Texas

[Cockle-Dood]

You should ask her to take pictures of them and send them to you. .
Oh I got chickens! I get to pick them up next Saturday! So excited. RIR, NH, Buff and Barred Rocks

Sounds like a nice flock! My BR's are super friendly. Dont have any of the others but hear nothing but good things about the new hampshires...they were on my list!

The thread chicken state university (CSU) in the genetics section has some really good info on newhampshires and barred rocks as far as learning the traits that make up the good show foul. Might be cool to check out

 

[adstoffels]

Congrats!!! Welcome to the madness. Soon, like the rest of us, they will consume your life (become a major course of entertainment bubbling over into other areas of your life) and chicken math will set in! Just ask the people where I work, it went from a hobby to almost an obsession. I went from the guy who just got a few chicks to "oh, shut up about your chickens." It settled into a happy medium once they got free eggs.

Kenneth

I love it. I think my family and friends are at the shut up about your future chickens stage haha. I am passing on the chicken love to my kids. My six year old daughter just looked at pictures of the breed of chickens we are getting and she named them all. Hahaha.

 

[rhoffart]

hello fellow Texans, I'm so close to pulling the trigger and adding chickens to my list of hobbies. I want to keep it small 3 to 5, I live near Boerne on 1.3 acres. My 3 biggest concerns are; how much care time do they really take? I don't want a rooster, if I get one what do I do with it? Really how bad is the smell? If it's 50 feet from the house am I going to be able to smell the coop? Are the flies bad?

Thanks
Rick

 

[Scoutmedic]

I love it. I think my family and friends are at the shut up about your future chickens stage haha. I am passing on the chicken love to my kids. My six year old daughter just looked at pictures of the breed of chickens we are getting and she named them all. Hahaha.

It's really kinda funny. I have my rooster coffee cup and a large egg box from a grocer that are on display in my office and used regularly. I'll be adding a BYC calendar soon. I need more poultry "stuff" to line our conference room where our auditors review documents and to add to my office.

 

[showbarnmom]

That ad makes me wonder if those are their real parent birds.  One of those SLW looks like a Bantam and the pictures look familiar like I have seen them already....

I'm glad I asked. They almost look like silver sebrights, but large flock sized.

hello fellow Texans, I'm so close to pulling the trigger and adding chickens to my list of hobbies. I want to keep it small 3 to 5, I live near Boerne on 1.3 acres. My 3 biggest concerns are; how much care time do they really take? I don't want a rooster, if I get one what do I do with it? Really how bad is the smell? If it's 50 feet from the house am I going to be able to smell the coop? Are the flies bad?

Thanks
Rick

Hi Rick! I'm just up the road from ya in New Braunfels. I keep 8 about 20 ft from my back porch. Smell isn't noticeable really. I rake their coop every 2 or so weeks. And during the day they are in a run. IMO, pretty easy to care. Fresh food and fresh water are the most important, then I give mine leftovers, and scraps or veggies and treats I buy, once or twice a week. As far as a rooster, you don't need one, but if you happen to get one from a straight run set of chicks, you can sell it on CL, or eat it. However, there are lots of people around here that sell already sexed chicks or young birds. So you could buy just chicks. Not sure what kind your looking for, but I've got 3 game bantam mix pullets that I would sell. They are smaller birds, lay medium white and off white eggs. These girls should start laying around May. They aren't going to be super friendly birds but they are hearty and scrappy when it comes to predators.

(Sorry for the wall of text, using my cell phone.)

 

[bnjrob]

hello fellow Texans, I'm so close to pulling the trigger and adding chickens to my list of hobbies. I want to keep it small 3 to 5, I live near Boerne on 1.3 acres. My 3 biggest concerns are; how much care time do they really take? I don't want a rooster, if I get one what do I do with it? Really how bad is the smell? If it's 50 feet from the house am I going to be able to smell the coop? Are the flies bad?

Thanks
Rick

How much time?

That depends on your setup and how much you baby them. If you get their housing/feeding stuff situated FIRST, then it doesn't take much time at all. Of course that depends on what type of setup you have (and how many).

If you end up like us and seem to be in a constant state of flux with breeding/incubating/hatching/separating chickens for various reasons as well as having to construct new housing, it takes longer. When we have chickens living in brooders or in the garage, it takes more time to physically carry them from there outside to runs and back in at night.

If you have things set up right, the daily chores would probably only take you minutes to let them in/out of the coop every day plus any feed/water refilling/coop cleaning.

We use hanging feeders and nipple bucket waterers which greatly decreases daily chores so we aren't always having to clean poop and trash out of the food/water. And we have pvc pipe grit/oyster shell feeders that hold quite a bit so don't need refilling often.

Really, if you set it up right, daily chore time is minimal.

Many people really baby their chickens rather than treating them like the hardy, outdoor livestock that they are. Which is fine if that is what they want. But if you baby them, then they will take a lot more time and effort.

Roosters

If you don't want roosters and aren't picky about what breeds you get, you can get chick that are sexed (which isn't always accurate but better than nothing) or buy slightly older birds. Options for roosters - try to sell them, try to give them away, or butcher them and eat them. There are just too many roosters out there that aren't wanted or needed.

Around here, we eat ours. Didn't think we could do it, but we do it quickly and humanely and when you have the equipment (killing cone and very sharp knife is what I recommend) so it isn't as bad as I was expecting.

If you sell/give them away, you have to be prepared that they might be butchered and eaten by whoever takes them. I know of someone that has been trying to give away an aggressive rooster but can't get rid of him because no one wants a rooster that is going to attack them and this person refuses to give him to someone that will kill and eat him.

If you can't bear this thought, best that you only get chickens you know the sex of already.

Smell

The smell is up to you. We don't have much smell unless you stick your face practically into the poop. And I do NOT change out bedding in the coop that often - like months. We use sort of a deep litter method. Can't do it completely because our chicken tractors are VERY large and heavy and true deep litter is too heavy. But I go for several months without changing bedding in the coop.

We use Sweet PDZ to help control ammonia and help to break down the bedding into more compost-y type material. Sweet PDZ is sold at feed stores as a stall refresher. You can buy little containers of the same thing for chickens that is supposed to help your coop smell good and compost bedding better, but it is much cheaper to buy it in the big bags for horse stalls.

We also move the tractors around so there doesn't get to be a huge pile of poop and mud in the runs, and this also keeps smell from starting. I smell more from people's septic systems wafting on the breeze than I do from our chickens.

Flies

If you practice fly control techniques, it isn't that bad. Things like fly traps, diatomaceous earth in the bedding, getting the chickens to dig in the bedding of the coop to eat larvae, etc. goes a long way toward decreasing flies and creepy crawlies.



Overall, if you do your homework first, and get things set up right, things will be easy, fast, clean, and minimal smell and bother. But a lot depends on your chicken management practices.

 

[adstoffels]

hello fellow Texans, I'm so close to pulling the trigger and adding chickens to my list of hobbies. I want to keep it small 3 to 5, I live near Boerne on 1.3 acres. My 3 biggest concerns are; how much care time do they really take? I don't want a rooster, if I get one what do I do with it? Really how bad is the smell? If it's 50 feet from the house am I going to be able to smell the coop? Are the flies bad?

Thanks
Rick

I'm just starting so I don't have a lot of advice to give but when I had them a few years ago they were so much fun! I lived in the suburbs and had them on the side run. We let them in our back yard a few times a week to search for bugs. We get to have new ones next week and I can't wait. I have purchased from a farm in OK and they are delivering them. Good luck! I have gotten great advice on here and wonderful resources.

 

[chelsey21211]

Rainy day in North Texas yall.I'm new to the BYC community and have some babies i could use help determining their breeds.variety of 7 bantams. any help is appreciated! Yall have a good day!

 

[Scoutmedic]

hello fellow Texans, I'm so close to pulling the trigger and adding chickens to my list of hobbies. I want to keep it small 3 to 5, I live near Boerne on 1.3 acres. My 3 biggest concerns are; how much care time do they really take? I don't want a rooster, if I get one what do I do with it? Really how bad is the smell? If it's 50 feet from the house am I going to be able to smell the coop? Are the flies bad?

Thanks
Rick

Good morning Rick,

I'm south of you about 15 min. We have a coop/run setup just off the side of the house and about 20 feet from the front door. Guests (and neighbors) do not notice any smell when they approach the house even when the wind comes from the coop. We practice the deep litter method in our fixed coop and clean it out 1-2x per year. We turn the litter weekly with a pitchfork (less than 5 min) and use it as mulch when emptied. Daily chores consist of opening the coop and 3 grow out pens (2 min), feeding/watering (5 min for all pens), collecting eggs from coop (1 min), and closing thing up at night (2-3 min). We spend about 10 minutes per day and less than 30 total on the weekends. Keep in mind I currently have 16 hens, two roosters, and three pens and a brooder box with two more hens, 12 chicks, 3 ducklings, and a setting hen on 10 eggs.

There are many things that you can do to reduce chore times. Our lighting/warming lamps are on timers, feeders hold 30+ pounds of feed and are filled weekly, water is from a 5 gallon bucket running to watering cups (soon to be connected to the faucet via hose and float valve), and chores completed by my 10 year old. You can even add automatic door openers and closers to handle that task, too.

By the way, roosters can be noisy at times, but with free eggs, neighbors are a lot less likely to complain.

Good luck!!!

 

[chickletteSarge]

You are flippin awesome! Suck it up and scoop that poop.

Come by and see me while your off.

yea im ridin the bus to and from... so leavin at 5am and commin hom about 7ish... i have a 3-4hr break inbetween but no car to go places!



oh and i found a retarded wrinkled, bent egg in my egg basket this mornin! anyone ever have this issue? known causes?