Self sustaining

[mohillbilly]

Lightening? Oh!

Please don't tell me you were housing them in a metal coop like I am!!! May I ask how this happened?

I think I would like to avoid this!!! It took me two years to get this all worked out this far and it's going to take two more... this would really be a kick in the pants!!!

no it was built of wood the lightning hit the building setting it on fire and electrocuting the chickens, building burnt to the ground along with my incubators..
no big deal tho I just ordered new chickens and will build myself some new incubators this summer or fall

 

[Bossroo]

no it was built of wood the lightning hit the building setting it on fire and electrocuting the chickens, building burnt to the ground along with my incubators..
no big deal tho I just ordered new chickens and will build myself some new incubators this summer or fall

Install a lightning rod on the roof, then properly ground it by driving a 5' Copper rod into the ground and properly attaching the two with a heavy Copper wire.

 

[mohillbilly]

no lightning rods are not feasible with my new coops that I'm building, but then I'm building 12 coops as I like to keep my breeds separate so lightning wont kill them all again.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Sorry to see that this thread has died over the summer, but have no fear I am here to revive it!

Has anyone had any developments in the self-sustaining flock endeavers?
Hopefully mohillbilly had a chance to rebuild his coops.

I am thinking of trying Buckeyes for my flock. I need an aggressive forager, with a decent amount of meat, that is cold tolerant, and it can't be white. And a broody bird now and then would be nice also. See, I live on the prairie with regular fly-bys of eagles, hawks, falcons, crows and ravens. I see hawks sitting on fence posts every day in our neighborhood and can spot my neighbors Cavelier Spaniels in their backyard over 1/2 mile away - so white is out.

Part of my plan is to plant some chicken gardens for them to forage in. They will have secure coops to lock them in at night and possibly a fenced area for the day while I am at work.

What do you think?

 

[LilyD]

wyodreamer~
I don't know much about buckeyes but I have seen a lot of people on here that swear by them as meat birds. If you get heritage show quality birds they should give you a bit of a leg up on getting started because they are usually larger and better bred than the hatchery stock. I just ordered a bunch from a new hatchery called poultry hatchery in Fayston New York. I talked to the guy for over an hour and he was telling me that the birds that he has are show quality birds and start out from better stock than other hatcheries.

I ordered 15 Black Austrolorps, 5 more Light Brahmas because some of my girls are getting older and not laying as much, and 5 more Silver Gray Dorkings just because I wanted to see what the quality of his stock was. My plans are at a stand still this winter. My Brahmas were great meaty birds but they are definitely white. They tasted great though. My issue is that I ordered 50 bales of hay to get my horse through the winter and they came with rats in them ugh. So now I have a crew of rebel rats I am trying to get rid of and they are eating all my eggs and harassing my birds. At most I get maybe 4 eggs a day out of all 19 birds and none of the eggs I get are from birds I want to hatch out for this year.

So my new plan once spring gets here and I can make sure that the rats are all gone is to have the Black Austrolorps and Dorkings in the main coop with my Dorking Rooster so he can cover both breeds. I figure Austrolorp Dorking cross and pure dorking roosters for meat birds and the pullets can be sold to help fund the operation. Plus I also have my pure Brahmas for meat birds as well once they start laying again, and the rats are gone. The Austrolorps will be much more sustainable than my Gold Comet layers which I bought my first year without knowing any better. I bred some last year but the pullets from the breeding were poor quality and didn't lay well and the roos were just downright mean tempered. So they are out.

 

[skookumchuck]

I am getting some show quality Buff Chantecler and hopefully some whites, partridge and reds. They are very meaty birds and can handle the cold, hope they can handle the heat of summer here in mid MO. I currently have some RIR hens and a Roo, as well a couple of Austrolrps. My laying flock is going to be more mutss and the meaties are going to be my surplus cockrells and hens from the show birds.

 

[gg706]

I bought some White Rocks from Meyer this year as my first year test to see if I can handle butchering my own birds. If it goes well I plan to keep the meatiest roo and 3 or 4 hens to hatch out chicks for butcher. Does anyone have experience with WR from Meyer...Meyer listed their weights as 6-9 lbs. So I am hoping at least the roosters will get 7-8 lbs. I am going to seperate my egg flock and my meat flock and alternate days free ranging in hopes of cutting down the feed bill.

 

[3 NH reds]

I got some jersey Giant eggs last year and hatched them out using My broody Buff. Buff orps make great moms. I plan to breed the Giants this spring for meat and eggs. I will also cross my NH red hens with a Giant rooster for future egg layers. This is going to be year 2 for the original egg layers. We have buff orps, golden comets and the NH reds. All are good layers but I would not get comets again, they are mean to other birds and picked on my broody buff so bad when she came back in the egg layer coop I considered having golden chicken soup.

 

[thekillers]

I just ordered a small flock of Dominique's (15 hens &1 roo) in hopes of getting a self sustaining flock. From what I have read ( I no experience) they are somewhat broody, I'm hoping for at least 2 out of 15, and they are great layers. They also run between 4-6 pounds. Has anyone had a flock of Dominique's?

 

[mohillbilly]

no I still have a few to build as I had a massive heart attack the first of December.
I am just now getting able to start working on them again.