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

[normanack]

A trio is a good place to start.  Breed what you have.  Hatch 30-40 chicks, if you can.  Now, you have a full year before the next breeding period.  Grow them out and take your time culling.  Wait until 8 months to do your major culling (as in kill or sell, but remove from flock).   No sense carrying all those "less than wonderful" birds through the following winter.  Bob Blosi preaches, "go slow, go small, and go down the middle".   He means don't flock breed, for one thing.   Choose your very best two cockerels and pen one each to breed back to his mother.  Choose two or three very best pullets and put those back in under their father.  

This is how one gets started.  When you setup your breeding pens for the second go 'round, you already have three "families" or houses. Hope that's clear.  You'll have three sub-lines going now.  Round three breeding season, should you get that far, then requires yet another matchup.  I suggest you might enjoy Mr Robert Blosl wonderful blog on breeding in this fashion.   http://bloslspoutlryfarm.tripod.com/id60.html

In Bob's world, one never mixes in "new blood".  One does get blood, but only from the same line you have, at the 10th generation mark from another reputable breeder who is also breeding your line.   

Hope that helps some.   

thedragonlady, or KathyinMO please jump in here.      You can surely be of more help here than I.

Thank you, Fred's Hens, that is exactly what I needed to know: practical and concrete advice on what to do, and an excellent reference for further learning. Thank you!

And thedragonlady, thank your for providing a knowledgeable and experienced counterpoint -- that is terrifically valuable, as well.

Y'all rock!

 

[KnobbyOaks]

Put a little dirt in their cage ...they will love it

Follow up: I put out a couple handfuls of the grit in a bowl and they all rushed over and ate it all like candy!!! I figured with all that granite in them I wouldn't have to worry about them flying over the pen fence. Wrong.

Thanks, Gramma Chick, I don't have any dirt, my dirt is sand and the pen is on sand.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Thank you, Fred's Hens, that is exactly what I needed to know: practical and concrete advice on what to do, and an excellent reference for further learning. Thank you!
And thedragonlady, thank your for providing a knowledgeable and experienced counterpoint -- that is terrifically valuable, as well.
Y'all rock!

You're really welcome. The novice is said to constantly criss and cross and "introduce new blood" and this scattered approach just leads nowhere. What the old pros, who I've learned from, just think differently from the novice breeder, who tends to think of breeding with a half dozen cock birds and 20 hens in hoping for the best in a flock breeding attempt.

First, it is too expensive to feed that many birds. Second, remember, "go slow, go small, and go down the middle." In other words, all you need to move forward each year is that one great cockerel (and another for backup) and those 3 or 4 great pullets. That's it. Quality, not quantity.

Bob Blosl's website is a great resource, as is being mentored by someone like NYReds, Fowlman01, and a whole new generation of BYC awesome folks, like Kathy, Matt, Jeremy. Too many names to list.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Back from dumpster diving for pumpkins! LOL! I got some for the chickens after I spotted 
'em on my walk; it was past dark so I came back for the stroller as it was a big one that 
I spotted & I did not want to lug it home. Grabbed a bag and snagged two of 'em so the chickens will be happy with that and the rest of grand daughters left over ppj sand. :yiipchick
 
I've been trying to figure out what is a roo and what is a hen of my Mornas X they all fight like roos, with hackels up one had a comb and is definately a roo and one other tail feathers look like a roo only need one hoping the other two are hens.  
 
What breed dual purpose for meat & eggs [not banty] goes broody the most do you think?
 
[Please forgive my typos.]

I picked up 20 on yesterday from someone giving them away on Craigslist.

Going to pick up more today from another lady.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Good score!!!  I love dumpster diving!!!! 

 

x2

 

[just me]

I go 7 to 10 without issues and with good hatch rates. I used to be nervous until I watched broody's stash eggs for up to 21 days, then hatch most of them. I no longer worry

Stonykill,

From reading your posts here and on another thread I started following, then quit because you were trying to give sensible advice, and nobody was paying attention (LOL) you seem to have quite a few broodies who are good mama hens.

How long did it take you to get to that point?? Do you have a favorite breed for broodies and/or moms??

I also believe your chickens free range. I had been letting mine free range for over a month, no problems. Now, my pup has decided that playing with the chickens while I'm at work is fun. She's gotten one cockerel and one hen. She injured another hen. I was a little too slow in believing it was her, as she hadn't bothered them in over a month, and all the activities were going on while I was away at work. WELL, it's dark when I leave, and dark when I get home so I can only do the "retraining' on the weekend so I've got the chickens locked up for now. The chickens were hatched out June 22 of this year. Do you think that once the cockerel I have left (if he's any good) will "attack" my pup (lab - something mix) once he matures? I REALLY hate locking them up, but DH insists as (right now) we only have 6 pulletts and the one roo, and no eggs yet.

 

[delisha]

Not part of what you asked, however, my two cent is to suggest you spend some training time with your dog and let your birds out. Your nice dog can be trained to protect the chickens.

 

[Mskayladog]

If she is a good layer and you want her progeny, go ahead and let 'er rip.  Congrats on being silkie free! Pesky thing to be afflicted with..... 

If you have a shed outside with good  airflow, just leave them out there for the winter.  Long about Jan/Feb if you get a thaw, they will have probably reached the right level of "seasoning"

...they will be deflated and their fluids will have leaked out but the spongy thing left behind is some kind of delicacy to the chooks and they will attack it like sharks on chum.  The skin will be easily ripped off in pieces and the insides will be a spongy, mushy mess but, for some reason, this is how they like it. 

Will that work with any large winter squash ..like cushaw squash. The produce stand shut down and called me I got free a trunk full of pumpkins and cushaw for the chickens.



Also I thought chickens couldn't eat moldy food wouldn't the pumpkins be moldy after sitting all that time?

 

[just me]

Not part of what you asked, however, my two cent is to suggest you spend some training time with your dog and let your birds out. Your nice dog can be trained to protect the chickens.

I think so, too. I think that if she were "trying" to hurt them, she would have killed more of them. Yesterday, she was laying beside two of them when I got home. (It was dark, and the rest of them had gone in for the night). They had some missing feathers on their necks, no major injuries. They were terrorized. They just lay there when I walked up and picked them up and put them in the coop. I just brought the pup (she'll be a year old sometime in Feb., don't know her exact birthdate because she was a "drop off" at the shelter) inside with me. I was really upset, with myself as much as with her. I can't be mad, though. She's just a pup being a pup.

I'm afraid that "weekend" training sessions won't be enough. DH insists I keep the chicken put up when we're not home. He's out of town working, and it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home, so they won't be coming out when I'm there during the week.....

 

[JeffOeuf]

Downside to a few "feral" chickens?

I've got a couple of new pullets (a few weeks from P.O.L.) that just don't like to sleep in the coop. I locked them up for a few days, and the first couple days after I started letting them graze, they came back to the coop with no problems. Then one night they were up in a cedar tree right behind the coop when it was time to lock up. I chased them out and herded them into the coop. No issues for a couple days, they came in on their own. Then, they took roost in the cedar again, and when I tried to shoo them out, they went higher instead of out. Pretty hard to chase chickens out of a tree when they're 20 feet up. This has been the story the last three days. In the morning, they hop down and join the other three girls in foraging with very little drama, though the hen at the top of the pecking order chases them half-heartedly once in a while.

Seems my choices are:

1) Get them in the run today and put them on lockdown for a couple weeks (I hate to do this, I think they should free-range).
2) Let them do what they want and hope they figure out that the place to lay eggs is where the food and water is.
3) Wait until it gets colder and see if they're more inclined to come inside.

Number one seems like the prudent course of action, but it causes problems for the rest of the flock, since I only have one coop. I can sub-divide the run, but the space I can lock them in (while allowing the others access to feed and nest boxes) is a little cramped, and I'm trying to teach them that the coop is a pleasant place. Not sure they'll get that message by being locked in a 3 x 6 area with 3 feet of headroom.

Is number two even feasible? Any OT's have semi-wild flocks that lay inside, but prefer to live outside?

Number three just boils down to procrastination...something I am unfortunately prone to.