Topic of the Week - I wish I knew…

[chickenweirdo1]

I wish i knew that my coop design is the hardest thing to clean ever1!

 

[Sylvester017]

Oh boy I feel you on that one!! I really need to thin out my flock because I have so many old and nonproductive hen but I can't bring myself to kill the birds I've raised since chicks. I'm losing money quickly but I can't do it.

My DH refuses to think about eating ANY of our chickens -- even the 2 unwanted cockerels accidentally acquired by us. He found homes for them with people who have laying flocks or people who rescue battery or unwanted hens/roos. According to Black Hen Farm they say a chicken can live as long as 25 years, although I've yet to hear of any chicken living past 17 years -- the avg is said to be 10-12 yrs. Longevity is something new chicken owners should seriously consider before chicken math goes out of control. A hen's laying productivity is approx 5 years with very sporadic laying to about 8 yrs so think about what to do with a chicken after that if eggs is only what you want. We decided at the outset that our chickens were pets so, thus, the reason for keeping our hens beyond their layer years. We limit our flock to 5 hens in our suburb yard which is more than enough eggs for just the two of us. We have staggered adding new pullets to the flock (usually because we had to rehome or put down a sick bird) to give us a rotation of egg layers vs the ones that have stopped laying. Adding chickens all the same age means they'll all stop laying at the same age too -- so we add chickens with staggered ages. Sadly we have lost some birds to rehoming because of bullying, heat stress, illness/cancer, etc, so we have cycled through 18 chickens in 7 yrs. Some breeds are hardy and disease resistant while some are delicate and difficult to keep alive because of the low immunity/small gene pool of a breed. Something I was not aware of when I chose to get some rare breeds.

As for nonproductive hens, we have one mature 7 yr old that hasn't layed in about 2 years but she is still effective at keeping the youngsters behaving properly and her garden bug control and fertilizer poop is just as good for the garden as any layer pullet! The only way we'd put down a hen is if it was ailing like one our vet recently had to put down because of a bleeding ovarian tumor. Otherwise, if quality of life is present and none are bullies we find no need to disperse any of our flock -- flock behavior control, bug and weed control, and natural free fertilizer are our reasons for keeping hens beyond their layer years .

 

[Sylvester017]

I wish I knew to join BYC instead of stalking it for five years straight

I stalked BYC for a year before joining. Eventually I started posting with questions and experiences we were having with our different breeds of chickens. What I wish I knew about other chicken owner comments is that some are very kind and extremely helpful while others can be quite brutal to hurtful in their replies. After years on BYC I learned which members were the really sweet helpful ones and I can't thank them enough for their kindnesses and expert advice!

 

[Blooie]

No stalking here....got my chicks and dove right in. Haven’t shut-up since!

 

[Sylvester017]

No stalking here....got my chicks and dove right in. Haven’t shut-up since!

 

[orpington123]

I wish I knew when my hens would eventually go broody and hatch out some chicks

 

[lilmillefleur]

I wish we knew a better place to get our starting flock, and practice better biosecurity...
The place we got them from smelled so bad, the coop was gross, the birds were diseased and covered in mites.
We are paying the price right now. Our chickens have a respiratory disease and one of them is suffering from a severe mite/lice infestation

Also, we learned that "All Natural" mite sprays do not work.

 

[Srgra237]

I am super new to this so I'm glad I found Backyard chickens now.
I lost my first set of babies but still have my hens and a rooster.
Just bought 6 new babies/not babies really to replace and learned quickly that the mama hen does not like them lol.....separated quickly.

 

[Srgra237]

me too lol

what is chicken math?

 

[Srgra237]

I wish this site was running back in 1993, as I was bumbling through my early chicken adventures.
Predators! Biosecurity! Chicken math! Who knew?
Mary

What is chicken math and biosecurity? ty