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

[stonykill]

well my 2 roosters that crowed every 10 min are soup. it is all done. very good soup. made it with onion, celery ,carrot, sweet potato and motzo balls. yum yum good. i guess i won't have a cold for awhile. i wonder if my layers would eat some. it is getting a little chilly at night

if I did that I wouldn't have any roosters. Mine never shut up.

 

[bruceh]

if I did that I wouldn't have any roosters. Mine never shut up.

yes you need your roosters mine are just on a soap box shouting their feathers off.

 

[silkiechicken]

The only better soup than a mean rooster soup, is a noisy rooster soup. LOL

 

[Goober1201]

@ goober watch the roosters as they mature. 3 rooster for 15 hens could be to many. they may ware them hens out. with the 2 brothers that are now soup. they mounted the hens together. first one then the other. you may get by with 2 roosters. i don;t know about 3. it could get a little rough once all the roosters figure it out.

thanks dear, I am so sad to get rid of him.

He really is a good boy, But I want the marans rooster as I want an olive egg er, and My Golden boy, the other buff.. he is such a good protector and provider I just cant see getting rid of hi. He does not crow he runs up to my kids to get lovings.. ugh. I HATE loving chickens!! Maybe hes a GAY chicken and acts like a hen?..lol

 

[Leahs Mom]

I am going to be brooding some chicks in the hen house but don't want to use a heat lamp as I don't want the light on at night.

Can anyone recommend a brooder heater, relatively small, that would be safe to use? Will likely have only 6-12 chicks.

 

[therapydoglady]

Whew! I made a flying trip to (almost) San Angelo to meet a Mr.Welling. He is the one that Bryan got the chickens from. He is a very nice man with a wonderfully wry sense of humor, and a body that is turning against him faster than he can grasp the concept. Anyway, he is getting out of the chicken business, and I bought another pair of sebrights, a pair of Mille Fleur d' Uccles, a pair of porcelain d' Uccles (gorgeous!), a cabinet style incubator and some transport cages.

He also took the time to show me how to give a chicken a bath! I never would have thought to give a chicken a bath, but he informed me that if we didn't, our birds would certainly lose to one who did, even if ours were superior birds! Who'd have thunk it??? Anyway, I took him to lunch and we lingered a long while, he telling me chicken secrets, me taking notes in a notebook. It was a wonderful day. When I got in the pickup to leave, he asked me to hang on a minute, and disappeared into his well appointed chicken shed and brought out a battered old 3 ring binder, and handed it to me to give to my kids. It was hand written notes he'd jotted down over the years. I cried halfway home! He is a very nice man, and I'm sure we will take him to many lunches as we are that way often.

When I got home, I replaced the roosts in the d' Uccles pen with 2X4 roosts, and started another cattle panel pen for the porcelains. We will go work some more on it this evening after homework is finished and checked. I haven't told the kids yet...they wouldn't be able do concentrate!

I'm sure I will be asking bunches of questions when it comes time to plug the incubator in...I think you can put something like 200 eggs in it. A cabinet type with a glass door and several trays w/ and automatic turner. I'm excited! I think I may have chicken fever worse than the kids, tho I have not selected my special breed...I like them all! Brie

 

[Beekissed]

I am going to be brooding some chicks in the hen house but don't want to use a heat lamp as I don't want the light on at night.

Can anyone recommend a brooder heater, relatively small, that would be safe to use? Will likely have only 6-12 chicks.

They have those with radiant heat that, for the life of me, I cannot remember the name.

I've been playing around with an idea the past few years I'd like to try with a small group of chicks like that...been thinking about making a loosely stuffed fleece "hen" with a wire rectangular or oval-shaped structuring that could be bent to simulate a mother hen huddled over chicks. The fleece would/could radiate their own body warmth back to them and they could come and go under it as they please. It would have folds and lumps that hang down and loosely brush the ground to provide pockets where chicks could huddle together. The whole thing would be removable from the wire and be washable.


Still wanna try it to see if it would work.....

 

[chickenlover89]

I am going to be brooding some chicks in the hen house but don't want to use a heat lamp as I don't want the light on at night.

Can anyone recommend a brooder heater, relatively small, that would be safe to use? Will likely have only 6-12 chicks.

The Brinsea ecoglow 20 is great, it is ecofriendly, it isn't a light, you just put it above the shavings, you can go to the brinsea website and check it out under brooders. I also had a question about baby chicks in the winter, I will post a hyperlink to the thread, somebody put a pic up and reccomended it on my thread.

 

[chickenlover89]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/705169/baby-chicks-in-the-winter/20#post_9603066

that is the thread that I found out about it in.

 

[stonykill]

yes you need your roosters mine are just on a soap box shouting their feathers off.

you don't free range Bruce?