Feather Pecking

[MAT10]

HEY Ya'll... Tomorrow is Easter. Where do you hide the eggs?






"Eggs" marks the spot!
HAPPY EASTER!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Raising BYC is barely a taste of what our ancestors endured.

In the 1950's and 1960's when I was a kid my parents had a farm in East Tennessee. The chicken flock consisted of 1 rooster and about 25 to 30 hens. Those chickens were basically feral. Most slept in a hen house where we would shut the door at night but several slept in trees, even in winter when the temperatures got below zero Fahrenheit. Every year some hens would go broody and we would hatch out a bunch of chicks. We got enough eggs to eat plus occasionally sell a few at the small local mom 'n pop grocery store, essentially trading them for groceries. We'd eat several chickens throughout the year.

It was my job to collect the eggs every evening. Most would lay in the hen house but some would hide a nest, often in the hay barn but occasionally somewhere else. I found most of the hidden nests but occasionally a hen would lead a bunch of chicks out, a total surprise.

We would raise about 2 acres of corn. Most of that was to feed our pigs to butcher size, give some to the milk cow, and for the plow horses. In winter, if there was snow on the ground, we would shell some corn for the chickens. Not a lot but enough to help them out. It really did not amount to much for the chickens, not compared to what the other animals ate.

Once a fox found our flock and was taking a chicken every morning as they left the henhouse for about 4 or 5 days, until Dad figured out what was going on, then he shot that fox. Another time a dog showed up and was killing the chickens. Mom's brother happened to be visiting that day so he shot the dog as Dad was away. Those were the only losses to predators I am aware of. For part of that time we had a dog that stayed outside all the time and kept some predators away but often we did not have a dog. If a skunk, raccoon, or possum was found it was probably shot so they were kept to a minimum.

So the work involved with the chickens was to:

collect eggs every day.

mark and set eggs when a hen went broody and we wanted chicks but the hens hatched and raised the chicks by themselves.

Feed them some corn on snowy days, probably less than a dozen days a year.

They drank from the farm pond. When the pond was iced over we'd break through so they could drink, but we did that more for the horses and cattle than the chickens.

Take care of predators when they showed up. Be a bit proactive about this.

Keep the garden fence repaired to keep the chickens out.

Treat them for mites when they became infested. I remember that happening twice.

None of this was very burdening. The chickens basically took care of themselves and we reaped the benefits.

I read on here where the chickens can't survive unless they receive high protein feed and other stuff. I don't believe that as we had some of the same breeds people have today and they fed themselves. But we are now in a different world and we have to take a lot better care of them regarding predators and feeding them as they cannot get the quality of forage they had on the farm.

 

[Possum-Pie]

Mat10, I mean I'm getting rid of the Bard Rock. I won't allow one hen to bully another. I've tried separating her in a cage for a while, adding distractions to the run, but nothing worked. I've given her many chances to get tired of the bullying and she hasn't.

Ridgerunner, I agree "mostly" with the idea chickens will do just fine without humans micromanaging their lives. Modern science has developed medicines and foods that can help them live healthier, longer lives, but the extreme of this is people spending huge amounts of money on high-priced foods and supplements, many of which have little or no scientific evidence warranting their high prices. My chickens have access to a waterer, yet drink out of the muddiest puddle they can find. They eat budget feed from Rural King and anything that they can catch in their run. We throw them greens from the garden occasionally and they do just fine.

I think there are different philosophies between folks who own chickens, The ones who only do it for the eggs/meat, and those who love them like pets and name them. I fall somewhere in between, I refuse to name them, won't pick them up to hold, and don't talk to them, there are too many chances of preditors, etc. to get overly attached, but I couldn't eat one of my hens b/c despite trying not to get overly attached, I do like to watch them.