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

[normanack]

Chicken question.

My three 10-week-old (ish) chickens are separated from, but in full view of, the rest of my flock. When they have encountered one of the older chickens, they get roundly pecked about the head and neck and chased. Normal, right?

How do I know when they're big enough to let loose with the flock? Harvey Ussery recommends a hidey-box with 2 5/8" slatted openings so the young ones have a save place to escape to.

I suspect not everyone uses a box with 2 5/8" slatted openings, although it does sound logical. Should I build one? Wait till the babies are older? (how old?) Or just throw them in with the big birds and let them take their chances?

Thanks!

 

[loanwizard]

Not right off hand but I'm sure I can dig you up some off the web.

Leg colors vary from breed to breed and chicken to chicken. When I talk of pale legs on the other thread, it's because I know these birds like the back of my hand and I know what color their legs are at what time of year. When I say they are pale, it's really in comparison to their norm. Each flock and flock member has a normal leg color that is specific to them, some breeds have a specific leg color that identifies them as to the breed, etc.

When a chicken is limping, it's best to identify that particular chicken and examine their feet. There are a few things that can cause a chicken to limp, but you'll never really know what it is unless you first look at the foot. If you have examined the whole foot and could find no outward appearance of any abnormality, no calloused or scabbed areas, no redness or uplifted scales, no broken nails, no joint deformity, no broken toes, etc.,~ then it's time to determine if this is a chicken problem or a flock problem.

A chicken can sprain a leg/foot just by jumping down off the roost or getting it caught under a feeder or in wire and it may never show on the foot itself...they just start limping. This should go away within a few days. If it doesn't then you need to determine if this bird can still thrive with this disability.

If you have more than one chicken limping, it's a good bet that you may have a flock problem vs. a chicken problem. And those problems can be myriad and varied in nature when trying to determine what they have, why they have it and what needs to be adjusted to get rid of it or prevent it from happening.

Too much info for just one post or thread, really. That kind of info is accumulative in nature and comes from reading, reading, reading, comparing systems and methods, what other flocks have or do not have compared to yours and why, what you can change to make sure your flocks stop having or won't get such and such symptoms. It could be dietary, environmental, genetics, etc.

I'm sorry if that wasn't very helpful but it really is a process, this chicken thing, and we all have to go through it over time and one cannot learn it quickly....we have been at it for years and are STILL learning as we go along.

I have a serious belief that it is environmental. When I bought my farm 3 years ago, I was, and still am I guess, a city slicker acting like a farmer. I only have 4 acres, but there is a lot of work that has been done and still needs to be done.

Y'all can say what you want, I can take it and like to think I know my weaknesses and actually enjoy the bluntness of country folks.
Having a car lot, rental properties, educating myself to become an auctioneer, raising 6 teenagers, raising chickens and hogs with no experience, competitively fishing.... I keep busy...

Listen to me making up all of these excuses about why I haven't completed the work

Anyhow when I bought the place, it had been a showplace at one time, but had many years of neglect. I have only lived here full time for about 1 year. Out around the barn was completely overrun by multiflora and other prickly weedy viny plants. I have wandered back there and found 55 gallon drums, buckets of tar, cans, broken glass, fencing, tin, baling wire, the works.

Just 2 months ago I released a dozen or so feeder pigs back there and they have cleared it an shown me another mess to clean up. I have literally moved dump truck loads of scrap, trash and myriad other items including a torn down house that was in the barn away.

That said, in time, I will have it back to where it should be, but in the meantime my animals are suffering the found dangers and the slowness of their master to clean it up. Alternatively, I could keep them penned, but... I value their freedom.

Anyhow, thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Fred's Hens]

BTW, if anyone has wondered, although no one ever asked me directly,

No, I've never, ever, not once, have ever bought oyster shells. Shocking!!!! Heretic you say? I'm not prejudiced against them, but with calcium carbonate around all the time, there's just never been a need. It's that simple.

 

[loanwizard]

Chicken question.

My three 10-week-old (ish) chickens are separated from, but in full view of, the rest of my flock. When they have encountered one of the older chickens, they get roundly pecked about the head and neck and chased. Normal, right?

How do I know when they're big enough to let loose with the flock? Harvey Ussery recommends a hidey-box with 2 5/8" slatted openings so the young ones have a save place to escape to.

I suspect not everyone uses a box with 2 5/8" slatted openings, although it does sound logical. Should I build one? Wait till the babies are older? (how old?) Or just throw them in with the big birds and let them take their chances?

Thanks!

10 weeks? Not an OT but mine go out at 3-4 weeks.... I haven't lost any but I have a 75 foot barn that they can run around and plenty of places to hide....

 

[loanwizard]

BTW, if anyone has wondered, although no one ever asked me directly,

No, I've never, ever, not once, have ever bought oyster shells. Shocking!!!! Heretic you say? I'm not prejudiced against them, but with calcium carbonate around all the time, there's just never been a need. It's that simple.

That right there is why I hang around here! That's a nugget I never thought of. Who'd a thunk that CALCIUM carbonate would have calcium in it? I feel like such a dumba$$....

 

[Missa Chickabee]

Edited out by me.

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah, that last one.

It's like when 6 th graders finally get to 7 th grade and they are going to school with all the "big" kids...you either get tough or you become a wallflower all your high school days. Who wants wallflowers in the flock? Get 'em in there and let them learn the social structure of the flock. Any hen that is relentlessly pursuing the poor youngsters as they run away and making their life a living hell in the hallway should be taken to the principal's office and stewed. I just killed one like that last night....good riddance to bullies.

There is a difference in flock social pecking orders and plain ol' meanness and you can watch and see the difference. Most hens will peck them when they try to eat before she is finished or peck them down off her roosting spot....but to chase them or peck them and make them scream for the minor trespass of simply walking by? Watch that interaction and see if it's just not one hen doing all the picking. You might find that it is.

I'm not a real fan of Harvey's theories...most, IMO, are just a load of twattle.

 

[Fred's Hens]

A century ago, chickens kept by my grandmother, only laid 150 eggs a year. Think about that. Her hens were likely able to accumulate enough calcium through eating greens, storing it in their bodies and using it, as needed, during the relatively short laying season. Grandma's birds were a thousand miles from an oyster bed on the coast.

Today? Through genetics, we have production breeds that lay 300 eggs a year and their little, lithe bodies cannot possibly store enough calcium for that level of production. Calcium carbonate is the basic building block for the eggshell. The chicken doesn't know or care where she takes up what she needs, as long as she gets it.

Again, read those labels. Super high magnesium is not a good thing.

 

[loanwizard]

Once again, thank you all!

I get it Fred.... low on the magnesium

 

[normanack]

. . . Any hen that is relentlessly pursuing the poor youngsters as they run away and making their life a living hell in the hallway should be taken to the principal's office and stewed. I just killed one like that last night....good riddance to bullies.

Making me laugh! Love it! So true! (And doesn't everyone secretly remember a bully that you wouldn't mind having gotten stewed?)

Just for fun, here's a picture of the hens watching one of the babies earlier during the summer: