chickens!

[cowman]

Maybe I'm getting senile but I went out and bought 100 chickens! Have had them for about three weeks and am enjoying them immensily! The little suckers are growing like weeds! They are a Red Sussex cross mix. I guess Elizabeth got me interested. I have no idea what I will do with them but in my spare time I am building a nesting box set up so they can lay eggs. I must be crazy but you know I really get alot of enjoyment out of these chickens!

[cakadu]

Cowman, now you're talking my language. How long till you sign on as "chicken man"?

They are actually quite enjoyable and fun to watch. There's nothing like watching a bird giving itself a dust bath to put a smile on your face.

Maybe you can start to do free-range or natural eggs. There is a growing number of people who are willing to pay for them - they like those darker colored yolks that have flavor. I remember reading an article somewhere that said something to the effect of the darker yolked eggs having less of the "bad" cholesterol in them. Not as good as the omega 3 eggs where chickens have been fed flax, but hey, what would it take to sprinkle a little flax around?

Were they ready to lay birds or did you get them as chicks?

Now that the sunshine is pretty much here, they'll be enjoying being out scratching for bugs and what not.

Best of luck in your new endeavour!

[Muttley]

Well Cowman could you tell me just how many of them there chicken's can you run on a quarter section?

Actually I love chickens but in a different way. Kentucky Fried is probably my favorite.

[cowman]

I got them as day old chicks. I have a pretty"high-tech" chicken house...at least it was in 1947! A venting system, concrete floors, built in self feeders, controlled lighting! But somehow the nesting set up got pulled out. I've just started letting them out in a fenced yard and also just started feeding them fine rolled barley and wheat along with the chick starter. Still have the brooder set up with a red heat lamp. When can I turn it off? Or should I put it on a timer for just at night? My mother(who is my chicken expert) is off flitting about Scotland! They are a mixed lot so I don't know how many hens I'll have. Maybe the coyotes will get them and I won't have to worry about it!

[cakadu]

After about 3 weeks you can start decreasing the temperature on the brooder - if that's possible for you - by about 5 degrees every week. Once they are fully feathered, they don't need the heat at all anymore. If it's too hot under the brooder, they just move back. So long as they are running around and happy and not hunched up with their feathers fluffed out to keep warm, you're on the right track.

Sounds like your set-up is pretty good so with any luck Wile E. Coyote will not be getting any free lunches from you.

If you got the chicks straight run, then theoretically you should end up with about half of each sex. Some chickens are sex-linked so that you can tell which are male and female from the time they're hatched. I don't think red sussex are one of them though.

[jensco]

Good for you cowman! I got into chickens for personal use when we moved to Manitoba 2 years ago. I have about 50 hens (Browns, Black sex link, a leghorn, red sussex) with 100 more coming in Oct. The ladies cannot keep up with demand.

Anyway, if your birds are outside, you can shut off the brooder. I sometimes would put it on if we were expecting a cold night. Your supplier should be able to tell you how to tell the difference. Usually the plumage comes in different and the roosters will have larger combs and waddles. Also, the gain weight faster. Also, I never had trouble with coyotes but watch out for those predatory birds. I had hawks actually land and walk into the hen house to get "lunch".

What type of nesting set-up are you going to use? I'm always looking at different ones. With the new flock arriving in Oct (ready to lay, I didn't have room or time to brood both roasters and layers this year), we have to expand our nesting boxes.

Off to check on my 4 day old Cornish!

[cowman]

Actually these chicks were about half yellow and half a reddish color. The yellow ones have sort of grown grayish feathers and the reddish ones have gotten more reddish! So I suspect one color are hens and one roosters...or else they gave me different strains? They are supposed to be a Red Sussex/Plymouth rock X?
I have now put the brooder light on a timer. Comes on at 10 PM and goes off at 10 AM. Because it still seems to get pretty cold at night! They don't venture too far out of the chicken house...just seem to be content to hang around the door.
I decided I would build a nesting set-up like the old one that was there previously. Enclosed nesting boxes where part of the front folds down to get at the eggs. On a three row tier about 30 boxes in all. Little ramps up to each tier. Filled with straw. I'm a little vague on this as my chicken days(at least with layers) ended about 35 years ago. Any suggestions on a better system would be greatly appreciated?
One of the misfortunes of having my farm in a well wooded area is the coyotes tend to think I am the local Safeway! The cat population takes a regular beating and I am continually looking for cats! And cats are both a blessing(keeps the mice down) and a curse(my little wild birds), but are a necessary evil, as the mice would soon overrun me without them! Besides I really like the little kittens. I tend to philosophize that this is the life of a cat!

[cakadu]

Sounds like what you are going to build is like a roll away nest system, so it keeps them from getting to the eggs themselves. Some of our chickens leave the eggs entirely alone, but we've got one or two of them that will cannibalize their eggs if you leave them out there too long. Don't know why it happens that way it just does. Did you get your chickens debeaked? Not that I'm in favor of the practice and I'm not sure how much it actually does prevent them from getting to the eggs - if they really want them they seem to get them no matter what.

If you're wanting a cat, have I got a deal for you! Call me if you're interested.

Linda

[redhen]

Wonders never cease! Congrats, Cowman!

We got our babies a week ago (Isabrowns) and this time we're keeping them in the dark except for the infra-red heat lamp. We don't let them out until they're two months old. (more about why later.) De-beaking is a barbaric practice so hope you don't need to do it. It is primarily done to prevent cannibalism, but keeping them in the dark would be better than chopping off a third of their upper beaks, which leads to problems with eating in later life.

About letting the pullets outside... Try not to feed too much protein (ie grass) too soon. The hens shouldn't come into high production until they are five months old. If you try to force them to lay sooner, you could end up with blow-outs (protracted egg tracts like a prolapsed cow uterus) and pick-outs (hens that are literally eaten alive from the egg-end in).


Our nesting boxes are simple banks of squares made from a single sheet of 4' x 8' OSB. The base is 18" x 8' and the top is 12" x 8', with dividers at 12" intervals. These can be mounted with screws to a solid wall at a height of about 18" from the floor. We bed the hens and boxes with wood shavings, simply because when we clean out the barn twice a year we incorporate the nitrogen-rich manure into the garden. The shavings help acidify our alkaline soil. There is also a market for "bag-your-own" well-rotted chicken manure.

I'm guessing you're going to make dinners out of the roosters. They'll taste a darned sight better than the Colonel's!!!! The hens will enjoy a good 18 months of high production, depending on your feeding program. The older they get, the more protein they need, and commercial feeds aren't geared to facilitating the aging hen's production because commercial hens are usually processed at 18 months. Soya meal is an affordable protein supplement for the hobby farmer.

FYI, it's the chlorophyll in grass that gives free-run eggs their flavourful orange yolks. In winter, we supplement with an alfalfa mash and manage to maintain a deep yellow yolk year round.

Have fun with those little ones. It's a real *peep* show, LOL.

[redhen]

Hi Cakadu!

We feed a flax meal, which is more completely digested than flax seed in the super-sonic processing of a hen's gut. The meal was formulated for horse supplementation is affordable in the large size (25kg) because it is fed by weight.

Take a close look at those omega-3 eggs. They never tell you the % of flax in the ration. Chances are good the hens are caged too. You'd be better off eating the flax seeds yourself and letting the hens free-run.

Terms like organic and flax-fed give me the gears, LOL. If the carton doesn't say free run, I run. If the carton says organic, the hens are likely caged. If the carton says vegetarian-fed, the hens ARE caged 'cause we all know they'll eat anything and make fantastic bug catchers.

It is very possible to raise hens on feed that is untainted with hormones or antibiotics, and to keep them in respectable production for many years. Our oldest hens turned 5 in May.