Old Fashioned, Common Sense Chicken Keeping.

[RumneyRoost]

I have a small flock. We don't eat that much chicken as we both hunt and my parents have cattle, more than enough meat for two people. Meat chickens would be more work than it's worth.
We also don't eat that many eggs, we give the majority away.

They're pets and I don't see anything wrong with that. They're cheaper and financially they make more sense than having a dog, or eek 3 horses!

I've got a small coop, but it's more than big enough for my flock, I'll never have more than 5. It's "cute" but again what's wrong with that? I have to look at it everyday.
They're fun to watch, and I like having an assortment of colours. I've got two cream legbars, one barred rock (her sister is no longer with us...), and on Wednesday I'm picking up two speckled sussex pullets.
They've got a predator proof run that's attached to the coop, so that's where they spend the day when I'm at work. On the weekends and in the evening they have a 30' x 50' fenced run. Free ranging wouldn't work on my property, I don't trust my dog or the neighbours dog.

I just feed grower/layer pellets. They have access to the pellets at all times. I work in medicine and it's easier to just trust the research into poultry feed vs trying to formulate my own to save a few bucks. I also can't be bothered fermenting feed. I'll throw them some kitchen scraps, but they really only eat them in the winter when there's too much snow to forage.

 

[HeiHeisMom]

We love our pet Chooks and invite them to holiday dinners.
Actually they started out as our daughter's pets and became my pleasure to keep.
They free range from sun break to dusk and get scrap treats of veggies, fruit, bread or meats as available.
They're called to coop at night with scraps or cracked corn.
We have a deep litter open front coop with enclosed run.
They're Chooks and they know it, even though they get daily hugs, pets and visits (checking for health or injuries).
Occasionally one or two will wander into the house with a dog or cat for a visit. They rarely stay long.
Once or twice a month our broiler gal, Reese will come in for a bath, or foot treatment and a nap in my lap.
She's stayed overnight once or twice in a make shift nest with my daughter tending her.
Just recently we brought new hatched chicks and momma in to the house until chicks were three days old. Mostly due to thunder storms flooding front of coop and daughter was terrified they would get out of nest and drown.
Our Chooks are named and well cared for with a every other day feeding of organic layer feed. They rarely eat the feed preferring the bugs and scraps.
I do scatter oyster shell in foraging area of yard when egg shells start showing any stress (weak or thin).
While we love and adore them our pampered Chooks are Chooks and live as such.
They Co habitate happily with Guinea fowl, Rabbits, Dogs and Cats.

 

[lcwmt]

This morning tore up all the old fashioned common sense stuff....
I've had another goshawk strike. I saw the hawk fly off, but I can't get through the brush on the bank to check the area thoroughly. The bank is dangerous and I'm likely to break my neck if I slip. Tribe 1 is spread over two acres now and I've only found five. I'm most concerned for a hen called Mel who has a week old chick with her.
Free range eh...

Not really "like", more a sympathetic acknowledgment.
Free range to whatever degree has risks of all sorts. When we bump right into them we sometimes look carefully at our decisions. Sometimes we continue on the chosen path, sometimes we modify.
Here's hoping that as they calm down your chickens will return.

 

[chickendreams24]

Whether old fashioned or not I'm unsure.

We do things like everyone here, to the best of our abilities.

We do bring in outside birds usually once a year from a hatchery and also from a breeder friend. Most of our young birds come from our own flock and eventually we plan on all of our birds coming from within except when new blood must be brought in.

We are experimenting with meat birds and may continue to raise them once or twice a year. However most of our meat comes from spare cockerals and hens that we retire.

Some of our chickens have achieved pet status and will live out their natural lives here unless they were to be suffering. Most of our flock will eventually be eaten.

They receive care and treatment although we try to avoid antibiotics.

We've only ever had respiratory issues in birds brought to quarantine and then culled. Lesson learned. We do have Marek's in the flock as of last spring and I will give a bird with possible symptoms a couple days to show improvement in quarantine before culling. We've never had a bird survive our strain of Marek's and they shed virus more with symptoms. That said very few of our birds on a whole have shown any symptoms ever. We keep a closed flock that no living birds leave once exposed as such all birds that will not be layers, pets, or breeders must be processed. I believe my flock has some natural immunity in it to the Marek's but yes I know the responsible thing is to assume each bird has it and I act as such.

I do keep some things on hand for the treatment of my flock namely probiotics and electrolytes. I also keep a virucidal cleaner around for shoes to protect my animals and those belonging to others. I will remove a bird from the main population if it seems to be off but if it doesn't improve with supportive care we generally cull. I will treat infected wounds with antibiotics and clean them out. We treat for cocci and bumble foot.

I'm grateful we've never had a respiratory illness.

I have kept a couple of special needs chickens' but they were removed from breeding unless I feel it was injury or human error that caused the problem. If I was unsure I did a test breeding and watched the offspring. Then decided.

I do own and run an incubator on occasion although I do love having broodies hatch instead. Both experiences can be very rewarding.

Our coops are not fancy any of them. Tractor coops for grow outs and quail, a metal coop with attached run moved from DH2B's uncle's, and an old two room milk house turned coop. Also an open air grow out/good weather coop inside an old grainery. They're functional although I find the simplicity of the tractor coops beautiful and the repurposed materials pleasant to look at as well as functional. After the repairs are completed on the two room milk house coop I know it will be stunning. It's beautiful now but it's function needs to finish getting changed over with a water proof interior etc. Plus permanent rodent proofing.

Our flock free ranges daily weather and predator permitting. Being from WI the weather must be truly bad indeed before I choose to keep the flock in blizzards with high winds and or sleet, dropping temperatures and high winds generally qualify. Predators generally just have us keep them in later so they might get let out at noon rather than 7-8 am. One of our secondary coops has an attached run and that group has been locked up for a while due to fox losses. They were just let back out today.

We are currently feeding a fermented whole grain feed to the adult birds and they're loving it. We were buying a mash from a local feed mill but they closed down. They may be opening back up in which case we would then have to decide what to do. For winter we may decide to feed both and have the mash more like a free choice but allow it to run out so as not to attract rodents.

We currently don't feed in our main coop at all unless the flock is locked up all day. Water is provided. Winter of course changes this.

Chicks and those birds locked up of course get fed plenty of feed although we still like it to be empty overnight so as to avoid attracting things that may eat chicken or that will attract things that do eat chicken. Birds in tractor coops are given a bit less to encourage foraging. This is especially important for birds that haven't been out before on grass.

Some of our flock tends to be lazy if fed right away(these birds are being weaned out of the flock). Generally we feed kitchen scraps at noon and then do the main feeding in the evening an hour or two before roosting. If the flock seems particularly hungry we may feed extra. We also treat for lice and mites as needed. This has only been once a year up to this point. This problem should be remedied and not happen any longer, as it's been caused by wild birds nesting in and around the coop. This year was the first year that we've ever actually seen a nest inside the coop. In the past we have had birds nest in the wall of the coop using a hole that was cut for an AC unit pipe to enter. We thought we had any entry point covered this year but it turns out we had missed one which went all the way into the coop but was only 1.5-2 inches in diameter.

Most of their feed comes from foraging. We have also just started a black soldier fly compost bin and so far we are loving it.

Our flock tends to range far and wide and is generally pretty self sufficient and very healthy.

Our flock currently consists of approximately 110 adult free ranging fowl (including 4 guineas), 10 red ranger experiment 4 week olds, 80 juveniles of various ages and breeds most of which are headed for freezer camp, 9 turkey poults-2 4 month olds and 7 6 week olds (calicos and he younger group are blue slate)

This morning tore up all the old fashioned common sense stuff....
I've had another goshawk strike. I saw the hawk fly off, but I can't get through the brush on the bank to check the area thoroughly. The bank is dangerous and I'm likely to break my neck if I slip. Tribe 1 is spread over two acres now and I've only found five. I'm most concerned for a hen called Mel who has a week old chick with her.
Free range eh...

I'm so sorry that you had an attack. It makes free ranging harder. I hope you found your whole flock.

We are a strictly free ranging,compost feed. Kitchen scraps, restaurant scraps when available. We also have separate compost bins strictly for raising black soldier flies. They loooooovvvvvveeeeee them and are a great replacement for feeds. I have not had any issues with my chickens. I sometimes (maybe 3x a year) buy oats and grow fodder with the oats. So in total maybe......30/40$ a year to feed our chickens. 27 chickens and a duck on our family's farm

I love what you're doing and I would love to talk to you more about it.

 

[Shadrach]

I am sorry.

Hawks are why mine are penned up. We have sharp shinned and red tailed here. They cause quite a bit of terror even to the penned birds.

I'm so sorry that you had an attack. It makes free ranging harder. I hope you found your whole flock

Thank you. I don’t want to derail this thread but if you’re interested in what happened the story is here,
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/is-it-better-to-let-them-die.1268732/page-4#post-20418031

 

[Cluckerzfamilyfarm]

Whether old fashioned or not I'm unsure.

We do things like everyone here, to the best of our abilities.

We do bring in outside birds usually once a year from a hatchery and also from a breeder friend. Most of our young birds come from our own flock and eventually we plan on all of our birds coming from within except when new blood must be brought in.

We are experimenting with meat birds and may continue to raise them once or twice a year. However most of our meat comes from spare cockerals and hens that we retire.

Some of our chickens have achieved pet status and will live out their natural lives here unless they were to be suffering. Most of our flock will eventually be eaten.

They receive care and treatment although we try to avoid antibiotics.

We've only ever had respiratory issues in birds brought to quarantine and then culled. Lesson learned. We do have Marek's in the flock as of last spring and I will give a bird with possible symptoms a couple days to show improvement in quarantine before culling. We've never had a bird survive our strain of Marek's and they shed virus more with symptoms. That said very few of our birds on a whole have shown any symptoms ever. We keep a closed flock that no living birds leave once exposed as such all birds that will not be layers, pets, or breeders must be processed. I believe my flock has some natural immunity in it to the Marek's but yes I know the responsible thing is to assume each bird has it and I act as such.

I do keep some things on hand for the treatment of my flock namely probiotics and electrolytes. I also keep a virucidal cleaner around for shoes to protect my animals and those belonging to others. I will remove a bird from the main population if it seems to be off but if it doesn't improve with supportive care we generally cull. I will treat infected wounds with antibiotics and clean them out. We treat for cocci and bumble foot.

I'm grateful we've never had a respiratory illness.

I have kept a couple of special needs chickens' but they were removed from breeding unless I feel it was injury or human error that caused the problem. If I was unsure I did a test breeding and watched the offspring. Then decided.

I do own and run an incubator on occasion although I do love having broodies hatch instead. Both experiences can be very rewarding.

Our coops are not fancy any of them. Tractor coops for grow outs and quail, a metal coop with attached run moved from DH2B's uncle's, and an old two room milk house turned coop. Also an open air grow out/good weather coop inside an old grainery. They're functional although I find the simplicity of the tractor coops beautiful and the repurposed materials pleasant to look at as well as functional. After the repairs are completed on the two room milk house coop I know it will be stunning. It's beautiful now but it's function needs to finish getting changed over with a water proof interior etc. Plus permanent rodent proofing.

Our flock free ranges daily weather and predator permitting. Being from WI the weather must be truly bad indeed before I choose to keep the flock in blizzards with high winds and or sleet, dropping temperatures and high winds generally qualify. Predators generally just have us keep them in later so they might get let out at noon rather than 7-8 am. One of our secondary coops has an attached run and that group has been locked up for a while due to fox losses. They were just let back out today.

We are currently feeding a fermented whole grain feed to the adult birds and they're loving it. We were buying a mash from a local feed mill but they closed down. They may be opening back up in which case we would then have to decide what to do. For winter we may decide to feed both and have the mash more like a free choice but allow it to run out so as not to attract rodents.

We currently don't feed in our main coop at all unless the flock is locked up all day. Water is provided. Winter of course changes this.

Chicks and those birds locked up of course get fed plenty of feed although we still like it to be empty overnight so as to avoid attracting things that may eat chicken or that will attract things that do eat chicken. Birds in tractor coops are given a bit less to encourage foraging. This is especially important for birds that haven't been out before on grass.

Some of our flock tends to be lazy if fed right away(these birds are being weaned out of the flock). Generally we feed kitchen scraps at noon and then do the main feeding in the evening an hour or two before roosting. If the flock seems particularly hungry we may feed extra. We also treat for lice and mites as needed. This has only been once a year up to this point. This problem should be remedied and not happen any longer, as it's been caused by wild birds nesting in and around the coop. This year was the first year that we've ever actually seen a nest inside the coop. In the past we have had birds nest in the wall of the coop using a hole that was cut for an AC unit pipe to enter. We thought we had any entry point covered this year but it turns out we had missed one which went all the way into the coop but was only 1.5-2 inches in diameter.

Most of their feed comes from foraging. We have also just started a black soldier fly compost bin and so far we are loving it.

Our flock tends to range far and wide and is generally pretty self sufficient and very healthy.

Our flock currently consists of approximately 110 adult free ranging fowl (including 4 guineas), 10 red ranger experiment 4 week olds, 80 juveniles of various ages and breeds most of which are headed for freezer camp, 9 turkey poults-2 4 month olds and 7 6 week olds (calicos and he younger group are blue slate)



I'm so sorry that you had an attack. It makes free ranging harder. I hope you found your whole flock.



I love what you're doing and I would love to talk to you more about it.

In the cold winter I put together PVC tents over the compost. Traps the warmth and moisture and is easily controlled by simply rolling up the plastic door. Very light and cheap. Something I will be trying this winter is free heat. I plan on using soda cans and drilling holes in the tops and bottoms of the cans then connecting them together end to end using silicone or something. Approximately 10-12 cans per row. 10-12 rows in total. Some 2x4s for a square frame and x2 greenhouse plastic sheets. (Not the roll) drill a hole in one end of the 2x4 square frame big enough for PVC pipe. Place the aluminum can solar panel or panels in a well exposed area close to the coop. Normally roof works best but some are shaded. Then run PVC from the hole in the frame to a hole place In the coop. Or you a/c hole. Plywood with a new hole to fit but big enough to cover the ac hole( I'm visualizing a window unit ac) anywho, I forgot to mention spray painting the cans black after being glued together works best. The way it works is, the sun heats the Aluminium ( Aluminium only gets so hot so does not cook the birds) the heat then only has one place to escape. Out the drilled holes of the cans into the PVC and out into the coop. Zero electricity. My number one goal is raising the most natural bird the most natural way. All my chicks are vaccinated but after grass day they are on their own. When in the brooder the receive starters feed to make sure the reach maturity healthy. The 4th day they get a couple black soldier flies to get the taste for bugs. Week 2 2x a week. Keeping the feed everyday still at this point. Weeks 3-5 I start tossing them crickets caught by me and the kids. Not very many. I have 14 chicks right now and I maybe toss in 5-7 just to keep the competitiveness in the birds so they dont get lazy and always stay alert. Last day in brooder they get zero feed starting about 3p.m. so come grass day they are hungry but not starving. Having good coverage and near crops or a swamp or an area that produces bugs naturally really helps. Those that are not I strongly recommend black soldier flies. They are EXTREMELY NUTRITIOUS. The black soldier fly is a rare breed due to the fact it can eat and digest just about ANYTHING. meaning all scraps from your kitchen will supply all feed for you larva farm. Any questions I will do my best to explain.

 

[AudieWarren]

We are pretty much old fashioned with our flock. They have a coop to sleep at night, but they are out before I even make coffee. We have feed, but they don't eat a lot of it. We cull the weak and sick. Now in about 2 weeks, they will be on a temporary lock down. We'll be planting some rape and clover all over the grounds, so the birds will be kept in the coop just long enough for everything to sprout. Once that happens, they are free to roam again.

 

[Shadrach]

So, I've been busy, but I wanted to ask a question to many of the readers who have read BantyChooks Information spoiler.
Here's one extract that I agree completely with.

Clean soil on which to live. Think about any creature, pooping over and over again on the same ground underneath their feet and how unsanitary that becomes over the years. But, invariably, folks will insist that keeping chickens in a coop and run situation is healthy for them because "I clean my coop and run all the time". It's impossible to remove all fecal matter left behind, no matter how one tries, so years of build up in the soil of highly nitrogenous manure on soils that are so compacted by the feet of the chickens, leaves a soil that is ripe for growing and harboring harmful bacteria.

Low stocking rates for free range situations is key....if there are barren areas in the range caused by the chickens, the stocking rate is far too high for the birds it has to support. For those who just have to keep a chicken in a coop and run situation, one can only resort to a system that will help loosen the soil, will digest the nitrogen by combining it with enough carbonaceous materials, and is sustainable over time. The only system I know of that can do that is a composting deep litter in the coop and run....if the coop is too small, then the run will have to suffice. While not optimal...free range on clean soils is optimal, it's better than the typical soil found in chicken runs.

I don't build static coops for the above reasons and a few more not mentionned. Why do most people build static coops if they think this advice is good, BantyChooks included?

 

[aart]

I don't build static coops for the above reasons and a few more not mentionned. Why do most people build static coops if they think this advice is good

Many don't have the space to rotate mobile enclosures, and mobility limits size.
Bee has some good sense and logic,
but it's not always a 'wide view' or universally applicable.
Manure and bedding management helps if you don't live in Chicken Utopia,
we all do the best we can.

 

[BantyChooks]

I don't build static coops for the above reasons and a few more not mentionned. Why do most people build static coops if they think this advice is good, BantyChooks included?

I free range; they can choose where they go. Range areas aren't bare except right in front of the coop where snows melt first and chickens scratch up the entire root system in spring, before the rest of the ground is bare. Also, it's built right on the edge of an area with deep leaf cover and a more brushy foliage spread, so any grass that gets destroyed by anything very quickly is swallowed by the forest. For me, building a moveable coop would be limited good at best because there is very little land cleared enough to move pens and stuff onto, and the bit I do have cleared (except for where the coop currently is) is unsafe due to proximity to known bear haunts. Yes, a hundred feet is a small safeguard, but it's probably saved my flock before: there's a rather bark-y dog and and two electric fences between my chickens and the woods this way.

Even if, say, that all didn't apply, and I split my flock up into pens small enough to move around via tractor, which in itself would be five times the work, I would have a wicked hard time dealing with winter. I'd have to basically turn each one into a permanent structure to get it to bear up under snow and wind load. I'd have to make it way larger than I'd otherwise need for that few birds and I'd need to do that over multiple pens, which in the end, results in a huge amount of space lost to allow appropriate space for bickering birds to get out of each other's way. One 12 x 12 I can dump all my birds into turns out to be the most space efficient, least costly, and snuggest way I've found yet. I've kept birds in tight housing over winter, and trust me, it's seventeen buckets of no fun. Heavy on cleaning, heavy on health issues, heavy on work. The fewer buckets I have to break ice on in winter, the happier I am. I'm already going to be carrying out 8 gallons of water per day, easy. I don't want to have to do any more. I'm not familiar with the climate of Spain, but I'd bet you my next paycheck that it isn't anything like what I have.