fastingfan
In the Brooder
- Mar 10, 2022
- 7
- 41
- 47
First I’ like to share my family’s entry into backyard flocks. Years ago, we realized that our own health and nutrition were under significant threat from the methods of big agriculture. We sought out alternate health solutions such as natural health supplements and healthy foods.
For food, we found 3 different farmers: one raised grass fed beef, another meat birds, and the third raised free range chickens for eggs. All of the farmers became close friends. We were eating chickens, not raising chickens. About 20 odd months ago, things got a lot worse in our world, as you are well aware, and the need to become food independent became pressing.
We sought the advice of our farmer friends and from those discussion we decided to start growing food and raising chickens. Since we live in Canada, for meat and eggs we chose the Sussex chicken which is known to be an excellent dual purpose winter hardy bird. We built a chicken tractor, purchased 11 unsexed newborn chicks, hoping for at least a 50:50 mix and began work on a coop that would be suitable for our winters. All set, and ready to go. But NO, this is, of course, now that we actually had chickens where things started to get very interesting.
Before I continue, I want to share my approach to raising chickens. They are a part of the family with an important role to play (meat and eggs); they are not pets! The chickens grew and we realized that 7 of them were roosters! Problem!!! We knew that we would need more hens for egg production and that we would have to “deal” with the roosters.
In the winter, my meat bird farmer friend helped me process 6 of the 7 roosters because we wanted one for breeding. Even though I maintained my “raising chickens for a purpose approach”, “processing” them was extremely hard to do; you can’t help but become attached to your flock if you are truly looking after them. By the way, winter is not a good time to process chickens in Canada!
We did not have enough laying hens any more so in the spring, we found an amazing teen-age boy who, being locked out of school due to the situation at the time, was raising chickens. He advertised on Kijiji, that he had Sussex newborns. We purchased 6 of them. This proved lucky and unlucky.
To preface what happened, we knew that we might get more roosters (remember we already had a Sussex rooster), and when we met the boy, we realized that we might be getting a barnyard mix.
We ended up with one rooster which has ultimately become a favourite due to his temperment and leadership and we got a barnyard mix!
When spring came, we started letting the chickens free range. They were so much happier, that we could never go back to life in a tractor. Unfortunately, in spite of hearing the predator stories that friends shared with us, we didn’t really listen and started getting more and more lax in our supervision. I’m sure you can figure out what happened next.
Now, I don’t know if you are spiritual, but I believe what happened was actually an act of god. I decided to get up and look out the window to see a fox trotting across our yard with one of our beloved chickens in its mouth! Think about it... I only had about 5 seconds to see this!
The aftermath may be considered wierdly interesting. The foxes got 3 hens and our Sussex rooster. There are 2 things about the rooster. First, if you have more than one rooster it is best to keep them separate, and second the rooster was not getting along with my wife. In the meantime, our other rooster had herded up the rest of the hens and we found them safely resting in our chicken coop/run. If I could hear God’s message to me, it would sound like this: “I know you don’t like the price you had to pay, but I’ve solved your wife’s rooster problem, now show better husbandry to those chickens!”
Of course, now we had a problem again because we didn’t have enough egg laying birds. My other problem is that in all my life I remain a little impulsive. You’re about to find out why I say this. We started looking for chickens on Kijiji and found someone selling purebred Chanteclers and another person selling Orpington’s. After researching them, I was attracted to both breeds and thought that I might do well to start breeding my own chickens. We purchased 5 newborn unsexxed Orpingtons, and six newborn unsexxed Chanteclers. That was a slighly impulsive action; but it gets more interesting because the gentleman who sold me the Orpingtons convinced me to buy some newborn turkeys. This has proven to add a whole level of complexity; but if you are interested it is story for another day.
We were lucky again in that we got only 2 Chantecler roosters and one Orpington rooster which we intend to use for breeding. Since we didn’t need two Chantecler roosters, we gave a hen and a rooster away to someone who wanted to start a flock.
Trust me when I tell you I’m cutting the rest of the story short for now, but here’s where we are. I have built 3 coops with attached enclosed runs. One has our barnyard mix of twenty birds, one has our two roosters who are waiting impatiently to fulfill their purpose, and one is used for our male and female turkey which we’ve decided to try breeding, YES they survived both Thanksgiving and Christmas. As well a hen went broody in the summer and from this we hatched an egg in the fall. We then bought 2 companions for it. Two of them currently reside in the garage; and one died. This is again another story
Now we are at a point where we are catching up on all the learning we should have done in advance. I say this tongue in cheek, because I don’t know if you can learn about chickens or turkeys without experiencing them. As a result of our rapid 2 year growth, we need to simplify our organization as well. We have too many birds in separate spaces each creating its own workload. In addition, our “heated” waterers kept freezing all winter which created quite an additional effort.
All this way for 2 quesions: one serious and one for fun.
First: I have been researching watering systems. Our heated waterers are both expensive and did not last. Can anyone share their recommendations for systems that will not freeze in extreme cold and work well. I am not against building something.
Second: Can anyone explain why my male turkey hates rubber and plastic. My male attacks plastic bags and rubber shoes. This morning I was reminded to join your group when, after months of having a comfortable relationship with me, my turkey attacked my “duck” shoes. I could see where he might not like ducks, but that doesn’t explain his anger about plastic bags.
If anyone wants to hear some stories about my initial experience with integrating turkeys and chickens I will gladly share them, and the tale of our hatchling, that we named warrior could be considered quite tall if it weren’t for the fact that it is true. Let me know.
Fasting Fan...less of a fan now that I’ve eaten real chicken eggs.
For food, we found 3 different farmers: one raised grass fed beef, another meat birds, and the third raised free range chickens for eggs. All of the farmers became close friends. We were eating chickens, not raising chickens. About 20 odd months ago, things got a lot worse in our world, as you are well aware, and the need to become food independent became pressing.
We sought the advice of our farmer friends and from those discussion we decided to start growing food and raising chickens. Since we live in Canada, for meat and eggs we chose the Sussex chicken which is known to be an excellent dual purpose winter hardy bird. We built a chicken tractor, purchased 11 unsexed newborn chicks, hoping for at least a 50:50 mix and began work on a coop that would be suitable for our winters. All set, and ready to go. But NO, this is, of course, now that we actually had chickens where things started to get very interesting.
Before I continue, I want to share my approach to raising chickens. They are a part of the family with an important role to play (meat and eggs); they are not pets! The chickens grew and we realized that 7 of them were roosters! Problem!!! We knew that we would need more hens for egg production and that we would have to “deal” with the roosters.
In the winter, my meat bird farmer friend helped me process 6 of the 7 roosters because we wanted one for breeding. Even though I maintained my “raising chickens for a purpose approach”, “processing” them was extremely hard to do; you can’t help but become attached to your flock if you are truly looking after them. By the way, winter is not a good time to process chickens in Canada!
We did not have enough laying hens any more so in the spring, we found an amazing teen-age boy who, being locked out of school due to the situation at the time, was raising chickens. He advertised on Kijiji, that he had Sussex newborns. We purchased 6 of them. This proved lucky and unlucky.
To preface what happened, we knew that we might get more roosters (remember we already had a Sussex rooster), and when we met the boy, we realized that we might be getting a barnyard mix.
We ended up with one rooster which has ultimately become a favourite due to his temperment and leadership and we got a barnyard mix!
When spring came, we started letting the chickens free range. They were so much happier, that we could never go back to life in a tractor. Unfortunately, in spite of hearing the predator stories that friends shared with us, we didn’t really listen and started getting more and more lax in our supervision. I’m sure you can figure out what happened next.
Now, I don’t know if you are spiritual, but I believe what happened was actually an act of god. I decided to get up and look out the window to see a fox trotting across our yard with one of our beloved chickens in its mouth! Think about it... I only had about 5 seconds to see this!
The aftermath may be considered wierdly interesting. The foxes got 3 hens and our Sussex rooster. There are 2 things about the rooster. First, if you have more than one rooster it is best to keep them separate, and second the rooster was not getting along with my wife. In the meantime, our other rooster had herded up the rest of the hens and we found them safely resting in our chicken coop/run. If I could hear God’s message to me, it would sound like this: “I know you don’t like the price you had to pay, but I’ve solved your wife’s rooster problem, now show better husbandry to those chickens!”
Of course, now we had a problem again because we didn’t have enough egg laying birds. My other problem is that in all my life I remain a little impulsive. You’re about to find out why I say this. We started looking for chickens on Kijiji and found someone selling purebred Chanteclers and another person selling Orpington’s. After researching them, I was attracted to both breeds and thought that I might do well to start breeding my own chickens. We purchased 5 newborn unsexxed Orpingtons, and six newborn unsexxed Chanteclers. That was a slighly impulsive action; but it gets more interesting because the gentleman who sold me the Orpingtons convinced me to buy some newborn turkeys. This has proven to add a whole level of complexity; but if you are interested it is story for another day.
We were lucky again in that we got only 2 Chantecler roosters and one Orpington rooster which we intend to use for breeding. Since we didn’t need two Chantecler roosters, we gave a hen and a rooster away to someone who wanted to start a flock.
Trust me when I tell you I’m cutting the rest of the story short for now, but here’s where we are. I have built 3 coops with attached enclosed runs. One has our barnyard mix of twenty birds, one has our two roosters who are waiting impatiently to fulfill their purpose, and one is used for our male and female turkey which we’ve decided to try breeding, YES they survived both Thanksgiving and Christmas. As well a hen went broody in the summer and from this we hatched an egg in the fall. We then bought 2 companions for it. Two of them currently reside in the garage; and one died. This is again another story
Now we are at a point where we are catching up on all the learning we should have done in advance. I say this tongue in cheek, because I don’t know if you can learn about chickens or turkeys without experiencing them. As a result of our rapid 2 year growth, we need to simplify our organization as well. We have too many birds in separate spaces each creating its own workload. In addition, our “heated” waterers kept freezing all winter which created quite an additional effort.
All this way for 2 quesions: one serious and one for fun.
First: I have been researching watering systems. Our heated waterers are both expensive and did not last. Can anyone share their recommendations for systems that will not freeze in extreme cold and work well. I am not against building something.
Second: Can anyone explain why my male turkey hates rubber and plastic. My male attacks plastic bags and rubber shoes. This morning I was reminded to join your group when, after months of having a comfortable relationship with me, my turkey attacked my “duck” shoes. I could see where he might not like ducks, but that doesn’t explain his anger about plastic bags.
If anyone wants to hear some stories about my initial experience with integrating turkeys and chickens I will gladly share them, and the tale of our hatchling, that we named warrior could be considered quite tall if it weren’t for the fact that it is true. Let me know.
Fasting Fan...less of a fan now that I’ve eaten real chicken eggs.
Thanks for sharing your story!
You should start a thread with stories of your journey and the individual stories you have gathered.
