFE-coated heat lamp bulbs.

PTFE is a synthetic polymer that was developed in 1938. Besides the coating in shatter resistant light bulbs, it is used in a number of other household products, some of which include portable heaters, irons and ironing board covers, hair curling irons, stain resistant coatings on carpet, stove top burners, drip pans, self-cleaning ovens, non-stick cooking pans, slow cookers, waffle makers, bread makers, and tortilla presses. Not all such products contain PTFE, but some do. PTFE is also associated with the brand names Teflon
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, Rulon
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, Chemfluor
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, and possibly others.

PTFE is relatively stable and chemical and heat resistant at room temperature, but at high temperature it can release toxic fumes. These fumes can be dangerous to humans, causing flu-like symptoms, but are even more harmful to birds because of their small size, efficient lungs, and high metabolic rate.

We do not recommend using shatter proof bulbs or any products containing PTFE in your chicken coops or in brooders for baby chicks. If you have any doubts as to the safety of a particular product, please research it as thoroughly as possible before using it with your poultry. The heat lamp bulbs that we carry on our website and in our catalog are free of PTFE and are safe to use with your poultry.

Other types of fumes that can also be harmful or fatal to chickens or other birds include include aerosols, fumes from paint, paint thinners, gasoline, certain glues, or other heated plastics, tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, pesticides (such as foggers or bug bombs), and moth balls.

Posted on February 18, 2011 by McMurray Staff


Copied this from McMurry's site....
also several teflon coated heater elements will do the same in brooder rooms...Flockers do a search before buying bulbs for brooders...

There is also a warning in Backyard Poultry this month...August/September 2012....page 8..with pics..
 
Thanks Bee................

Now you know I couldn't post such a serious article without having a little fun so here ya go.



The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment: Go home and get their parents to tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came back and one by one began to tell their stories:

Ashley said, "My father's a farmer and we have a lot of egg-laying hens. One time we were taking our eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the pickup when we hit a big bump in the road and all the eggs went flying and broke and made a mess."

"And what's the moral of the story?" asked the teacher.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket!"

"Very good," said the teacher.

Next little Sarah raised her hand and said, "Our family are farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market. We had a dozen eggs one time, but when they hatched we only got ten live chicks, and the moral to this story is, 'don't count your chickens before they're hatched.'"

"That was a fine story Sarah."

Alyssa do you have a story to share?"

"Yes, ma'am, my Mom told me this story about my Dad You may know him, his name is AL. Dad was a flight engineer in Desert Storm and his plane got hit. he had to bailout over enemy territory and all he had was a bottle of whiskey, a machinegun and a machete. he drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't break and then he landed right in the middle of 100 enemy troops. he killed seventy of them with the machine gun until he ran out of bullets. Then he killed twenty more with the machete until the blade broke. And then he killed the last ten with his bare hands."

"Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, "what kind of moral did your Mom tell you from that horrible story?"

"Stay the Hell away from AL when He's been drinking."



LOL see I ain't serious all the time.
 
Ok, I love this thread so much!! I told myself I could not post here until I completely read the whole thread. Yes the whole thing all 501 pages in a month and a half. OTer's, thank you so much for passing your wisdom on. I have learned so much here, it is crazy trying to wrap all of it in my mind. I think I need a chicken mentor!!!! Any OT want to be a mentor to an Indiana mom with a bunch of questions??? the questions range from incubation, breeding, health and meat birds. I will admit I have one fuzzy cochin butt wiper, Cull means to put down in our house, the only diapers here are on my little human boys, and yes, I do have a few with names. I have small kids and names happen here. Again, thank you so much for taking time to help the younger generations culivate and maintain the older ways.
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