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

[loanwizard]

Well.... two ways I can look at this. I can go Harumph! get all stressed out and go find the answers I am looking for.... or.... I can take the advice of those I have come to admire in a short amount of time and go from there.

I have made many mistakes in my lifetime, refuse to tractor my meat chickens due to overcrowding, now I learn that I am crowding my layers roost and laying areas. Perhaps this is why I am getting so few eggs, and perhaps that is why they lay some in odd areas.

Think I will work on the modifications. Nothing some 2x4s and OSB can't handle.

As far as my carpentry skills.... they aren't as horrible as I make them sound.... if I slow down a little, I can do some pretty decent work.

Thank you all for helping keep a wayward son in line

 

[loanwizard]

I guess with a 20 or 30 foot ceiling, I never saw it as cramped. I am pretty sure that with minimal framing that I can give them 25x25 or so and still be able to drive through the barn. Have to measure and maybe even go longer like 25x 40. Good sized barn.

 

[fowlman01]

Well.... two ways I can look at this. I can go Harumph! get all stressed out and go find the answers I am looking for.... or.... I can take the advice of those I have come to admire in a short amount of time and go from there.

I have made many mistakes in my lifetime, refuse to tractor my meat chickens due to overcrowding, now I learn that I am crowding my layers roost and laying areas. Perhaps this is why I am getting so few eggs, and perhaps that is why they lay some in odd areas.

Think I will work on the modifications. Nothing some 2x4s and OSB can't handle.

As far as my carpentry skills.... they aren't as horrible as I make them sound.... if I slow down a little, I can do some pretty decent work.

Thank you all for helping keep a wayward son in line

It takes a lot to handle this the way you just did...it is much easier to get offended or mad..no one wants to make a mistake....good boy! Many people here would keep posting until someone agreed with them. It drives me crazy!!

Walt

 

[Beekissed]

I guess with a 20 or 30 foot ceiling, I never saw it as cramped. I am pretty sure that with minimal framing that I can give them 25x25 or so and still be able to drive through the barn. Have to measure and maybe even go longer like 25x 40. Good sized barn.

I agree with Walt...you take advice like someone who really wanted advice and it's commendable!

The high ceilings provide a lot of airflow, to be sure, but not exactly living space unless you have super chickens that roost in those rafters. The lack of structured areas in which to lay and being able to train them there could account for your decreased egg count.

Sure would like to have some pics of the area you describe so that we could maybe make a few modification suggestions that won't cramp your barn usage.

You are indeed fortunate to have a big barn...gives me barn envy!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Wizard, you know I wasn't meaning a lick of harm. Just two guys talking out by the truck.

 

[loanwizard]

It takes a lot to handle this the way you just did...it is much easier to get offended or mad..no one wants to make a mistake....good boy! Many people here would keep posting until someone agreed with them. It drives me crazy!!

Walt

I am a Buy Here Pay Here Dealer and a Landlord. I am used to dealing with people that think they know more than me and don't listen. Today, I understand exactly what you (in the aggregate) are telling me. I am not a fool, and although not normally in my nature, can have humility instead of arrogance. That said, on another day, I might have gone running screaming for the door to another part of the forum where MY words are valued.... Um.... that statement just said something.

Like I said above, when 3 people chime in almost instantaneously, in complete accord.... I figure I'd best listen up, cause I don't know nearly what I might believe I do.

So.... maybe a little embarrassed, but now, armed with a little more knowledge, I go forth and learn more. In actuality, how many people that i really know have seen this and are going to point their fingers and say haha look at that idiot. I am an adult. I am allowed to be Glad I learned today and not tomorrow.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
If you are an idiot, you are in a flock of the same breed...I'm an idiot too.

We've all felt that way many times, even if the title does not apply.

Actually, it shows a measure of intelligence to ask the right questions, measure the worth of the answer and then apply the solution when necessary. So many cannot handle even those three simple things.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Old Timers tell lots of stories, it's a kind of a disease, 'cause in most cases, hain't a soul even listening, but shoot, that never stops a guy from repeating them anyhow.

Back in 57 or 58, I used to spend alot of my summers with my grandparents, where I really learned chickens. Old school. Nana was teaching me what her grandmother had taught her from circa 1870, right about the time they immigrated, right after the War Between the States. There wasn't much that woman didn't know about chickens.

Anyhow, my dad was wanting to expand our chickens and wanted them out of his dairy area. Times were tough and there were bunch of us kids, so dad got a "blessing". He could have an old chicken coup, if we went over to the widow, who was the church secretary, and tear her's down and haul it off. Man, that was work for little guy like me. Pulling nails and such. Anyhow, we cleaned that lumber up and Dad built a new coup, at our place, out of it. I helped and Dad never did anything without seeing it as a "teaching moment", as they say today. Came time to shingle it, He taught me the layout, did the starter row, handed me the chalk line, square and went down the ladder. Took me two weeks to get that coop shingled. He told me I did a good job, most everyday when he'd check me up on my work.

More than 50 years later, I recalled that when I was giving those same shingle lessons to my helper young man. Some things never change. Well, they shouldn't anyhow.

 

[normanack]

I too see this as epidemic on this and other forums...someone gets the want-me's in regards to animals and they bring it home with them that day! This always leaves me scratching my head.

With all animals -- yes. It's very sad to see any creature, human or pet or livestock, not getting the treatment it deserves because it was gotten in haste.

Baby chicks are so darned cute, small, and cheap that it's especially easy to buy a few and take them home to, um, hey let's put them in the spare bedroom or garage because oh yeah we don't have a coop. Luckily a lot of those people wise up quickly with help from people like you all or just by coming to their senses. But a lot of them don't . . . which is why we need you to keep on keeping on and have patience with wave after wave of newbies. You make a difference. Never forget that.

Oh, and by the way? Thank you from this newbie. I wasn't quite that bad, but bad enough.

 

[loanwizard]

Ask and ye shall receive. Ain't much of a barn but.... I could tell you a story about arrogance and humility. At one time I was a millionaire. My arrogance took me down some very bad roads, and ultimately led me to where I am today, rebuilding. Today I am rich in family, rebuilding the moral fabric that I used to, and now again hold dear. It has nothing to do with chickens though, and yet, can be correlated.
The stalls run down the left side. The picture seen is the hog stall.

Those are the beagle kennels with room for a lean to if necessary over the embankment leading to the pond.

This is the main roost laying area. I could extend it about 10 feet to the doorway. Those doors cannot close currently.

Feeding on a dirt and hay strewn floor. Stays dry. Note the pop door.

She has 2 peeps left.

The main laying boxes are to the back of the first stall. On the other side is the other stall. Yes they roost on the top of the layer boxes... maybe it IS dirty....

2nd stall with roost.

Outside the stall is the isolation room and another set of laying boxes I had in another coop. Old coop now razed and on the burn pile.

Chickens and hogs in harmony. Been a very dry year.

Take it easy on me... no... I can take it. Tell me what you would do to make this a serviceable chickenry. I suppose I ought to avail myself of some of my Amish friends, but i don't have to travel to have you guys... and gals.