New to chickens and I need HELP!

[agbowers832]

Hello, I just moved to a 10 acre piece of land in louisiana. the previous owners had a ton of chickens. We wanted them to leave us a couple for egg laying purposes, but they weren't able to catch them all, so we ended up with 3 large roosters, 4 bantam (?) roosters, a turkey, two large hens and three bantam hens. Two of the hens had also had chicks- one set of chicks (3 of them) were fairly mature, and the other set (3 of them) was probably a day or two old. Well.... everything was going fine, but then one of the young babies drown in the water dish because I didn't know how you're supposed to water chicks. I have since fixed that problem. Then another baby chick died from pasting up. I didn't know what that was until it was too late and he died the day I figured it out and cleaned him up. Today,oh today.... Today I went into the coop to find one of the mature babies dead and headless because the chickens have been eating his body. To be honest, I'm not so sure I like having chickens.... I have been reading this board for the last few weeks to help me take care of them and you all love your birds. I want to love my birds too! So, I have lots of questions and I will try to get them all on this post so that it is easier to keep up with.
1) what is the difference b/w mash and scratch?
2) What should I be feeding them?! (I feed scratch and starter grower and dropped fruits/veggies from my garden and kitchen scraps). I keep reading that scratch isn't sufficient, but no one ever says what else to feed.
3) How much/how often should I feed them? I was giving lots of food, but it just sat there, so I started giving less food yesterday-and then the baby got eaten, so I don't know if this is related.
4) What should I use on the bottom of the coop? It currently has a dirt floor. I want to compost the chicken poo.
5) How can I prevent mites/lice/fleas? I bought DE (but the feed store sold me the kind mixed with clay- I put it on the floor of the coop and a week later ants were everywhere again, so I assume it doesn't work). However, I want to compost the poo, so the DE was probably a bad idea anyway cause I don't want DE in my compost. Can I use cedar chips? They are supposed to repel bugs, or at least fleas.
6) How can I prevent ants? There are ants all over the coop.
7) How can i stimulate egg laying and is it a bad sign in they are not laying? Do hens lay if they have chicks? Seems like they wouldn't.
8) If a hen has a clutch of eggs, and she sits on it sometimes, will the eggs hatch (assuming they're fertilized). I have one hen who I thought was broody, and I hope I didn't just waste 5 good eggs waiting for her to hatch them. She is rarely on the eggs when I go out there. (Though i don't really think I want anymore chicks at this point......)

Ultimately, my husband and I want to build a new coop with separate areas so we can separate broody hens and their chicks from the rest of the flock and we want to build a fenced in area so they can run around in the grass, but currently they don't have that, and we don't have the money (not after buying the house and paying for the move).... Any cheap ideas???

Thanks soooo much! I am sure I will have more questions as I go along....

Allison

 

[Uppity Peon]

Sorry you have had a bit of a rough start. You are going to find a wealth of information in here, and the questions you are asking are all the questions we have all asked in here.

Stick around and all your questions will be answered soon.

I will tell you that "scratch" is a treat feed. The staple that you should be giving them most is "crumble". I use the Purina "Sun Fresh Recipe" brand from the local farm store.

Edit: I should proofread better! lol

 

[Elite Silkies]

If they are free ranging anything can kill/eat them.

You should be using Food Grade Codex "DE".

It is my understanding that if they have chicks they will not lay. I think it takes them a couple of months to start laying again. Is it really hot in Louisiana? Heat sometimes causes them to stop laying (so I have read).

I have only had chickens for 3 months now, so hopefully someone with more experience will help you out.

 

[chickiedoodle]

Welcome and keep reading! You will find lots of help and great advice here

We got our chickens a year and a half ago and I have turned to this forum many, many times to find answers. I am not nearly as experienced as most here, but will have a go at answering what I can.

1) Mash (also pellets) is usually a complete chicken feed. It has been "balanced" to include the correct amount of carbs and protein and minerals and vitamins so far as science has determined that a chicken needs. Chickens can live on a diet of only mash or pellets--though I would say few do since we all love to give our chickens treats

Scratch on the other hand is usually just a mix of a few grains--usually whole--that is best given as a treat or supplement. It is kind of like candy or chips for a chicken. Some people who free range (don't keep them in a fence or pen) their chickens all day every day feed only scratch because their chickens have access to plenty of bugs, plants, and all the other odd things that chickens eat. I feed both even though my chickens are free range because I am skeptical about the availability of food around here in the summer.

2) Chickens love to eat anything! Once they are all laying, people usually feed layer mash or layer pellets. I like having higher protein, so I feed grower mash and keep oyster shell out at all times to add calcium that grower mash lacks. I also give them leftovers and garden scraps and orchard scraps. I also grow some extra veggies just for the chickens--mine love kale and cabbage and pumpkins and zucchini.

3) I try to adjust the feed I give them so that there is a little bit left at night when they go to roost. This varies throughout the year as the availability of food "on the range" changes, though with yarded or cooped chickens I would think it would be a little more steady.

4) There are lots of choices for the floor. As a gardener who keeps chickens almost as much for the compost as the eggs, I like straw. It composts fast. But, it has to be changed frequently or you end up with mold, bugs, nasty smell etc. At the moment, I am pregnant and not doing a lot of coop maintenance so I am using pine shavings. Cedar shavings are not good because the smell from the cedar (the very thing that keeps away bugs) is bad for chicken lungs.

5) I use DE all over the inside of the house and have been told it will not hurt the compost. I have not had problems with mites or any other bugs. I am thinking that if there are ants there may be a lot of moisture in the ground where you live?? Anyway, around here ants come looking for water. DE only works when it is dry, so if the dirt floor is wet, it will not keep the ants away.

6) Again, I have not had a problem with ants and can only guess that adding some bedding, whether straw or shavings, and sprinkling liberally with DE will help a lot. Someone else will probably be better able to help here.

7) My chickens don't lay when they have chicks that they are mothering. I don't know how "normal" mine are

but it seems to take them awhile to build back up to laying after hatching and caring for babies.

8) It depends. I had one that I thought was being a bad mommy and not sitting enough, but her eggs all hatched. Usually they sit most of the time when they are truly broody. It is really hot here, so I guess the eggs stayed warm even with her gadding about.

As for the babies--mixing babies in with the rest of the flock can be tricky. We keep ours separate until the babies are almost as big as the rest of the flock. Supposedly the mother would protect them and all would go well--but that has never happened with my chickens. Do a search for flock integration and you should find some helpful hints. I would also suggest getting rid of some of your roosters or adding a lot more hens. Too many roosters per hen can cause problems.

We didn't/don't have much money either but were able to make a lovely (huge) coop for almost nothing by salvaging from all over the place. The majority of our lumber actually came from an old cabin that was on my parents property. While we were tearing it apart, three different people stopped to ask if they could have any wood because they were building chicken coops!! So keep your eyes open and don't hesitate to ask people--we gave away several windows we didn't need as well as some siding etc. We also picked stuff up from beside the road, stopped and asked at construction sites...All we ended up buying was hardware cloth, three pieces of OSB, and paint that we found for $10/5 gal. because it was mis-tinted. It was super ugly but we found another gallon in the mis-tint pile (most home stores have them) that was a different color and mixed them together and ended up with something much better.

Good luck and I hope you and your chickens learn to love each other--they are very fun and rewarding animals.

 

[michickenwrangler]

Get "Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens" it's the "Chicken Bible" for most of us. LOTS of good info for newbies. I've had chickens 2 years and I'm still looking stuff up in it.

Go to your feed mill or TSC for chicken feed. When it doubt, get Grower and add some oyster shell in a small container.

For coop bedding, pine needles (I use them) and dried leaves can work well too. Anything high in carbon, meaning BROWN dried absorbent stuff is excellent: wood shavings, straw, dried leaves, dried grass, pine needles, peanut hulls, shredded newspaper all work. Experiment, see what works. We have gigantic white pines so I use those needles since they are free, smell nice and make nice blueberry compost.

Congrats and good luck! This is an excellent site for asking questions.

 

[mener6896]

I wanted to stress again, that I've heard on this site that cedar can be really harmful to chickens!! I use pine shavings.

I hope you have better luck!! Having chickens can be so rewarding!!

 

[michickenwrangler]

Thanks for reminding me

Black Walnut is poisonous too.