- Sep 19, 2012
- 6
- 0
- 7
I first got started with chickens around 2 years ago. One of my brothers had been keeping a few dozen at my sisters place, but her young kids were always letting them out and most of them disappeared as they were near fields and presumably fox, raccoons, etc. were helping themselves. So he had 8-10 left which he brought to me and helped me convert a section of a 3 sided barn into a coop. I soon bought a few more young ones from a local auction house. For a little while they did pretty well even during cold weather. We had my brother-in-laws hunting dogs on our property for a few months which kept other animals at bay. However, his dogs got out a few times and killed several of our chickens including a beautiful rooster my one son liked a lot. So he moved his dogs elsewhere. Unfortunately then within 2 weeks, a fox or something dug into our coop and cleaned us out of the chicken business.
After a few months I tried it again, but my luck didn't last more than a few months when when a weasel killed several of them. So I determined I needed to keep a couple dogs around. We've had mixed success with that process. The dogs do seem to keep other animals away. Unfortunately the ones we had also seemed to kill chickens themselves when they would get loose or get a chance to go after them. And then our pups disappeared so I'm concerned when the weather gets cold again that I'll start losing chickens unless I find a good guard dog.
Currently I have around 3 dozen hens varying from 6-7 months old up to 2 years old (various breeds though mostly RIR or crosses of those, such as golden comets). We allowed the kids to keep 3 roosters (one each) after we had raised several day old chicks and had 15 so a dozen had to go. One, a barred rock is definitely the king and is aggressive while the other two are calm and won't bother you, though you can't catch them.
Found BYC probaby a year ago when surfing looking for information on chickens after the fact of trying to raise some for a while. I appreciate the information people are willing to share to help me and others with limited experience. And I enjoy reading everyone's stories.
I've also raised a few pigs in the last couple years to go along with our pets (dogs, cats, & rabbits).
Grew up in the country on a hobby farm, but we only raised a few head of cattle and grew huge gardens. So other animals were new to me up until recently. I have an office job working at a computer all day, so though I really didn't enjoy the farm work growing up, now I look forward to it each evening. We have 5 acres that has sat idle and needs a lot of TLC to make it productive (mostly weeds and no good pasture in the 3+ acres I consider our field, with the other 2 acres being the house and yard areas.
Look forward to hearing from others and sharing what happens around here. If I am able to share anything of value to someone else then I'll be happy to do so.
Thanks,
Chris
After a few months I tried it again, but my luck didn't last more than a few months when when a weasel killed several of them. So I determined I needed to keep a couple dogs around. We've had mixed success with that process. The dogs do seem to keep other animals away. Unfortunately the ones we had also seemed to kill chickens themselves when they would get loose or get a chance to go after them. And then our pups disappeared so I'm concerned when the weather gets cold again that I'll start losing chickens unless I find a good guard dog.
Currently I have around 3 dozen hens varying from 6-7 months old up to 2 years old (various breeds though mostly RIR or crosses of those, such as golden comets). We allowed the kids to keep 3 roosters (one each) after we had raised several day old chicks and had 15 so a dozen had to go. One, a barred rock is definitely the king and is aggressive while the other two are calm and won't bother you, though you can't catch them.
Found BYC probaby a year ago when surfing looking for information on chickens after the fact of trying to raise some for a while. I appreciate the information people are willing to share to help me and others with limited experience. And I enjoy reading everyone's stories.
I've also raised a few pigs in the last couple years to go along with our pets (dogs, cats, & rabbits).
Grew up in the country on a hobby farm, but we only raised a few head of cattle and grew huge gardens. So other animals were new to me up until recently. I have an office job working at a computer all day, so though I really didn't enjoy the farm work growing up, now I look forward to it each evening. We have 5 acres that has sat idle and needs a lot of TLC to make it productive (mostly weeds and no good pasture in the 3+ acres I consider our field, with the other 2 acres being the house and yard areas.
Look forward to hearing from others and sharing what happens around here. If I am able to share anything of value to someone else then I'll be happy to do so.
Thanks,
Chris
