Consolidated Kansas

[ramblinH]

I hope some of you newer people don't think we are chicken snobs.

Not at all, am hoping to do some breeding at some point and plan on replenishing in the future with fertilized eggs bought from breeders for my hens to brood. I'm considering my chickeneering a grand experiment, but don't worry, I won't go mad scientist on them

 

[Frizzled Pink]

Wow, Hi all new peep's. Guess i should have been watching the thread instead of just staring at the eggs in the incubator LOL


i loved this comment-
Boy's want to hang an old porch swing inside for me to sit & cuddle with my new babies, ha!

now how do i expand mine to fit one--hmm not sure that is possible space wise, but sounds like a great place to be to me

 

[HEChicken]

i loved this comment-
Boy's want to hang an old porch swing inside for me to sit & cuddle with my new babies, ha!

now how do i expand mine to fit one--hmm not sure that is possible space wise, but sounds like a great place to be to me

I keep a lawn chair down at my coop and there is almost nowhere I'd rather be on a day when its comfortable to be outside, than sitting in the chair, reading my Kindle, with birds popping in to jump up and sit on my lap for awhile before moseying off to forage some more.

 

[RoosterLew]

Thank you all for the reply's!
And I don't mind honest opinions, and I don't mind being told if I'm doing it wrong! However, I hope you don't mind when I get stubborn and reply "It may be the wrong way, but its my way!" rofl (You know....I am a man )

I have raised chicks before, but being in town once they were ready to go outdoors I had to get rid of them...so for several years I raised them for a couple of months, let them have some "limited" yard time, then gave them to my rural friends.

I owned Storey's book back then, and pretty much lived by it! LOL

I don't plan on getting alot of birds immediately, actually maybe a couple more if I find the ones I want and they'll be all for now. Just enough birds to give us a few eggs.
The first year we move in I figure will be spent cleaning up and organizing. There is a barn there, and it will be my first coop with a static run.
yes , predators are a problem here..the only "free ranging" my birds will get will be in the yard when I am there to supervise! I did say I would have 15 Acres for dedicated chicken pasture - guess I should have said I have 15 acres available? I will use as much of that as needed to pasture how ever many birds I end up with ! (It WILL NOT be thousands! LOL)

So my plans are to start with the "Barn Coop" & static run. Probably next summer I'll start a small "pasture flock" and see how that works out for me. And from there, let the chickens take me where they may!

I have looked at chicken tractors, and mobile coops. I have considered a mobile coop with poultry netting, I have also looked at basically a large chicken tractor, and then also the coop with rotating yards. That is pone of the reasons I was hoping to find someone who was already doing this, so I could look at their operation and see how it is going for them and what they are doing.
On of the things I was unsure of with the rotating yards is just how long they can stay in one yard, and how long they have to be off of it before it is ready for them again?
With a large yard, How to you protect from aerial predators? We do have Hawks around here!

I am raising them for eggs, and plan on selling quite a few eggs.

I Have already started playing with fermented feed - Can you ferment medicated chick starter?

I also plan on using the deep litter method in any stationary coops as well as brooders. As well as composted runs - I love multi purpose any thing!

While I am playing egg farmer, my GF is planning on a green house and BIG garden, lol! My chickens will be worker chickens - they make pretty good little tillers you know!

Thanks for all the replies and the care you put in them!

Oh ..Heritage Breeds...I read somewhere That heritage breeds do not lay as well?
I guess I need to research the pro's and cons of heritage vs hatchery birds.

I am all for breed proliferation, but I will not be raising show birds. Nothing against it, just not my thing.
I will also be getting goats. I am not getting them for profit at all, just for fun. But since I am going to have some, I have decided to get one of the endangered breeds and hopefuly help them out. They are San Clemente Island Goats. So I guess that says, yeah I would be willing to keep "heritage" birds if it helps the breed. As long as they are Buff Orps, Welsummers , or Gold Laced Wyandottes - LOL....I don't even know if any of those are Heritage breeds, but they sure is purty!

 

[Trish44]

Frizzled, how many chicks did you get from Sven & can you tell colors yet? My SFH aren't laying darnit, I wish they would get with it. The black & white hen had started & then due to the weather stopped again. The others haven't started yet. I can't wait for my little Ginger I got from Eileen to lay, she's so pretty & with the two roos I have should produce some pretty babies.

I think we all mostly have a mixture of birds from hatcheries & breeders. I have some birds in my laying flock from breeders, but most of them are from hatcheries. Soon all of my breeding stock will be from breeders when I get my Speckled Sussex here & grown. I'm not saying I wouldn't ever buy a heritage bird for laying, the Barred Rocks would probably be the exception to the rest just because I love those birds so much. I hated it that I lost one of them from this illness, that really hurt. Those birds lay huge eggs, even the young one that I got from Eileen that just started laying recently lays really big eggs. I can't wait till my two little blue Barred girls start laying. I'm planning to get some Cream Legbar eggs before too long from a club member in Tulsa, she has really nice birds. Instead of having them shipped I hope to meet her & pick them up, that would be so much better than taking a crap shoot with the postal service. Those eggs are just too expensive to send through the mail, I tried that twice & neither time did it turn out well.

We didn't get any snow here today, it was just numbing cold here. When I went out this morning I came in with my hands just frozen & really hurting. I'm so looking forward to some warmer days later in the week.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh ..Heritage Breeds...I read somewhere That heritage breeds do not lay as well?
I guess I need to research the pro's and cons of heritage vs hatchery birds.

It depends on your definition of "well". The way it works is, pullets are born with all the eggs they will ever lay, and that number is roughly constant across the breeds. So, when they have laid all of their eggs, they are done laying. (There's logic for you!) Because so many people are in it for the eggs, the hatcheries have been motivated to select for egg-laying qualities. Now, those hens don't lay MORE eggs than any other - they just lay them faster. In other words, they have been selected to lay "an egg a day" - 6-7 a week! - but all that means is that they will run out of eggs faster than a hen that only lays 3-4 times a week.

So when you hear that hatchery birds don't lay as well, they really do. They may not lay like those production layers - 6-7 eggs a week - but they will lay solidly at 3-4 eggs a week for longer.

 

[ramblinH]

I Have already started playing with fermented feed - Can you ferment medicated chick starter?

 

[ramblinH]

Sorry! Got ahead of myself!

RoosterLew - I'm probably not the best person to answer as I don't even have my 1st flock yet but it's my understanding that you can ferment any feed and get your chicks started on it ASAP. That's what I'm planning on doing when mine arrive next month. Have already bought my chick starter although it is not medicated...

Also, you ought to check into getting your hands on Harvey Ussery's The Small Poultry Flock - I have read through most of it and it addresses quite a few of your other questions. I'm definitely glad that I have it in my library as I can already foresee it's going to become a well worn resource

Like I said, may be speaking out of turn, as I'm still a newbie here but I've submerged myself in chickeneering this past month & am so eager to put it all into practice. Can't wait to see what some of the others think.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I haven't fermented medicated feed because it's all about chemistry and I don't know enough about it to make that call. What I'm doing instead is feeding dry medicated chick starter (used non-medicated on my last batch of chicks with no problems) and supplementing with fermented game bird starter. If I were raising meat birds, I would only use game bird starter to help get them to maturity a bit faster.

 

[Chickies-duckies-etc]

https://www.kansasforests.org/documents/conservationtrees/Price List.pdf

That is the Ks Forestry seedling price list. There are trees/shurbs that would be great to plant for poultry to use to escape from winged predators, wind breaks, etc.