Help! We bought a Fixer Upper Farm

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StaceyJo0715

In the Brooder
Sep 11, 2021
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(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
We are brand new to chickens. We just bought a 15 acre hobby farm and the chickens came with it.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now? I believe there are 10, 3 roosters and 7 hens. The seller told us that she mail ordered hens and got the roosters by mistake. This is a bad ratio, right?

(3) What breeds do you have? I have no idea, I need to buy a book. Mostly red hens, 1 large black rooster, 1 large red rooster and a smaller gold rooster who seems to be the Dude in Charge.

(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens? Not sure yet. This farm and these chickens have been neglected and are in need of rescue. We just want to improve their environment and keep them healthy and happy.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies? My husband and I retired from government careers and now do home renovation/resale projects and I am a licensed Realtor. We bought the farm so that we could have a large garden with goats, chickens, a donkey and endless hours of outdoor entertainment.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share
It's just my husband and I, we have 2 adult daughters and a teenage granddaughter who lives with us but will soon be going to college. We also have an overweight princess of a dog, her and I just started a new diet :)

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community? :D
Stumbled onto BYC by googling information on what to put as the base of the chicken run. Seemed that there was great information to be found on this forum so here I am.
 
Welcome!
Glad you are here, and we too bought a fixer upper farmstead, thirty years ago...
Too many roosters, but take take time to sort them out, unless you decide that zero roosters is best for you right now.
Feathersite and Henderson's chicken chart are good places to look at breeds, and there's a beautiful book 'Storeys Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds'. Also good breed photos on this site.
Good food is necessary for those chickens! See what's available in an all-flock diet at your local feed stores, and make sure you check the mill date on each bag before you buy it! Chicken feed should be fed within two or three weeks of it's mill date, because some of the vitamins are lost over time after milling.
At night, with a flashlight, look at their skin around the vent, neck, and under wings for lice or mites. Bad bugs! Look up pictures here. Mites are very tine, little dark specks that move. And permethrin powder or spray, labeled for poultry, at the feed store is what works, with no egg withdrawal needed.
Wear a N95 face mask and long sleeves when you are cleaning out the coop or treating the birds with permethrin!!! Dust out there is VERY BAD to inhale!!!!!
Chickens are fun to watch, the eggs are great, and there are so many choices of birds to enjoy.
Goats, not so convinced...
Mary
 
StaceyJo0715 said:
(2) How many chickens do you have right now? I believe there are 10, 3 roosters and 7 hens. The seller told us that she mail ordered hens and got the roosters by mistake. This is a bad ratio, right?
Click to expand...

Watch them a little before you decide to change anything about the ratio. Chickens are individuals, so the behavior of each rooster makes a big difference. If you do need to remove some roosters, then watching can help you figure out which one(s) to keep and which one(s) to remove.

If the hens are constantly trying to get away from the roosters, you should change something soon. Or if the hens have bald patches on their backs from overmating. But if they all have good feathers and seem content, there's no rush.

The size of the pen makes a big difference. That ratio of roosters might be fine if they are running around on several acres, but is probably too many if they are confined to a small pen. (A pen the size of a human living room or bedroom is probably "small" for that number of hens & roosters.)
 

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