Just curious....

[miss_jayne]

i agree with Alaskan. i do it the old way too as much as possible. i have accepted loss and keep them in the outside the coop as much as possible.

my great g'ma lived in very rural Mississippi and always kept her chickens free ranged. they have tons of predators, yet always had a nice big flock. i think they were more scared of us city slicker Detroit kids then chiggers, rattlers and gators put together! they ran under the porch and hid the minute we hit the dirt.

as per the mites/lice yadda yadda...??? i don't know. i hope i don't find out!!!

 

[Ladysonja]

When I was growing up we had a friend of my mums who took over management of a large farm across town. She had chickens, cows, bulls, rabbits and large pond full of fish with a guest house built in the middle of the pond and a gi-normus garden It was great.

I destinctly remember the chicken coop/run, chickens, chicks and that mean ole rooster that chased us around the coop when it was time to collect eggs.

I also remember coming across snakes, stray cats (one who had nine lives), and the smell of pooh and chicken feathers everywhere... yet I don't remember her having sickly chickens or saying anything in front of us kids a that she had unhealthy birds...

I do remember the stories about that darn cat with nine lives because it cause a lot of sleepless night trying to kill it for it was killing the birds for sport and not because it was hungry. That coop was built like Ft. Knoxs and that cat did so much damage.

When a particular animal of hers past away or went to slaughter and we would ask about it, she would say it was the way mother nature intended things to be. When we pressed harder with questions or became upset about an animal going to slaughter, she would say "How do you think your hamberger meat got into that pretty packaging in the grocery store?" - "Ours comes in pretty white freezer paper and it's all the same".

I wish she was still a live to ask her questions... She was one heck of a lady and knew a lot about farm animals.

 

[warren]

I also had a similar discussion with my mother. Her mother used to have 100 hens at a time. She only noticed that if hens 'go off their legs' that nothing could be done for them. (Presumably this was due to mareks.)
They never had mites, lice etc....but one day my gran noticed that the hens seemed reluctant to go into the coop at nights. Days or weeks later she noticed that there did not seem to be so many hens around. On further investigation she found a hole in the coop and lots of dead bodies. They decided that rats had killed the hens. This demonstrates the attention the poor hens actually got.
My mother is also extremely suprised at how many eggs I get per hen. In her day 80 eggs per year was the top rate. Hens are bred for various traits and a high producer is going to be weaker in other ways and have less resistance to disease than a mongrel type.

 

[gypsy2621]

I would like to say ,
over the past few years the health of chicks being shipped into feed stores and other scorces hasnt been 100%, chick mortality in my area has been down right bothersome.

Turkey, duck, chicken, goose, and some of the guinies have not arrived in very good shape.
Not sure if it is the hatchery, postal service, husbantry in the feed stores causing it. but it seems we are more likely starting with inferior chicks.

JMHO...

 

[Alaskan]

Quote:
I agree. This was why we butchered that one hen. It started to look odd and there was no thought of trying to fix it or 'let it be to see if it gets better'.

Hadn't thought about it that way, but you are right, it would have really helped nip contagious problems in the bud.

 

[Wildsky]

A lot of the problems you see here on BYC is because people come here for help. You never see a post "Help - healthy chickens!!" cause those folks never NEED help for anything, you are seeing a concentration of problems. I have never had any issues with my chickens.... I don't fuss over them much - they take care of themselves for the most part - they get good food, clean water daily, and I keep the coop cleaned out - and thats pretty much it, they free-range - eating TONS of bugs so far this year, eat dirt, roll in the dirt - sometimes drink dirty water if they can find it.
Perhaps we're just lucky, we're out of town, on our little 3 acres - with nothing but pasture surrounding our place.

 

[Jenski]

I agree with Wildsky ~ this section of this forum is for folks who need help, so those folks flock here (no pun intended). There are thousands of others who read and lurk, but never want/need to post.

Tell you what, Beekissed, I think you hit the nail on the head: PREVENTIVE measures are so much more effective than cleaning up the mess after the fact. Healthy, active chickens are much less prone to problems of any kind. Sounds like you are doing a great job.

That said, I do applaud folks for being interested in "how things work." I see a lot of people on this site who genuinely care for their birds and want to know how they can best care for them. They study anatomy, pathology, parasitology, and a host of other "ologies" so they can care for their birds in the best way possible. Pretty cool.


Jen in TN
~:<>

 

[keljonma]

We breed and raise (but don't eat) heritage breed and mix-breed chickens. My parents and grandparents would think we are crazy because their flocks were for eggs and meat. We try to provide our chickens a healthy, happy life. We do feed them, and make sure they have fresh water twice a day. and they also forage our acreage. As part of our animal family, they are held and petted and spoiled rotten. They also bring color and beauty into our world.... and lots of beautiful eggs.

I think one of the reasons it seems there are so many people that need help is because more people are purchasing chickens as pets. Chickens are the darling of the celebrity world and get a great deal of press, it seems to me. Back in the day, the only place you saw something about chickens outside of the farm publications was in Mother Earth News or Country Living Encyclopedia. And you had to LOOK for those.

Also, I think more people are trying to get "back to the land" to be more self-sufficient and less reliant on outside food sources. And chickens are an inexpensive way to start that journey.

I can't remember my parents or grandparents ever talking about chicken diseases or spending more than 5 minutes contemplating what to do about a bird that wasn't acting normally. That was why you had a chopping block.

They didn't drool over hatchery catalogues all winter long and they didn't ship birds all over the country. They didn't look for exotic birds from all over. Their first chicks (and ducklings) were purchased locally from another farm and they hatched enough eggs to keep the flocks going. The birds were bred to be cold-hardy and healthy and weren't reliant on medications or fancy diets. During the depression, I'm told, my grandmothers' flocks cleaned up the gardens and orchards and foraged in the pastures. And when the hens stopped laying, the dinner table was laid with paprikash or goulash at one house, and chicken and noodles or biscuits at the other.

I spent 10 years reading and talking to family about raising chickens, the last 2 doing actual research, before we even got our first flock. We don't use antibiotics and try to take a preventative health/do no harm approach to raising the flock. We made sure the hen house is dry, clean and not drafty. It is predator proof and our Great Pyr is out with the flock as they forage (sunup to sundown). We have lost a few from our flock; one bad heart, one rat bite, one impacted crop, two accidents. But we have been very blessed with healthy birds.

While my grandmothers gathered eggs twice a day, they rarely spent much time just hanging with the flocks. In our day where leisure time is not an oddity, we spend time with our birds. They sit on the front porch (and sometimes the swing) with us while we drink the first cuppa and greet the day. They "help" us garden and do barn chores. They amuse us with their antics and varied personalities.

It is important, I think, to determine how you want to raise your flock and realize that not everyone does it the same way. Something that works for me might not work for some one else in another part of the world. We keep a flock journal, which is very helpful when one of the flock is looking a bit punk. I'm glad the BYC is here. It is a great learning resource. And it's nice to know that others are just as crazy about their flock as we are about ours.