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

[NikkiMiChickie]

Chicken newbie, going on 7 months of ownership
Greatest advice ever: deep litter method! Not only does this save me time, it saves me money on sawdust too.
Also now using: acv, cucurbits, and de.

More than anything, it's my philosophy that has evolved from "my chickens are feathery pets" to "I love my chickens, but they are farm animals with a dual purpose: my food and my entertainment!" chicken TV is my favorite channel buuuut, If someone is not producing eggs the way she should, it's the soup pot for her. Oh, and I've learned that "freezer camp" is unacceptable terminology to most of the OTs.

I've learned to give it time and let chickens be chickens. 'Give it time' means not to jump to any quick conclusions (or cullings!). The rooster gets a swift kick in the butt a time or two before he's deemed too human aggressive to keep around. The odd egg layer gets some time to work the kinks out. 'Let chickens be chickens' means to get them dirty! Chickens are designed to scratch in the dirt, why not let them do what comes naturally?

High quality feed is important, but everyone has their own opinions on the exact formulations. Find what works for your chickens and for your style of chicken keeping.

Oh, and my favorite advice of all time is from Al: if you let a chicken sit on your shoulder, it WILL!!!! peck your eye out! Lol! Had some personal experience with this involving one of my chicks and a second grade classroom... No one lost their eye, but it was a close call

Thank you, OTs, for sharing your chicken wisdom with those of us who are willing to learn.
-Nikki

 

[Beekissed]

Nikki, I simply LOVE your screen name!

Thank you for the feedback. Now, after using this advice, do you think your flock has shown a benefit from it or is it too soon to tell?

Al is a true old troubadour, isn't he?

 

[galefrances]

Newbie since June,2012.

Hmm, what I've learned on this thread; I'd need a few pages to give all the credit due, but here are the main highlights:

1. They are not pets, they're chickens. If you let your chickens sit on your shoulder you'll probably get your eye poked out. Most problems concerning aggressive chickens are caused by people trying to make pets out of them instead of just letting them be chickens. Let them do what chickens do.

2. Prevent illness, don't treat it. If you provide a clean environment, fresh air and sunshine, proper diet, protection from predators you'll have healthy productive chickens.

3. Fermented feed. (haven't started this yet) Chickens will not need as much feed, it will help the natural flora in their gut improving resistance to disease, normalize their poop and chickens tend to prefer it over the dry feed.

4. ACV improves the general health of the chicken. About a tablespoon or so in their water. I've been using this for a few weeks now and the chickens seem to prefer the taste to the plain water.

5. Coop size. Can never be too big. Bee's analogy of a bathroom. Think of being confined to your bathroom for 4-5 months of the year only going into the other rooms for a couple hours a day. How would you feel being cooped up? So don't include the run in how much space you have.

6.Ventilation: think up and out. Fred's coop design with eave and roof vents...picture worth a thousand words.

7.Coop insulation, heat, running water, electricity for artificial light, etc......NONE of that needed. After all birds in nature don't have any of that and they manage to survive rain, snow, wind, etc. Don't interfere with the natural order of things.

8. Watch your flock. Look at their feathers, feet, vents, eyes....keep an eye on their behavior. Know them and then when something is off, you'll recognize it right away. Take a wait and see approach. Most things will correct itself.

9.Cull when you have to. If you can't, then you shouldn't own chickens. ( I haven't had to experience this yet. I've been trying to prepare myself mentally each day when I look at my chickens.) (ugh)

10. Most of all, I've learned that I can ask the OT's just about anything and know I'm getting the right answers.


Well, like I said these are the highlights. I'm sure there is more I'm not thinking of right now, but these are the ones foremost in my mind. I can't thank the OT's enough. I'm certainly more confident now than when I started and I feel my chickens are pretty healthy looking. They're calm birds. They may not jump up in my lap, but they trust me.

 

[therapydoglady]

Newbie since June,2012.

Hmm, what I've learned on this thread; I'd need a few pages to give all the credit due, but here are the main highlights:

1. They are not pets, they're chickens. If you let your chickens sit on your shoulder you'll probably get your eye poked out. Most problems concerning aggressive chickens are caused by people trying to make pets out of them instead of just letting them be chickens. Let them do what chickens do.

2. Prevent illness, don't treat it. If you provide a clean environment, fresh air and sunshine, proper diet, protection from predators you'll have healthy productive chickens.

3. Fermented feed. (haven't started this yet) Chickens will not need as much feed, it will help the natural flora in their gut improving resistance to disease, normalize their poop and chickens tend to prefer it over the dry feed.

4. ACV improves the general health of the chicken. About a tablespoon or so in their water. I've been using this for a few weeks now and the chickens seem to prefer the taste to the plain water.

5. Coop size. Can never be too big. Bee's analogy of a bathroom. Think of being confined to your bathroom for 4-5 months of the year only going into the other rooms for a couple hours a day. How would you feel being cooped up? So don't include the run in how much space you have.

6.Ventilation: think up and out. Fred's coop design with eave and roof vents...picture worth a thousand words.

7.Coop insulation, heat, running water, electricity for artificial light, etc......NONE of that needed. After all birds in nature don't have any of that and they manage to survive rain, snow, wind, etc. Don't interfere with the natural order of things.

8. Watch your flock. Look at their feathers, feet, vents, eyes....keep an eye on their behavior. Know them and then when something is off, you'll recognize it right away. Take a wait and see approach. Most things will correct itself.

9.Cull when you have to. If you can't, then you shouldn't own chickens. ( I haven't had to experience this yet. I've been trying to prepare myself mentally each day when I look at my chickens.) (ugh)

10. Most of all, I've learned that I can ask the OT's just about anything and know I'm getting the right answers.


Well, like I said these are the highlights. I'm sure there is more I'm not thinking of right now, but these are the ones foremost in my mind. I can't thank the OT's enough. I'm certainly more confident now than when I started and I feel my chickens are pretty healthy looking. They're calm birds. They may not jump up in my lap, but they trust me.

Great post! And I am soooo in agreement. We've had chickens for such a short time, I don't even feel qualified to answer Beekissed's question. However, I/we have implemented LOTS of Old Timer Wisdom in our preparation for chickens, and I must say it's been soooo smooth and easy. I don't think it would have been if not for them. And I have thanked them all, many times, but they can't be thanked enough. Your guidance is invaluable!

I shudder to think what could/would have happened if I'd taken those cankerous silkies out to our pens. Before reading this thread, I probably would not have even recognized that those birds weren't healthy! And I learned that I CAN humanely and efficiently kill one when needed(but I did use an axe - sorry Bee, don't know that I'm capable of wringing a neck like you and my M-I-L). That was my biggest fear, and I am over that now.

Thanks again everybody,
Brie

 

[Leahs Mom]

Yes...there are too many things to even begin to state them ALL here....

Even though I'm a reader and always read several books before I start any new endeavor, I think the info in this thread and the folks here have been much more instrumental in getting me started on the right track!

 

[galanie]

Well, from what I can figure, I'd been somehow doing most things right to begin with. Mostly by accident but hey, that's fine. I tell myself that they are chickens and livestock then name them all. Except for meaties. And they get treated like chickens. Well, except for Her Highness that gets to come in and clean up the leftovers when I change out the birdseed for the cockatiel and parakeet every morning. I know, I know... But at least she doesn't wear a diaper. And she loves to sit in the floor by my chair and groom.

And I have also learned that I, too, can kill even the ones I love the most if I have to. But thankfully that hasn't happened often. I have cried my eyes out while holding a favorite while it bled out because it was too big to fit in my kill cone. And then discovered it was the tastiest one of all. (no, it wasn't diseased - or I'd have buried it)

So yeah, I do some of the things that I have been warned over and over not to do, like naming them and getting somewhat attached. But also can do the difficult things that must be done if needed in spite of that. Sell or give away those that I simply don't need around and kill the ones that need it. I'm not going to give someone else my problems. And if it's suffering I can handle that problem too.

What these pages have stopped me from doing is getting adult chickens from an outside source. So I've never dealt with any of the diseases I read about, except that there was an outbreak of a very mild foul pox which I learned to mostly ignore. They didn't get very sick and they didn't all even get it. They got better and nothing came of it. I learned from here not to panic and not to run to the feed store to get 20 medicines. It took me a while to get my brain around "The reason no one knows how to cure chickens is that no one cures chickens." But there is true wisdom in that, mostly. They're chickens. People make sandwiches out of them.

And that it is paramount to take as good a care as you reasonably can of them. And that it's perfectly OK to care for them. So long as you're prepared to do what must be done, even if it's not pretty.

 

[JulieNKC]

This was shared on a facebook group I belong to, and thought I'd share it with you guys.

'it's hard to be a farmer , guess i oughtta know, i been trying raise some chickens , but the miserable things won't grow! Folks around my place just laugh and laugh , but i don't think it's fun, i planted a whole handful of feathers and not a chicken not one!'

 

[galefrances]

Well, from what I can figure, I'd been somehow doing most things right to begin with. Mostly by accident but hey, that's fine. I tell myself that they are chickens and livestock then name them all. Except for meaties. And they get treated like chickens. Well, except for Her Highness that gets to come in and clean up the leftovers when I change out the birdseed for the cockatiel and parakeet every morning. I know, I know...

But at least she doesn't wear a diaper. And she loves to sit in the floor by my chair and groom.

And I have also learned that I, too, can kill even the ones I love the most if I have to. But thankfully that hasn't happened often. I have cried my eyes out while holding a favorite while it bled out because it was too big to fit in my kill cone. And then discovered it was the tastiest one of all. (no, it wasn't diseased - or I'd have buried it)
So yeah, I do some of the things that I have been warned over and over not to do, like naming them and getting somewhat attached. But also can do the difficult things that must be done if needed in spite of that. Sell or give away those that I simply don't need around and kill the ones that need it. I'm not going to give someone else my problems. And if it's suffering I can handle that problem too.
What these pages have stopped me from doing is getting adult chickens from an outside source. So I've never dealt with any of the diseases I read about, except that there was an outbreak of a very mild foul pox which I learned to mostly ignore. They didn't get very sick and they didn't all even get it. They got better and nothing came of it. I learned from here not to panic and not to run to the feed store to get 20 medicines. It took me a while to get my brain around "The reason no one knows how to cure chickens is that no one cures chickens." But there is true wisdom in that, mostly. They're chickens. People make sandwiches out of them.
And that it is paramount to take as good a care as you reasonably can of them. And that it's perfectly OK to care for them. So long as you're prepared to do what must be done, even if it's not pretty.

 

[galefrances]

This was shared on a facebook group I belong to, and thought I'd share it with you guys.

'it's hard to be a farmer , guess i oughtta know, i been trying raise some chickens , but the miserable things won't grow! Folks around my place just laugh and laugh , but i don't think it's fun, i planted a whole handful of feathers and not a chicken not one!'

lol, very cute.

 

[Maven]

I don't think I can add anything but a big fat YES to what the other 'newbies' have posted already as far as what they have learned. I've implemented every pearl of wisdom I've gleened from this thread, the FF thread, and the 'Got Flogged by a Rooster' thread.

Thanks again to (I think it was) galanie or erin who posted it!!

I did want to say that because of that thread, even though my rooster is now only 11 weeks old and a perfect little loving gentleman, I have distanced myself from him (he loved to sit on my foot when my leg was crossed up), I pinned him 3-4 times in front of the hens when he came to jump up on my foot, and I've 'pecked' him GOOD when he pecks at a hen within reach of me and 'feathered' out my wings into the chicken dance as I grabbed his comb and pinned his head down. I felt horrible doing it because you could see the wounded confusion on his face but I knew that I'd made a BIG mistake and had to correct it immediately. He now looks the other way when he sees me coming and if I pick a hen up - something I make a point of doing in front of him regularly - he runs his butt up into the coop and stays there until I am done with her. We have definitely established who is top roo in this chicken shack now.

Oh, and in honor of our wonderful gal who started this whole thread and also had some excellent advice in the other ones I mentioned, I wanted to let her know this: There is now an old modified broom handle waiting in one corner of the coop under a little sign that says 'Rooster School is now in session' - I call it my 'Rooster Be-Kissed Stick'