constructing a single chicken family unit for porch

[welasharon]

That I understand. Keeping chickens around here means throwing them all in a pen and sometimes throwing food (scratch) on the ground or letting them run willy nilly all around with no care at all. No concern what-so-ever of diseases, predator protection or nastiness cause frequent flock replacement. Filth and flock seem to go together.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
Some of what I mean is that the selection forces are allowed to take their course. If the keeper constantly intervenes with with medication, absolute predator control, and high powered diet formulations requiring minimal processing by birds; then genetics promoting tolerance to such challenges will no longer be selected for and possibly be selected against. If a bird is prone to succumbing to such challenges, then let it happen. Although I do not advocate not providing access to quality forages and protection from elements but birds must be able to take advantage of these resources when present. Many breeds have lost this ability.

My birds when held in hand feel excellent. Sub-par birds usually do not even survive the selection process that occurs before my hand. I still baby the dominques, especially in respect to predator management since they would be wiped out very quickly otherwise. They are no longer as tough as the old accounts indicate and many game lines have been wussified by intensive breeding systems which have more in common with cattle feed lots or feeder mouse cages at the back of a pet store.

 

[welasharon]

Ah. I see what you are saying. More of a letting nature weed out the weak course. It's the way it should be but is difficult for most.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
The proportion weeded out by nature varies greatly. Sometimes as little as 10% under some condtions and some years but can be 100% if pressure too intense. As insurance multiple breeding groups repressenting same cross required. If a line / family is maintained under realtively consistent conditions, then losses to disease and poor nutritional status are relatively light. When predator management operates properly the daytime losses are also most likely to be individuals that are also having health or nutrtional problems. Until the last 50 years or so, nature did in reality provide some selective pressure but presently most birds are in reality selected by commericial hatchery conditions or by breeders with concern over whelmingly for appearance or by parties that simply propogate birds without any concerted effort at selection. Most of the game chicken folks and the majority of poultry keepers I have ecounterd recently appear to belong to the last category.

 

[welasharon]

My experience with chickens has been rather limited. When I got my first ones I knew nothing. I was surprised at the amazing variety there are of chickens. One of the best experiences I have had was visiting a man named Grady Taylor. He is one of the top serama breeders and happens to live near me. One of his hens died from being egg bound. I told him "You know you could soak their bottom in warm water to help the egg come out." He quickly let me know the birds he had in his breeding program had to be as healthy as possible and able to do what chickens do without interference. At the time it seemed harsh but as I've thought about it it made sense to only breed the healthiest. I dont' have it in me to be a breeder but I am fine with mine as pets.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
As a kid I did not like culling since I criteria for selection was not clear to me and I did reguard some as pets. In hindsight, some of the criteria were arbitrary at best.

 

[blackbelt]

WOW! kinda lost for words. Here on the homestead we don't just throw scratch feed out and let them go willy-nilly. We take pride in all our livestock and feed them a proper diet for production, believe it or not we make a very nice living from our homestead. In the winter we do throw scratch for them to keep them active, but we also give them laying pellets meal worms and other items from the garden. As far as turkeys go we get them in the spring usually a dozen and put them in the freezer in the fall, well between the freezer and the smoker, we even fry a couple. Hope this helps, you might look at my site gives some some great information.

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
These guys receive resticted rations of egg-layer pellets, BOSS and scratch. Number of birds low enough and available range large enough that birds could in pinch get all that need from landscape assuming snow is not too deep. In reality supplemental feed of one form or another is always present and based on appearance of birds and egg production during breeding season, nutritional status is excellent. My American dominque projects might benefit from your ideas altough at present they recieve free-choice layer pellets with BOSS and scratch offered as supplement with volume increasing inversly with temperature. I am not confident in their (dominiques) free-ranging ability or capacity to meet nutritional requirments based on a diet based largely on intact grains.

 

[centrarchid]

FRONT PORCH FLOCK ROOSTING ON LOWER TIER OF SHELF


The front porch flock has been wittled down greatly over last few months. Some (about half) penned up because pure game, one cockerel dispersed, another lost cockerel and pullet were lost to great horned owl. Owl quit being a factor once birds stopped roosting on on roof and possibly the reason birds no longer roosting on top tier. Scoob (dog) also moved to near front door so when birds disturbed his reaction time is greatly reduced. Two others as already mentioned were lost with pullet dead and cockerel (Speach) suffering from what I am pretty sure is Marek's disease. Speach may actually survive but re-integration is weeks away and will be problematic. If Marek's he will be a known carrier according to literature but they will not matter since disease appears ubiquitous with respect to my location. Marek's will be a constant challenge for future generations of front porch flock and my production flocks.

 

[stuckinthecity]

Picture Update Please! Love this thread so much.