The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[stonykill]

We are very fortunate to have so mny expirenced people on this thread. Most of them brood. So if you are considering using a broody hen, they have tons of information to offer. Each one has experiences that work for them. I am constantly learin from so many every day. It is remarkable of the wealth of information in such a small area.

I wanted to bring up the subject of brooding for a reason. Spring is on the way and many hens are gettting reaady to nest. It is perfect time in there cycle to start laying and getting ready. Many of the more broody hens start laying well and go broody a few months right after they recover from molt. Some breeds and hens do not go broody or they start to set a nest and change there minds.

I bet you wonder why. Most of the chickens that people have in there back yard are production birds, and chicks from production birds. They were bred to lay eggs, not hatch eggs. Just keep the eggs coming. They were culled for going broody. Just the longest egg layers were kept. Eventually the super layer was made. Leghorns.

To be continued after chores...

I had a broody super layer last year. A hatchery White Leghorn was one of my more than 25 broody's last year.

 

[aoxa]

I'm bumping this back up... Can you comment on this, please?

Air cells can become detached during shipping. That's why it's important not to stick them directly into the incubator. They need to sit and the cells need to migrate back to where they should be, and attach there. Not sure how they attach, but maybe they stop moving around when you turn the eggs, and that's how you know?

 

[aoxa]

I had a broody super layer last year. A hatchery White Leghorn was one of my more than 25 broody's last year.

I would say your hatchery RIRs were bred to be super layers too. As is my barred rock who went broody.

 

[stonykill]

I would say your hatchery RIRs were bred to be super layers too. As is my barred rock who went broody.

my RIR's that went broody aren't hatchery birds. They are old farm stock from a farm that ran for 60 years in the area, breeding it's own birds. My hatchery RIR's haven't at least so far given broodiness a 2nd thought.

 

[Eggcessive]

The electric netting for chickens go to 4 ft (48") I think they may have higher for other animal types.

One thing everyone needs to know on the electric fences...you have to keep the ground where it is mowed low so that it doesn't ground out on grass or weeds. That may make a difference for some folks on whether they want to use it. Some use a chemical week killer along the fence lines but since this is a Natural chicken thread probably those here wouldn't want to do that.

It's not that hard to keep the weeds/grass down low where it is but some folks may have areas that they can't take care of like that.

My chickens will fly over a wooden or chainlink fence that is 4-6 feet high, but for some reason since they can't perch on it, they won't go over a 42 inch high poultry netting. Weedkiller is mostly for a stationary fence, but if you are using it for portable fencing, you can just move it. I mow around mine since I don't use weedkiller, but that involves mowing both sides, then moving it a foot to mow more--it gets to be a lot of work in summer. The grass can really get into the netting and stickif you don't keep up with it.

 

[aoxa]

my RIR's that went broody aren't hatchery birds. They are old farm stock from a farm that ran for 60 years in the area, breeding it's own birds. My hatchery RIR's haven't at least so far given broodiness a 2nd thought.

Must have got your RIRs confused with LM's.

I had a heritage RIR go broody, but the one chick she hatched was smothered under her. I didn't give her anything else. If she goes broody next year, I'll let her try again.

 

[aoxa]

My chickens will fly over a wooden or chainlink fence that is 4-6 feet high, but for some reason since they can't perch on it, they won't go over a 42 inch high poultry netting. Weedkiller is mostly for a stationary fence, but if you are using it for portable fencing, you can just move it. I mow around mine since I don't use weedkiller, but that involves mowing both sides, then moving it a foot to mow more--it gets to be a lot of work in summer. The grass can really get into the netting and stickif you don't keep up with it.

That's what I've noticed as well. They will not fly over the fencing unless they can land on it first.

Weedkiller is not an option. No chemicals at all allowed

 

[stonykill]

My chickens will fly over a wooden or chainlink fence that is 4-6 feet high, but for some reason since they can't perch on it, they won't go over a 42 inch high poultry netting. Weedkiller is mostly for a stationary fence, but if you are using it for portable fencing, you can just move it. I mow around mine since I don't use weedkiller, but that involves mowing both sides, then moving it a foot to mow more--it gets to be a lot of work in summer. The grass can really get into the netting and stickif you don't keep up with it.

my Sumatra's can fly straight up 15 to 20 feet if they feel the need. My EE's 10 feet easily. I've had OEGB's in the past that could fly over fences almost as well as my Sumatra's. Now the big girls, the RIR's, Black Australop and the mutts need what you say...a perch to clear the fence.

 

[delisha]

Quote:
I'm bumping this back up... Can you comment on this, please?
When you have eggs shipped..the air cells can be all over the place. The postal service tosses boxes as we all know. The boxes are marked fragil and live embro's, however workers do not read thousands of boxes daily. They have a very short window to move those boxes and sort them.

If you candle your own eggs that have not been shipped, you can easily see the yolk in the center and at the blunt end of the egg you see an air space. If you tilt the egg, the yolk stays in position. In shipped eggs, that usually does not happen. They can have air bubbles any place on the egg, and have one on each end. The yolk can work like a level and be moved about inside the egg because usually the chalaza is broken.

 

[Eggcessive]

It's mostly just to keep them in, not keep other animals out. I don't think I'd even have it on a whole lot.. My grass grows like crazy here. Moving the fence often will be a pain. So I'll probably just do a smaller area for them. Our ground is so hard to put fencing up. There is a lot of gravel under the grass, and it was hard enough to put those plastic fence posts in for a little grow out pen. Not looking forward to that installation! I'm thinking permanent would be a better idea in our situation.

I don't know if you read my earlier post about my dogs and cats getting into my poultry netting without the electric on, but the maine coon cats both got into it, tore it up and wrapped it all around them. It took 20 minutes to extract one of them. My yorkie got his head stuck 3 times and I had to cut the netting once. These same animals repeatedly got into it, so I finally had to get the fence controller. My bloodhound found out he could just lift it up and go under it when I tried again without the electric (he just loves chicken poo!)