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

[normanack]

Two questions for you all.

My only laying hen, who has laid 27 eggs since July 30 (my other 17 hens are slacker hens, almost at point-of-lay and still freeloading) decided to go broody on yesterday's egg. I'd like to put a couple more fertile eggs under her so that if she succeeds, there isn't just one lonely chick. (The local egg seller's eggs are fertile, and I can ask for some before they get refrigerated.) So the question is, is it too late to add more eggs? And the second question is, is this a reasonable thing to do, or no?

The two eggs prior to this one, she sat on for a few hours, then left the nest. This one she left only momentarily during a hawk alarm but has been firmly sitting since.

There are three roosters : one is not yet mature and one is her best buddy, protective, and has mounted her enough that most of her eggs have been fertile. The third rooster is down the pecking order some and the hens have rejected his few advances.

The broody hen is #1 in the flock and her rooster buddy is #2. Probably irrelevant, but she's a great hen.

Thanks for your recommendations.

 

[loanwizard]

I would go ahead and try it, but I am not an OT.

Funny sad story to tell.

Yesterday, an acquaintance facebooked me asking if I wanted a dozen layers. I said sure I could rescue them but why? Laugh if you will, but apparently word has gotten around that I have chickens and they have a good life.... or I am a loud mouth trying to get attention.... oops, there is that self deprecation.

Anyhow, last night, Carla, my girlfriend and I go over to their house to look the situation over. I had been told that they got them for the kids, hired a contractor, whom had collected money but not finished the job, and momma is afraid of chickens.... breeds and rescues dobermans and Jack Russells but scared of chickens. 1st words out of her mouth after introductions.... we are in the country where salutations are important.... "See how they look at me, they're mean!"

We looked at what the coop builder put together and said, how much did you pay for this? She told us $425.00 then another $100.00 because he needed more material.

Picture this- The structure is 8x8 with no floor. It has 3 2x4's per side, so 11 8 footers, plus another 6 or 8 for the frame and trusses. The steel on the roof, the owner supplied. The lower half of the building is OSB, not treated stained or sealed, the upper half is 360 degrees of chicken wire with a door. The door has a latch and 2 barn style hinges. He built it offsite and dropped it right next to their driveway and disappeared. No roosts, told her not to use straw because the birds wouldn't be able to find the feed. No nesting boxes... lady complained cause eggs were getting broken. Basically it looks like a wooden variation of a summer canopy that you would have outside. I told her that wasn't a coop and once winter came... but, I could either take the birds or train her.

Her kids, the ones the birds were bought for, carried them 1 at a time after school to a dog kennel. She wouldn't touch them because of her fear. Carla went and picked one up, then I did as well and made her hold one. I offered to let them out and she asked if we would put them in the "coop" if they didn't go. Not planning to be there that long and not trusting that they would know where home was as they had been carried every day to the forage area.... we grabbed them up all twelve in one trip and put them in the box. I put an old skid up just as an elevated area for them to roost. By that time she learned how to carry them by their feet head down threatening to run screaming for the house if something happened... it didn't... I think I carried 8....

She was also told that hens couldn't lay eggs without a rooster.

She asked if she should stop them from laying eggs in the winter. I was going to tell her yes..... but Carla blurted out, how you gonna stop them?!?!?

I informed her that perfect laying conditions called for 14 hours of daylight.... but that may be hydroponics and plants.... I digress... then told her not to show up at my place with her fingers up their vents holding in eggs.

Looks like I have found another job. Invited her to the farm to look at an old coop or a hoop coop and I will get her set up to range them or run them in electric poultry netting.

On the plus side, she has healthy looking TSC birds, 6 comets/sex link and 6 Brahmas.

Side note- 1st chicks we bought.... only chicks we bought at TSC were Brahma's and got a LOT of males in the batch.... hers too. Wonder if they sell them straight run or if they're sexers aren't very good.....

 

[Maven]

Hello All! Long time lurker, first time poster here.

I LOVE this thread and have learned sooooooooo much from all y'all! My 'girls' told me to tell Bee THANK YOU for the fermented feed info and that thread as well; they have been enjoying fermented feed for a little over a week now - they are a 30 member mixed flock of various DP breeds. Even though they are growing bigger every day and thriving beautifully, they are using less feed now than they were two weeks ago!

The gals turned 9 weeks old today. They've been in the coop since day one, and have had access to the big run for several weeks. My first question: at 9 weeks are they ready/big enough to free-range? If I had some adult birds I wouldn't even be asking, but they don't have any older hens to 'show them the ropes' so to speak. They do seem to have good instincts where preditors are concerned; they will race across the run to the sheltered area and pop door if a hawk or large crow flies over. There are several tall trees near the run providing cover, and I would leave the run door open for them so they can get back to it when needed.

If y'all give the go-ahead, I thought I would start them this evening for just an hour or so before dusk and see how they do returning to the coop - maybe do that for a few days and then increase their time until they are free-ranging most of the day.

My second question: These goofy gals refuse to use the roost at night!

I've even gone down after dark, picked them up and put them on the roost, only to have them hop right down and return to the corner where they arrange themselves like a big pile of puppies! They'll roost all day long both on the inside roost and the outside roost, but when it comes bed time, no dice. Is this just juvenile behavior they will eventually outgrow?

I had another question but it escapes me now, I'll have to think a bit on it!

Thanks, everyone, for such a wealth of information!

 

[Beekissed]

I'd free range them now. They learn pretty quickly as youngsters and are quicker, lighter on their feet and can flee more easily at the threat of danger. They will eventually get the roosting thing but you can still try to train by placing them on the roost after dark....use only a small flashlight while doing this. Not too often you'll find a bird willing to drop off the roost when they can't see where they are dropping to. Place them two at a time, side by side, then two more and so on....they are more likely to stay put if another bird is in the same place.

It's good to know someone enjoys the info!

 

[loanwizard]

As usual, good advice from Bee. Heck I have 3 week olds... well about 5 week olds that free range. The eschew the older birds in the barn for now. When they get older I will train them to the laying area I suppose.... If I don't eat them first.

 

[Maven]

Thanks Bee and LW!!

I pretty much figured that you would say to cut them loose now, but just wanted to make sure!

We have a good border collie who runs off the 4-footed preditors so they aren't a worry, but I wasn't sure about the hawk situation. Tonight, they get to run!

Bee, I found BYC several months ago, and was greatly disturbed by a LOT of the stuff I read in most of the forums. I was looking for REAL information on raising real chickens, not pets. I pretty much gave up on the site because if I'd read one more post about dressing up or house training a chicken I was going to say some very not nice things to people.

Then, on a google search one day, this thread happened to be at the top of the returns. I didn't even notice it was a BYC thread at first and good thing too because I would not have clicked on it.

But I DID click on it, and once I started reading it I couldn't stop! Now, I have this thread and the FF thread book marked for reference and they are the only 2 BYC threads I bother with. heh.

I know this is only my second post, but I feel like I know a lot of you as if you were old friends now after all this reading.

 

[Beekissed]

That's remarkable! Funny that you should find this thread in particular on a search engine. I feel the same way...the only two threads that I check every time I'm on the computer is this one and the fermented feed one. They seem to be the most helpful and seem to attract a sensible crowd. I like sensible things.

 

[Maven]

That's remarkable! Funny that you should find this thread in particular on a search engine. I feel the same way...the only two threads that I check every time I'm on the computer is this one and the fermented feed one. They seem to be the most helpful and seem to attract a sensible crowd. I like sensible things.

heh. Me too!

Funny, I can't even remember what I was looking for that day, but I'm sure glad I found this thread.

I have cut and pasted a ton of stuff from it, and I try to check into it every couple of days so it doesn't get away from me. 500+ pages was a LOT to read all at once.

Off to do chores. Nice 'talking' to you!

 

[Beekissed]

 

[SunnyAlberta]

Quote:
Thank you for sharing. I am planning to add trellis -- and maybe grow hops? -- on the sides of my run. I do need to consider how to put a snow-proof roof on it; I don't have inexpensive metal roofing readily available to me, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.