Going Chicken?

[stonebroke]

 (chickens aren't too smart)


[/quote]

Now there's a understatement!

Stonebroke

[johncinquo]

12 chickens and 9 eggs.....   That'd be 3 chicken dinners.   :D 

Greg your just a big meanie. 

Hey that chicken doo makes great tomatoe fertilizer!   

[Corley5]

Greg your just a big meanie. 

   

Me  ??? 

[little Bark]

I like Isa Browns myself.

Dana,

I was at Tractor Supply last night and you can order or get chicks at the store.  I don't think Isa Browns were on the list though.

Why do you like the Isa Browns over other breeds?

[Furby]

The TSC's around here stopped carrying chickens after the Bird Flu scare. :
But I believe you can order them as you said, but they have a minimum order size of like 25-30 or something like that.

Some threads that may answer some questions:
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,11636.0.html
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,17682.0.html
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,28530.0.html

[SwampDonkey]

Free Chickens.  ;D




Peeking in windows.

They can have all the flies and bugs they can eat. ;D

[Dan_Shade]

that must be a canadian chicken

[little Bark]

Swamp, 

One thing for sure I'm not going to envy your breakfast. :D :D :D

I already have lots of those, but how do you catch them

[zopi]

We moved back to the country  year or so ago 9hence the sawmill) and my three daughters hit the ground like buckshot...we've got chickens, turkeys, quail, cockatiels, rabbits, cats and dogs...quite a zoo..but i make the blody kids take care of them..

We keep RI Reds, Araucanas and black cochins...i've got a bunch of hens and three roosters..the meanest little black cochin on the planet..between him and the sky netting, and the occasional shotgun blast, I don't have much problem with varmints...

we're good for a couple dozen eggs a week...got two hens setting right now too..prospective BBQ...

we feed layer mash pellets and cracked corn...and whatever the chickens can chase down.

our pen has two (soon to be four) pastures that I can rotate the chickens into...keep any one from getting skanky...

when I was a kid, we raised fryers for Tyson...65,000 at a time...took years before i'd even look at a chicken...

[zopi]

oh...get a long handled dip net....they WILL get out..

[Tam-i-am]

I heard you guys were talking about chickens again.  so I thought I'd give you an update.  I have 20 hens and 2 roosters in a 10 X 10 stall and a 10 X 30 yard.  they give me about 12 eggs a day right now.  We ordered 6 ameraucanas from our local feed store. 

Dave was right a well thought out house would have been helpful.  I inheritted my chickens from a neighbor so I set up my barn just like hers.  The chickens actually lay their eggs in hanging horse feed buckets.  they are easy to clean but a pain to collect the eggs because I have to go in the stall all the time.  The new hen house that kevin will build for those 6 new chicks will let me collect the eggs from outside!

So what do I do with the old hens? The woman I got them from just let them die of old age or survival of the fittest when she started letting them freerange.  My other neighbor told me I am obligated as a farmer to kill my older chickens before they become sickly and make all of my chickens sick.  Is this true?  I never intended to eat any of my chickens - I can't kill them nor could I imagine cleaning one.

And for all of you with empty barns that is exactly how we got into this.  We moved to this house that had a beautiful barn and riding ring.  The first thing Kevin did was rip out all the stalls and use the barn for the mill and tractor.  Then last year we had several people approach us about renting our barn to board their horses.  We finally said yes.  Built all new stalls to their specs.  They moved the horses in and we were just about to finish the most beautiful turnout when one of them announced she was getting divorced and moving her horse.  they moved out after only one month and again Kevin ripped out all the stalls thinking we were done with animals.  then our neighbor asked if we would take her pet chickens because she was converting her pasture and barn into a vineyard.  I don't know what will happen to the barn once I move the chickens out this summer.

[Warbird]

The TSC's around here stopped carrying chickens after the Bird Flu scare. :

A lion, a scorpion, and a chicken were sitting around chatting one day.  The scorpion felt the need to compete and said, "If I were to run across the floor of this room, everyone in here would run away screaming!"

Not to be outdone, the lion said, "If I were to give my fiercest roar, everyone in this whole building and on the entire block would run away screaming!"

The chicken said, "Bah.  That's nothing.  All I have to do is cough and the whole world freaks out."

[thecfarm]

I don't raise layers for money to be made on the eggs.A few layers keeps us in eggs.But I do get rid of mine every 2 years  and bring in some new ones.I feed them to the bon fire.I don't think they produce as well when they get past 2 years old.I like the first year they start to lay the best.I have not heard good things about eating layers.Not much meat,tough,don't taste good.I don't bother with them.Yes,it's wasteful,but I have a dog that goes where he wants and he gets into enough blood and guts without mine help.
Araucana,Americana what ever.I would not have these if I was interested in how MANY eggs I got.I had them twice.The eggs are are dead give away on how they are laying due to the color.Here in Maine they slow way down in the colder months,if not just about stop.I had someone else say the same thing.He called them "seasonal layers" .I do like them because no 2 chickens really look alike.Add alot of color to a flock.

[Tam-i-am]

I have one ameraucana now and she gives me an egg every day even through the winter.  She is a nice calm bird too.  Not like some of my other hens.  And someone told me their eggs are lower in cholesterol.  I don't know if that is true or not.

[Dan_Shade]

an egg is an egg, the cholestoral thing is a hoax made up by somebody trying to oversell their "exotic" eggs

an old chicken is good for stew, way too tough for anything else.  A chicken will live 14-15 years, I've read.  I wouldnt' worry about an old chicken unless it gets sick.

[zopi]

The old chickens get made into stock! Lots of chicken stock....that crap in a can is a lousy waste of space.

pop 'm in a pressure cooker...

sometimes I'll make sausages or galantines out of them if they are tough...

[Radar67]

Last night I learned the differance between a st. run and a pullet.

Care to enlighten those of us who don't know? I read through the other threads listed and found no other reference to standard run.

My guess is that who ever gathers your chicks just grabs without trying to select pullets or cockerels.

[flip]

Here are a few pics. of our, I mean Lori's birds.  ;)








And the days haul.  Some brown, white and green 8)

[little Bark]

Care to enlighten those of us who don't know? I read through the other threads listed and found no other reference to standard run.

My guess is that who ever gathers your chicks just grabs without trying to select pullets or cockerels.

A st. run is a non sexed group of chicks so it is the luck of the draw weither you get hens or cockerels.
Pullets are all hens. At least that is how it was explained to me.  I was at Tractor Supply lookng at there
sale flier and no one in the whole store could tell me what the differance was.  But the check out girl knew. I think see should get promotion.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Little Bark is correct.

[little Bark]

Do you need to give them a outside coup.  Will that make them more productive (Outside coup). 

[flip]

No, but I think they like to play outside once in a while

[little Bark]

The main reason we are getting chickens is to teach our 7 1/2 year old girls about money.  I am looking foward to seeing how they manage things.  Right now they are more concerned about naming the chickens then coming up with the 72.00 $ that it cost for equipment for the coup.

There is a window in the stall where the chickens are going to go so it would not be to hard to make an outside coup in the future.  Estimated cost 125.00 material if they can get there grand pa to do some dumster diving for them. Ad dad's labor cost priceless. 

[Dan_Shade]

pullets are female chicken under a year old, a female chicken over a year old is a Hen.

Cockerals are male chickens under a year old, a rooster is a male chicken over a year old.

[Radar67]

I spent most of last weekend visiting and tailing with DonK. We spent a lot of time watching his chickens. They scratched and pecked all the day long, then went back to their coup every evening.

Someone else mentioned how the chickens liked to gather around the sawmill in search of grubs and such. I witnessed it for myself at Don's. When he first fired up the mill, here they come, all of them at a full gate run. They stayed at one end of the mill scratching around while the mill was cutting, but as soon as there was a break for moving boards and such, they crowded right up under the mill to see if they could find a grub or anything bug like.

They did an adequate job of spreading the saw dust around too. When Don saw them coming, he announced, "Here comes the worm patrol." And he was right, they patroled the whole weekend in search of worms and bugs.

I had a very enjoyable weekend in the company of friends, watching the "Worm Patrol". It was so enjoyable that I am thinking very seriously about a small flock of birds, maybe a dozen.