Oregon

[birdnbeast]

Hello all I am new here (and new to chickens!). I am currently trying to get some chickens to raise for meat, as well as some nice hens for eggs. I am really trying to buy chicks that come from a good humane hatchery. One that doesn't kill off all the males or produce on a massive scale. Are there any places like this here in Oregon? A big part of my decision to raise my own meat is the fact that industrial chicken farms treat their birds horrendously. Please don't be offended, this is just my personal outlook on the issue. Any suggestions for where to get some red ranger chicks? Has anyone bought from Petes Oregon Peeps Unlimited in Estacada before?

Oh dear, I so don't want you to feel like I am attacking your naivete ...... but what do you think should be done with the no less than 50% of 'layer' boys that get hatched. Sadly, yes, they are re-purposed as quickly as it can be determined that they have NO purpose beyond that day. Try raising lovely chicks of both sexes that are family and farm utility types and see the cost each of those boys takes to raise and the pen space, etc. Then try to compete in cost of selling a decent pullet on the open market. You then must factor in the cost of the same or more boys with no re-sell value. What do you think is the attractiveness of a 'sex-link' half-breed chick is -- it is to readily identify the layers from the just 'eaters' as layer-boys do not make 'meaties'. Add to that, most layer boys get pretty scrappy quite young so you must have many, many, many pens to keep them from fighting constantly or harassing the growing pullets.

If you want some nice hens for eggs and are willing to dispatch and process the extras (males) then just get a nice big bodied heritage style breed(s) and raise them up. These are commonly called "dual purpose" breeds and we have many, many breeders of these close by. I know a very dedicated breeder that will hook you up with doms (pretty muted grey smutty barred and hardy in our climate) insert big grins for Heaven here. The dual-purpose breeds mature a bit later, lay a few less over the year, lay for more years, and are generally a bit more laid back in personality. The 'production layer' breeds and mixes mature to lay rather quickly, have light bone and frame, lay more eggs the first year, and still do for a stewing hen or broth/soup when lay-ed out. But, like I mentioned, the production layer boys are also light framed, high energy, rather scrappy and huge eaters for the amount of useful meat obtained.

That is the most helpful info I can give you in the 'kindest' way I know how.

welcome to the wonderful and interesting world of backyard and small farmyard poultry
k/

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Hello all I am new here (and new to chickens!). I am currently trying to get some chickens to raise for meat, as well as some nice hens for eggs. I am really trying to buy chicks that come from a good humane hatchery. One that doesn't kill off all the males or produce on a massive scale. Are there any places like this here in Oregon? A big part of my decision to raise my own meat is the fact that industrial chicken farms treat their birds horrendously. Please don't be offended, this is just my personal outlook on the issue. Any suggestions for where to get some red ranger chicks? Has anyone bought from Petes Oregon Peeps Unlimited in Estacada before?

You should find a breeder of heritage dual purpose birds. Look up "dual purpose" and you can process the Roos yourself or have them done for you. If they're not from a hatchery you have better luck of th going broody and hatching their own chicks to self sustaine your flock. If you keep all of the Roos (like I tried to do) they eat all the feed and harass the girls to the point of bare backs so I penned them separately And they just served no purpose but just to be penned up and look pretty. So we butchered them ourselves. I have rhode island reds, new Hampshire reds, barred rocks, sex links, wyandottes. I don't usually have any go broody because they're bred to lay but I got an incubator an have been hatching to keep them going also i would suggest if tou have room, get the meat birds and keep them seperate and just do meat birds in the spring/summer and the rest of the time consentrate on your egg layers. good luck and any questions just ask there's A LOT of info here!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

It's my first year with chickens, too, and even though I was raised on a farm and know about livestock it does pain me a bit to know animals have to die. But they do.

About raising your own birds ... some of my sexed hatchery chicks turned out to be males, and we have had some of the females go broody. We've only hatched a few mutt chicks crossed with our hens and roosters so far, but they are almost all males. Culling roosters is a very integral part of this chicken thing. I don't like it much myself. But ... either the hatchery does it, or I have to do it.

Obviously we do keep roosters in with our flock and if you can have them and have enough hens to go around, I think the roosters are useful so hope to keep them mixed in with the hens. Roosters lead and protect the flock. There is also some visible wear-and-tear on the hens from mating. I think keeping an eye on flock dynamics is important. Right now there is more wear-and-tear on the hens than I like; two of our roosters don't have harems (probably because they are bantams), so this means there is some bandit type activity which is disruptive and hard on the hens; I think I have figured out which one of the bantams is the "one rooster too many" and have plans to cull him.

I get a lot of advice to remove all the roosters from the flock. But the roosters are really good at warning the hens when a hawk is circling over head, and so I'd prefer to keep them. Also, I've read hens can get "flirty" with humans if no roosters are around, and that means having hens pestering you while your working in the coop/run. That could be cute with only a few chickens, but I've got dozens. My chickens are pretty friendly, but I don't have to shuffle them out of the way to walk through their area.

But ... there is no reasonable or humane way to keep every rooster. At least not that I've figured out.

 

[CrittersNPets]

Hey, is anyone having a slower duck laying year? Last year my saxony was so faithful, this year they are just laying so so.

 

[Chicken Tamer]

Hey, is anyone having a slower duck laying year? Last year my saxony was so faithful, this year they are just laying so so.

I havent got one eggs yet from my ducks

 

[Chicken Tamer]

So today I got my eggs in the mail. The thing is, Im not gonna put them into the incubator till Monday. I've hatched before, but I forgot what the temp you are suppose to have the room at before you hatch them. Does anyone know?

 

[bigboy70]

Well all my chicks are to young to lay when it warms up should get my first so eggcited lol

 

[OR4-hmom]

I would have thought they would be laying by now. Didn't realize they were that slow to start.

 

[Chicken Tamer]

So today I got my eggs in the mail. The thing is, Im not gonna put them into the incubator till Monday. I've hatched before, but I forgot what the temp you are suppose to have the room at before you hatch them. Does anyone know?

anyone?

 

[Zanna]

anyone?

I don't know if there is an ideal room temp., just that it should be stable with no drafts, direct sunlight, etc. This time of year our thermostat is set at 70 ish and I just leave it alone when the inc. is running, in the summer the heater thermostat is turned off and I know the temp in our appartment fluctuates as we live in the top of a metal barn but there is nothing we can do about that. I seem to have consistent hatches regardless. I use a hovabator genesis (styrofoam bator).