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

[bruceh]

Hey, Hey, now! I'm not that dictatorial, am I?

Yeah, I'd have probably done the same thing. Did the same thing to a couple of meaties a couple of years back. I didn't put them in a cage away from the flock but I slapped some NuStock on them and wished them the best. They were fine as frog hair the next day....especially after the dog gave them a good licking. You couldn't hardly tell who had been injured..and they were pretty deep injuries.

I'm not against treating an injury if it is salvagable but one has to be able to determine what is worth trying to fix and what is involved in that fixing. Keeping a bird in isolation for a month while one tries to splint and heal a broken leg or after a bird has been hit on the road~not recommended by Bee. A skin flap or flesh wound? Clean it, slap some ointment on it and let nature happen....this Bee would do.

well bee i don't want say if you are dictatorial. humm, but i think the 3rd reich read your book on chicken keeping. i can hear them now "cull cull cull "

well there goes my shot at sainthood. no more st brucie. so bee i will nominate you as st.bee the patron saint of chickens

.

 

[stonykill]

of everything I've read..... what amazes me the most? Adults that have never been stung by a bee. What did you people live indoors, windows closed, never step foot outside as children? I just can't imagine. Seems to me you aren't living life if you haven't agravated a bee enough for it to sting you. And never walked barefoot? Really? Poor neglected children.

 

[galefrances]

Maybe 'cause you had better things to play with as a chile!

We was so poor that grasshoppers were some of the few things we had to play with...that and the June Bugs on a string. We was so poor that we'd get batteries for Christmas and the package would say "Toy not included."

You made me laugh, and that's not easy to do.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Maybe 'cause you had better things to play with as a chile!

We was so poor that grasshoppers were some of the few things we had to play with...that and the June Bugs on a string. We was so poor that we'd get batteries for Christmas and the package would say "Toy not included."

 

[Miss Lydia]

of everything I've read..... what amazes me the most? Adults that have never been stung by a bee. What did you people live indoors, windows closed, never step foot outside as children? I just can't imagine. Seems to me you aren't living life if you haven't agravated a bee enough for it to sting you. And never walked barefoot? Really? Poor neglected children.

Now Now stony starting to show your age

and your still young.

 

[Beekissed]

well bee i don't want say if you are dictatorial. humm, but i think the 3rd reich read your book on chicken keeping. i can hear them now "cull cull cull "

well there goes my shot at sainthood. no more st brucie. so bee i will nominate you as st.bee the patron saint of chickens

.

Now THAT's funny, I don't care who ya are.....

 

[Beekissed]

of everything I've read..... what amazes me the most? Adults that have never been stung by a bee. What did you people live indoors, windows closed, never step foot outside as children? I just can't imagine. Seems to me you aren't living life if you haven't agravated a bee enough for it to sting you. And never walked barefoot? Really? Poor neglected children.

Yeah!!! I can't believe they missed out on pin worms from going barefoot and taking those little white pills each summer to get rid of the pesky things! They just haven't lived, man!

 

[Ridgerunner]

  Poor neglected children. 

The farm wagon frame had a pole maybe 3" or 4” diameter that ran the length of it. When Dad had the box top on, that pole stuck out a couple of feet behind. When he had the hay bed on that frame, that pole was covered. With that box top, that pole was a great place for kids to hitch a ride. We often had three kids holding on back there. Pure case of child endangerment.

One day Dad was taking the wagon out of the tobacco barn where it was stored in the dry, and I was riding on that pole. Dad drove over a yellow jacket nest. The horses walked over that nest and did not get stung. The front wheels of the wagon rolled over it. The yellow jackets did not find Dad riding up front on the wagon. But by the time the back wheels rolled over the nest they were really mad. And there I was, riding barefoot real close to ground level on the back of that monster threatening their nest. Let’s just say they found me.

Another time, a different tobacco barn and I was a lot older. A neighbor broke his leg logging in the middle of the season to put the tobacco in the barn. This was burley tobacco, not dark-fired for those that may know the difference. You hang the burley in a tall barn to dry. Anyway, the neighbors and his relatives met the next Saturday and we put his tobacco crop in the barn for him. I was in the peak of that barn hanging the top row. We dealt with wasps all the time up there. Well, this one time one got me right on the back of the neck.

It’s surprising how fast you can get down out of the top of a tobacco barn if you are properly motivated. One of the neighbors took an old dried up tobacco leaf from the last year’s harvest, one of the tips that were particularly strong, chewed it up to a pulp, then put that on the sting. They made me set in the shade while thy finished unloading that load, but I went with them to the field for the next load and was back in the top of the barn to unload that load.

We had apple trees that would have rotting apples under them late summer. Yellow jackets loved those rotting apples. For entertainment and because I did not particularly like yellow jackets, if it was dry enough where the ground was dust, I’d coat my hands with dust, take a handful of dust and throw it on a yellow jacket, catch the yellow jacket and pull its stinger out. I’m sure I’d go to jail today or at least be evaluated as a sociopath.

I guess one last one, again in a tobacco barn. When cleaning out the barn getting ready for the harvest, we found a bumblebee nest in there. Dad put some gasoline in a sprayer and started digging the nest out. When the bumblebees came out, he’d spray them with the gasoline. That kills them. Needless to say, they were soon buzzing all over the place, both coming in from the fields and just coming out of the nest. A couple of us kids were standing back, watching. When we saw one Dad did not see, we’d yell “There’s one!” Since this is a family forum, I’ll paraphrase. Dad turned to us and said something like “I don’t know where there is. Could you please be more specific?”

Yeah, I really feel sorry for the poor neglected children.

 

[caj1985]

Yeah, I really feel sorry for the poor neglected children.

I was about 12 and helping Mom dig postholes to extend the chicken pen. Little did we know that the blackberry brambles next to that corner hole were hiding a yellowjacket nest. It is amazing how fast a 12 year old and a 38 year old can shed clothes and shoes while making a beeline to the trailer. I was only stung 28 times that day.

It is a good thing that our nearest neighbor was a mile and a half away and the trailer was WAAAYY off the road because Mom got a couple of yellowjackets stuck in her bra.

To top it off I had one stuck under the tongue of my shoe (only wearing shoes because we were digging post holes) and our place was surrounded by clover. I abandoned my shoes while running and then to add insult to injury stepped on a honeybee minding her own business in the clover patch. She was NOT amused. Neither was I.

 

[normanack]

But, even if these true heritage birds were more readily available, would most backyarders really want a chick that takes 10 weeks to even feather out?  Would they really want birds that take 8 months to come to point of lay?  Would they really want birds that may take forever and day to mature?  Would they really want the slow growth rate and loooooooooong feeding period that it takes to grow out many of the true bred, heritage birds?   What would most of these folks even do with such birds, beyond the first generation?  It's not as if 99% of such folks would breed them faithfully and true to type anyhow. 

If I had a local mentor, I would. Why? I'd want to help keep a heritage breed alive and available. They're living history. That's awesome. And I love the looks of heritage birds -- dark, glossy RIRs, crisply patterned Barred Rocks -- they're gorgeous.

But without an expert mentor within comfortable driving distance, I wouldn't be able to maintain or improve the breed, and I'd just be siphoning off the gene pool.