Chickens 101, questions about chickens, start here!!! (Page 2 of 12)
|
Originally Posted By Skunkum:
Did you ever screen the vents between the rafters? I put boards up to close those gaps. Works better for heat preservation in winter, not so good in summer. But with even one flap open, the coop stays dry and cool in the summer. The birds are outside dawn-to-dusk anyway. Originally Posted By Skunkum:
Some pulleys and weights might be nice to assist with holding the flaps open, vs propping them open. Yep, I agree. Originally Posted By Skunkum:
Did you scatter some kind of bedding on the floor? Have you needed to clean it out yet? We use wood shavings. Put it in about 3-4 inches deep. I throw a little scratch in the coop now and then so they stir it up. Did more of a "deep litter" approach this winter––just added shavings to the top. Cleaning the coop is pretty straightforward and takes about 90 minutes. Open all the wing doors, pull the nest boxes out. Park the tractor with the FEL bucket right up to the edge of the coop, shove the shavings into the bucket. Haul the perch out, hose it off. Reload everything and spread new shavings. Dump the waste in the compost heap. Seems to need cleaning about every 10 weeks or so. Originally Posted By Skunkum:
Having the bottom up off the ground should help keep critters from denning underneath but does it make it harder to heat? Probably so, but the chickens like going under and having it raised keeps the nasties from getting underneath. The most we've had is some mice in the ccop. Originally Posted By Skunkum:
Can you just raise a door and reach in to collect eggs? The chickens won't jump out? When you open the egg flap, the chickens are often setting in the nest boxes. They peck at you when you take their eggs but are pretty much used to it. The only time we've had hens come out has been when one of the egg doors has been inadvertently left open. I really like being able to collect eggs from outside the coop. Originally Posted By Skunkum:
How did your flock fare over the winter I noticed you get fresh eggs)? They've laid all winter. We supllemented their light though. Originally Posted By Skunkum:
Have you got some young ones going for the pot at this time? We haven't hatched any eggs, they all go to the table except the ones the boy sells. That's how he gets his Lego money. If he doesn't sell eggs, he doesn't accumulate any toy funds. 
|
|
Originally Posted By qfast817:
how do you guys clip the wings? im planing on getting some chicks and dont want them flying over the fence to be chew toys for the dogs. 
http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-wingclipping.html |
|
Originally Posted By M60forever:
Originally Posted By qfast817:
how do you guys clip the wings? im planing on getting some chicks and dont want them flying over the fence to be chew toys for the dogs. http://www.backyardchickens.com/graphics/wingclipping.gif http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-wingclipping.html yep, just follow the diagram. also, it is suggested that you just do one wing. i only did one on my chickens, but had to do both on my guineas as they were still going over the fence. |
| Thank you/your wife for that write up and posting it. It is very informative and it leads me to other sources of info for future learning potential. Thanks! |
"There comes a time when every man feels the urge to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and start slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
Speak softly and carry a big stick - Teddy Roosevelt
Speak softly and carry a big stick - Teddy Roosevelt
|
Bump
& Here are two links about my chickens and tractor to be added to the chicken 101 thread: http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=19&t=625625&page=1 http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=10&f=19&t=626550 |
Here are a few pics of my Coop. It took a day to build. Currently this is the mansion for only 2 birds. We started with sic chicks, two where roo's and two were caught by a visiting dog. We get between 2-3 eggs a day from just two birds. About once a week well will have only 1.
[img]http://<a href="http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm297/hero2three/?action=view¤t=IMG_2467.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm297/hero2three/IMG_2467.jpg" border="0" alt="Side door for cleaning.."></a>" /> |
|
I got to help Foxy house sit earlier this summer for some folks that have a nice little spread, a few horses, 2 goats, a sheep, and a bunch of chickens. I tell you, I am NOT a morning person, in any way, but being woken up by a rooster and eating fresh eggs for breakfast after the chores were done was just awesome. I can't wait til I have a little bit of land somewhere so I can get some chickens of my own.
They had a separate fenced area for some chicks that were being raised up as broilers, one day one of them died mysteriously, and the others ATE him. Very eerie. |
for years ive had chickens running loose in the back yard, over the years they have bread into really neat looking chickens, they are all short and stumpy with feathers on there feet, what type are they.
This is the newest hen, she has golden feathers and cool black dots on her tail, she is a loner and stays away from mom and dad, even sleeps outside the cage at night, wants nothing to do with them 
|
[NO TEXT]
|
My wife decided to take up chickens as a hobby a little over a year ago.
We now have 78 chickens, 6 ducks, and 2 geese. We have a mix of Rhode Island Reds, Americanas, Bantams, and a few other ones I don't remember the names of. The damn geese follow my wife around and honk to be picked up and petted.... (no, that isn't a typo, they act like spoiled 3 year olds "pick me up!!") All in all the poultry project is going well, we've only lost a few birds, most by predator birds (the chickens free range during the day in my back yard) We get about 2 dozen eggs a day, but 20-25 of the birds aren't old enough to lay yet. We figure at our current population, we can count on an average of 3 dozen eggs a day once they are all at laying age. We haven't discussed eating any of the birds, yet. I doubt my wife would be thrilled about that, since she has made them all into pets. But that would change in a food shortage. The wife likes fried chicken... 
|
It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from it's government
Thomas Payne
Thomas Payne
|
Originally Posted By BozemanMT:
Originally Posted By mcnizzle:
I was planning on waiting about a year until I move out of the burbs to raise cickens but I might just start this year. Now, if someone posts a link for a good and hopefully easy to build chicken coop that would really inspire me.  check out backyardchickens.com, the arfcom of the chicken world. They have a whole forum dedicated to coops. That link is great (backyardchickens.com). I have been thinking about getting some chickens and goats for some time now and I find all of the OP's info and the info at back yard chickens very valuable to me in easing my mind and helping me get started. Now all I need is a website like that for goats. |
if they dont want me to have it, it only makes me want it more. Now pull my finger!
|
Originally Posted By fadedsun:
Are they just food, or do they have personalities? meat chickens are just food (nasty, allt hey do is eat, they literally sit in their own poop and sit there and eat, ,they make good eating though) regular chickens are bleeping hysterical. They are really funny, either individually or in groups. It's well worth having one rooster for your flock just for the entertainment value. |
|
Lets say there was a rooster that was a "bad" rooster and just pissed you off. And you had another rooster anyway. Could you eat him or are they not good for eating?
Also, whats the best round for rooster? Seems a shotgun would make it hard to eat. Maybe a .22? Thanks |
|
Once a chicken is more then 9 months old, its pretty much only good for boiling/making stew, you wouldn't want to fry/bbq it.
Don't shoot a chicken, grab it by the neck, slit the artery under its beak, and let it bleed out. Process once the blood stops flowing. |
If we make a peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution inevitable. -jfk
|
Originally Posted By Paulup:
Once a chicken is more then 9 months old, its pretty much only good for boiling/making stew, you wouldn't want to fry/bbq it. Don't shoot a chicken, grab it by the neck, slit the artery under its beak, and let it bleed out. Process once the blood stops flowing. I thought the way to kill it cleanly was to cut the head off, no? That's the way my aunt did it years ago on their MN farm. |
|
Originally Posted By Paulup:
Once a chicken is more then 9 months old, its pretty much only good for boiling/making stew, you wouldn't want to fry/bbq it. Don't shoot a chicken, grab it by the neck, slit the artery under its beak, and let it bleed out. Process once the blood stops flowing. This. |
Originally Posted By Foundation:
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
| So we built a coop, with nesting boxes, and ordered some chicks from McMurray. Put them in the coop during the day and kept thiem inside at night until they got bigger. These are Buff Orpingtons, really nice birds and after some growing are laying well and we have culled the roosters so we only have three left. Roosters are large and at maybe a year old are starting to get aggressive when you walk into the chicken yard. Not a problem for me because they dislike being booted across the yard and stay away. However my wife is a little short, and she takes my 3 year old daughter with her when she collects eggs and feeds them in the morning. My daughter really likes going out with mom and feeding and collecting the eggs. One morning they go out to the coop and let the chickens out in the chicken yard. Chickens yammering and running around, roosters strutting thier stuff, wife and daughter scattering some cracked corn for them, you know the drill. Out of no where one of the roosters comes running up and jumps on my daughter and grabs her thighs and diggs in and starts beating her with it's wings. My wife snatches the rooster by the neck, whirls it around and slams it on the ground, whips her knife out and cuts it's head off. Little girl has a few scratches and small bruises, but not too bad. She always wear her overall so they protected her legs. So the question is, should we fry it, broil it or just throw it to the pigs? |
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
|
Originally Posted By pen:
So we built a coop, with nesting boxes, and ordered some chicks from McMurray. Put them in the coop during the day and kept thiem inside at night until they got bigger. These are Buff Orpingtons, really nice birds and after some growing are laying well and we have culled the roosters so we only have three left. Roosters are large and at maybe a year old are starting to get aggressive when you walk into the chicken yard. Not a problem for me because they dislike being booted across the yard and stay away. However my wife is a little short, and she takes my 3 year old daughter with her when she collects eggs and feeds them in the morning. My daughter really likes going out with mom and feeding and collecting the eggs. One morning they go out to the coop and let the chickens out in the chicken yard. Chickens yammering and running around, roosters strutting thier stuff, wife and daughter scattering some cracked corn for them, you know the drill. Out of no where one of the roosters comes running up and jumps on my daughter and grabs her thighs and diggs in and starts beating her with it's wings. My wife snatches the rooster by the neck, whirls it around and slams it on the ground, whips her knife out and cuts it's head off. Little girl has a few scratches and small bruises, but not too bad. She always wear her overall so they protected her legs. So the question is, should we fry it, broil it or just throw it to the pigs? I'm glad your daughter is ok. I would just toss it to the pigs. |
Originally Posted By Foundation:
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
|
Originally Posted By pen:
So we built a coop, with nesting boxes, and ordered some chicks from McMurray. Put them in the coop during the day and kept thiem inside at night until they got bigger. These are Buff Orpingtons, really nice birds and after some growing are laying well and we have culled the roosters so we only have three left. Roosters are large and at maybe a year old are starting to get aggressive when you walk into the chicken yard. Not a problem for me because they dislike being booted across the yard and stay away. However my wife is a little short, and she takes my 3 year old daughter with her when she collects eggs and feeds them in the morning. My daughter really likes going out with mom and feeding and collecting the eggs. One morning they go out to the coop and let the chickens out in the chicken yard. Chickens yammering and running around, roosters strutting thier stuff, wife and daughter scattering some cracked corn for them, you know the drill. Out of no where one of the roosters comes running up and jumps on my daughter and grabs her thighs and diggs in and starts beating her with it's wings. My wife snatches the rooster by the neck, whirls it around and slams it on the ground, whips her knife out and cuts it's head off. Little girl has a few scratches and small bruises, but not too bad. She always wear her overall so they protected her legs. So the question is, should we fry it, broil it or just throw it to the pigs? Nice! To slat a rooster! Sounds like yo need to stew that bastard. |
|
If any of you guys want fertilized eggs to hatch let me know. Only stipulation is you have to keep a thread on the procss of hatchng them. The eggs would be out of Rhode Island Red, Buff Orpington, Columbian Wyandotte, Jersey Giant, and Barred Rock hens that have been with a Jersey Giant rooster.
I let a broody barred rock and buff orpington sit on eggs. out of 6 eggs 5 were fertile and 5 hatched. |
|
Ok Bozeman, here's a question for ya.
My flock consists of 14 or 15 hens and 3 roosters. Started out with 25 but I've put 4 young roosters in the freezer and sold a couple of more RIR roosters. This flock was (in the words of the lady I bought them from) just a barnyard mix. One hen is black another is white and is most likely either a Wyandotte or Dominecker. The rest are all kind of orangeish. I'm not sure if they are closer to being RIR's, Buff Orpingtons, or (they seem to look more like) Golden Comets. My 3 remaining Roosters are one RIR, one big heavy speckled fellow that I'm not sure of his breed, and one white (like the hen above). I've recently (2 days ago) seperated out the 2 white ones and put them back into the brooder. They are a little heavier birds than the others. My plan is to start a secondary flock of this breed. Now for the question.  Do you have any idea how long that I should wait after seperating these two out from the other roosters before I start collecting eggs from this pair, for incubation?
Thanks MIKE |
| My wife has been buggining me for years to get some chickens, so I finally caved the other day and told her next spring we can get a few chicks, over the fall/winter I want to build the coop, so its ready in the spring for some new chicks. My question is, anyone in here have any good plans on some chicken coops, I want to keep it inexpensive, and they won't be able to free roam, so I will have to attach a run to the coop. I have looked online for days, but every site I find wants $$ for some plans. My construction skills are so so, but am good at following directions, just can't build stuff off the top of my head. So any help and advice would be appricated! Thanks! |
|
Originally Posted By mike-in-savannah:
I've recently (2 days ago) seperated out the 2 white ones and put them back into the brooder. They are a little heavier birds than the others. My plan is to start a secondary flock of this breed. Now for the question. Do you have any idea how long that I should wait after seperating these two out from the other roosters before I start collecting eggs from this pair, for incubation?
Thanks MIKE roosters won't wait long before they start mounting the hens. w/ just a few hens w/ the rooster, you'll start to notice the feathers on the hens back are disappearing. this is usually b/c when the rooster mounts he bites on to the hens feathers and pulls them out. essentially, it'll only take a few days to get fertilized eggs. Originally Posted By Billybob107:
My wife has been buggining me for years to get some chickens, so I finally caved the other day and told her next spring we can get a few chicks, over the fall/winter I want to build the coop, so its ready in the spring for some new chicks. My question is, anyone in here have any good plans on some chicken coops, I want to keep it inexpensive, and they won't be able to free roam, so I will have to attach a run to the coop. I have looked online for days, but every site I find wants $$ for some plans. My construction skills are so so, but am good at following directions, just can't build stuff off the top of my head. So any help and advice would be appricated! Thanks! check this site http://www.backyardchickens.com/coopdesigns.html. their plans are free, they aren't, however, super detailed. there's enough detail that you should be able to figure the rest out. they also have a forum w/ lots of good info. |
“A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.” Amos Bronson Alcott
| How long should eggs go unrefrigerated––––––––––-from the archive |
Originally Posted By Foundation:
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
|
Originally Posted By mike-in-savannah:
Now for the question. Do you have any idea how long that I should wait after seperating these two out from the other roosters before I start collecting eggs from this pair, for incubation?
Thanks MIKE Mrs BozemanMT (the chickelady) says 4 weeks minimum to get the other roosters fertilizations gone. Otherwise you'll not be sure what you have when you hatch them. |
| Freezing Eggs––––––-From the Archives |
Originally Posted By Foundation:
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
|
Originally Posted By Billybob107:
My wife has been buggining me for years to get some chickens, so I finally caved the other day and told her next spring we can get a few chicks, over the fall/winter I want to build the coop, so its ready in the spring for some new chicks. My question is, anyone in here have any good plans on some chicken coops, I want to keep it inexpensive, and they won't be able to free roam, so I will have to attach a run to the coop. I have looked online for days, but every site I find wants $$ for some plans. My construction skills are so so, but am good at following directions, just can't build stuff off the top of my head. So any help and advice would be appricated! Thanks! Did you get your coop built yet? I built a "chicken tractor" for three chickens just based upon pictures and descriptions that I had found on the web. The mobile chicken coop included an enclosure, coop, and nesting box. I adapted the solar powered walkway lights from Walmart as lighting inside the coop. With the exception of the wire, I got all of the supplies from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore so the used lumber was super cheap. I built the coop for just under $60. When we just moved recently, we sold the coop with the three chickens for $180 and had a lot of calls right away. There is money to be made in small scale backyard chicken coops right now since raising chickens is becoming even more popular. If you want pics of the coop, or any other build advice, IM me. |
|
Originally Posted By Rigmarole:
Originally Posted By Billybob107:
My wife has been buggining me for years to get some chickens, so I finally caved the other day and told her next spring we can get a few chicks, over the fall/winter I want to build the coop, so its ready in the spring for some new chicks. My question is, anyone in here have any good plans on some chicken coops, I want to keep it inexpensive, and they won't be able to free roam, so I will have to attach a run to the coop. I have looked online for days, but every site I find wants $$ for some plans. My construction skills are so so, but am good at following directions, just can't build stuff off the top of my head. So any help and advice would be appricated! Thanks! Did you get your coop built yet? I built a "chicken tractor" for three chickens just based upon pictures and descriptions that I had found on the web. The mobile chicken coop included an enclosure, coop, and nesting box. I adapted the solar powered walkway lights from Walmart as lighting inside the coop. With the exception of the wire, I got all of the supplies from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore so the used lumber was super cheap. I built the coop for just under $60. When we just moved recently, we sold the coop with the three chickens for $180 and had a lot of calls right away. There is money to be made in small scale backyard chicken coops right now since raising chickens is becoming even more popular. If you want pics of the coop, or any other build advice, IM me. Great idea! Hopefully I will be building a coop in two months or so, I will remember that. A ReStore opened up in our area and I haven't been yet. |
|
Thanks for posting this thread.
Also, thanks to those that posted links for Backyardchickens.com I am really enjoying that site. If all goes well, and I think it will, Bearsfan will have some Plymouth Rock pullets in the spring. I'm already drawing up my coop and sorting scrap lumber in the garage. 
|
Luk 6:45 The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
|
A lot of great information:
http://www.backyardpoultrymag.com/ http://attra.ncat.org/livestock.html––––––-Great site for all livestock. |
Originally Posted By Foundation:
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
Local bum used to go to a popular beach with a boombox and dance shirtless to cotton eye joe
| Skunkum posted this Link awhile back. From the archive. Great site. |
|
I just thought I'd share my chicken story
I bought 3 White leghorns in June '09 that were a month old because I didn't want to deal with the baby chick care. They had supposedly been born at the end of may, and didn't lay eggs until mid october, so they were extremely well fed and didn't lay anything until they were 5 months old. The birds did not do well at first to the 110+ degree AZ heat, one of them I thought was going to die because it was completely unresponsive, not eating, etc 24 hours after being put outside. I brought her into the house, force fed some mushy feed and water to her, and she was back in action a few days later. Even during the 40-50 degree nights, between the 3 birds I get on average 2 eggs a day. I've learned that once they all start laying eggs, you can open up their coop and let them walk around the yard and they will come back into the coop each night. Before they started laying eggs I would find them in random parts of the yard each night, but now they have a good system. Now for the pictures.. When I first brought them home: 
I took one of the walls off an old shed and ran some plastic netting across it. 
Some perches for the birds, I put an old shelf in there and set the perches on the top shelf, they love it. 
Some of the first eggs 
Now I have more eggs than what I know to do with. 
|
"If you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow."
