Chickens Hooray!

So I finally convinced hubby that we need to get chickens It started out with 5 then him and his dad got to talking and we are now up to 30 chickens. Usually I am the one with the big ideas that needs to be told to slow down and we have now reversed rolls. His dad used to be a farmer and has convinced him that we need layers and broilers and that we will have roosters so we get more chickens to put in the freezer... I just wanted some fresh eggs and pet chickens And if he wants to butcher chickens it's his baby, I am not helping I told him he could kill and clean them and pack them up like a grocery store, put them in the freezer then I will cook them. Am I the only person that has a hard time raising chickens for chicken

Congrats! You will love the fresh eggs and poop and chickens are great characters.

I do not like butchering chickens and have done my fair share. We would skin them, no plucking. We don't have roosters any more. The hens are fine with out a rooster and roosters are mean.

cheyannarach wrote: Am I the only person that has a hard time raising chickens for chicken

I'm with you.
Over 3 decades ago one of my jobs at the college campus was butchering a large number of chickens and turkeys and it's a disgusting memory. When I get a few backyard chickens the girls will live out their lives and will not take up residence in the freezer. I enjoy the animal care end of things that much. The eggs are a wonderful bonus and when they no longer lay, they've earned their geriatric rest and will still contribute manure.

Cheyenne you will love your chickens! They are so full of character, and mine really enjoy being in the garden. If you can protect your plants, they are a big help with bugs and weeds. We don't get much poo since most of ours run wild all day (I think city folk call this free range ), but we do get some and use it in our compost along with spent feed.
You will be happy with all the eggs and meat. I don't think there's anything wrong with your feelings. Just know, you gave your chickens a good home and treated them well. Better than any processing plant ever could. And for that they give you the gift of healthy, unadulterated meat to feed you and your family.

I agree with LM. I don't butcher, but enjoy the eggs and poo. Our chickens have to be penned up due to wild animals and loose dogs. We had 8 that were getting pretty old, and this winter when there wasn't much daylight I had to buy 2 cartons of eggs. Our chickens would step up if you put your arm out and loved to be petted.
We bought 20(too many) bitys. I'm pretty sure we got all hens, which is fine. Roosters cause fights in the hen house. Now that daylight has returned, I'm getting about 4 eggs per day. Haven't figured out what to do when the others start laying.
Jo

Chickens bring back a memory of my youth.
2 uncles of mine had a farm in the Catskill Mt area, Hannacroix to be exact.NY state.
Cant recall the year, a Plymouth convertible, 2 passenger with a rumble seat was their car.
This was in the 40s
From NYC they moved to that area and developed a chicken farm.
All I remember is chickens every where, I know they numbered in the thousands.
I was only allowed to water them because they were afraid I may drop some feed on the ground.
Feed was expensive in those days !!
Water was heavy in pails, needed to be pumped from a well, I was a strong young lad of 10 - 13
and these native Germans took advantage of that.
Heck these buckets were almost as big as I was, if I recall I had to walk on my toes to keep from them hitting the ground.
They raised these chickens to sell for various methods of cooking, and selling eggs.
Eggs were packed in large wooden crates, some were shipped to our apt in NYC where we sold them to neighbors, returning the money to the farm.
About 5-6 large buildings housed these chickens, during the day when I went in I could only hear loud cackling and crowing, an awful noise, at night it was so quiet I could have heard a pin drop on the soft filled floor.
A large pot of boiling water was going when slaughtering chicken day came, some chickens just had their heads cut off, some a knife through the throat leaving the head intact.
Chickens without heads flopping all over, then dipped into boiling water quickly to help remove feathers...
I have many fond memories about chickens, especially some of those vicious roosters, and that they were.
Chicken tasted differently in those days, I recently found out why.
When I cook chicken in a crock pot, it resembles chicken eaten in those days of yore.
And I'm certain methods used in raising them were not the same as today..affecting taste.
Being a child growing up in NYC, allowed to visit a farm during summer days were an important part of my development in all aspects. Chickens, Chickens, Chickens..I cannot get them out of my head....

I am so excited and can't wait to finish my coop. I hope to enter the urban chicken club with 3 laying hens within the next couple of weeks if all goes well. Having many restrictions in an urban setting, my girls will be required to stay penned all of the time, but I at least tried to make them a first class setting for their home. I look forward to not only the eggs, but the enhanced compost as a bonus.

Here is the work in progress as of a couple of days ago.

Yea For Chickens! (now you know something about your man grin)

Sub-Urban Chickens a.k.a the nuggets

I KNOW that it is hard for me to kill a pet chicken, even when it is in her best interest. Miss Purdy became ill with, what we found out too late to help her, a liver disease. Neither my husband nor I could do the deed. He hunts, we have raised meat rabbits, but killing a pet was too much. She slipped away last weekend.

Ray and I have been thinking about raising about 25 meat birds in the tractor, but I doubt we will now. Maybe we put in too much time as vegans, maybe we just got old.

The Chicken Tractor in a 4x8 SFG
Our poor chicken tractor either needs to be replaced or repaired. It is something that is easy to ignore unless I'm using it. We have converted about 75% of our SFG's to 4x8 so that the tractor will fit into it. When the girls were finished with this bed it was beautiful, weed free, no slugs. No worms either, but that was easy to fix. Before we plant a bed we move the tractor onto it (every year this gets to be a little more worrisome... every year we have to fix something) The nuggets get excited just watching us move the tractor. They RUN to whatever garden we move it to and happily work the mix, cleaning it up. We return them to the house at night, letting them graze grass along the way. After a day or so, we start adding a small tote of compost to the bed in a heap. They sort through it, spread it around and dig it in for us. They are awesome. You are gonna love them!

I'd like to live there if I was a chicken!

I can't find it now, but somewhere on the 'net I read about this woman who keeps ducks for her garden & she put wheels on her coop so that it could be moved around, the ducks would get the insects on the bit of lawn underneath the coop, leave their contributions behind, and then it would get moved to a fresh spot, etc.

Does your coop have a floor? Could you put wheels on it to make it moveable?

ETA: Great idea with the "tractor", LD! You posted while I was writing the above, that's the same concept I was trying to convey!

Bnoles, your new chicken digs is fantastic, you did a beautiful job and I am jealous!

My husband suggested we keep our future fenced in coop and run inside the llama area closest to the house. Here I already have "chicken guarding" llamas right in front of my nose and didn't think of it first.

My wife and I just received 6 chicks from a friend who lives on a res. the hen had just become coyote chow. What do I do with them? We had an old cage down at the udder end that the wife brought up and put them in that for now. Three of the little excape artists got out and she was able to find one so we have only four. We figure the cat herd had chicky dinner last night. We have plugged up the bottom edge of the cage so hopefully no more break outs. I know nothing of chickens for my whole life has been in uniform of one kind or another. If you have any coop or tractor plans or anything to share please do, I desperatly need the help.

Ooooh, lucky you. I wish I could keep chickens. I saw some adorable chicks that are a dual breed, which I thought would be perfect for me. They are called Lavender Orpingtons and you can get them at:
http://www.brushycreekhome.com/

No, I don't get any money for this. I just find these chicks absolutely adorable and so unique. The birds grow up hefty and are very docile so even kids can handle them.


Here are some chicks. Now if only I could convince my son to let me keep some.

They grow up to look like these. I'd even like to get some of the ones called 'splash' with colored bits in them. Lovely.

I'd love to see pics of anyone's hens. I think they add so much to a home garden. But beware in the early summer when tomatoes are starting, because they love those and will peck them. It happened in our community garden where we have a small flock of 8 hens to help with the summer bugs.

Here is a good website for Backyard Chickens. Here is some coop designs and such.

Here is my youngest playing lullabies for the day old chicks in an improvised brooder.


Here is Miss Lady Bitesize inspecting my gardening efforts.


Enjoy your chicks

Wow, thanks for the advice and links everbody! Gunny, you gotta check out the coop link that Turan posted there are thousands of them! Quiltbea, those are some very beautiful chickens, I want to get a variety and those look like a great chicken. Rooster, hubby read this thread and liked your response, lol. Llamamomma I lik your approach to geriatric chickens, that's how I feel but at the same time I think Rooster and hubby are on to something, I like having chicken in the freezer especially knowing it's ours and it's healthy so when butcher day comes I will make plans to be elsewhere...

I have a question about hybrid chickens, who know chickens could be like plants? I was looking at a website with cornish hybrid hens that said not to breed them because they won't reproduce the same quality of chicken because they are hybrids. It seems fishy to me anyone know it this is normal and how do you make a hybrid chicken?

Hybrid has the same meaning with animals and plants. The second generation will still be chickens though, and will still lay eggs and be edible. If you keep for breeding those you like best eventually your own breed will settle out. Unless you do like me and keep adding chicks from the feed store

How they make hybrids of any type is a question of the birds and the bees...

However..... Cornish cross are not an easy chicken to raise or have breed. They are bred for making meat very fast. They need high quality feed and do not scratch around looking for bugs or do much of anything but eat commercial feed. They grow too fast for their heart and you really do need to butcher them early before they die on you. I will never ever raise them again. Everything I like about chickens does not apply to them.

Black Sex links are a fine hybrid chicken though. We had a bunch of them at one time. They lay well and are big enough for good eating. They are a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Barred rock. When they breed among themselves the chicks will look like Rhode island reds or Barred rocks or the Black sex link parents.

Okay, well that sound better now, I started making these visions of zombie chickens in my head That sounds so sad though, like they are just born to be killed, I don't like it...

Thanks for those links. Decisions, decisions. Now I gotta decide on one to build. I am thinking of a small tractor, that will make weeding the sparse lawn a lot easier on Mrs. Gunny Really appreciate the help. Thank you. Now will have to wait and see what breed they turn out to be. Will put a picture up and maybe someone will know. Again thank you so much.

cheyannarach wrote:So I finally convinced hubby that we need to get chickens It started out with 5 then him and his dad got to talking and we are now up to 30 chickens. Usually I am the one with the big ideas that needs to be told to slow down and we have now reversed rolls. His dad used to be a farmer and has convinced him that we need layers and broilers and that we will have roosters so we get more chickens to put in the freezer... I just wanted some fresh eggs and pet chickens And if he wants to butcher chickens it's his baby, I am not helping I told him he could kill and clean them and pack them up like a grocery store, put them in the freezer then I will cook them. Am I the only person that has a hard time raising chickens for chicken

Haha, sounds like me with the big plans. I have 25 layers. We got about 18 eggs a day. We have a big family, and eat a lot of eggs, but still sell 5 or 6 dozen a week. Chicks are really cute, but the chickens not so much, so having them butchered doesn't bother me. I prefer not to do the butchering though. We actually sold chickens we wanted to get rid of before, but plan to have all butchered this fall, after the new batch we get this spring is producing.

We've had roosters and they were mean, but they haven't gotten too bad until they are older, nearing a year or so. If one keeps them just long enough to breed the next batch and then butchers them, it might not be too bad. When people have just a few chickens and visit them enough they are more petlike, but with 25 most of our chickens are scared of us because we don't spend a lot of time with them. Only a couple aren't, one of which will run up to me and wait for me to pet her.

Also, ours are kept in the coop and run. At first it was fun free ranging them, but then they started going further and further from the coop until they were eating my flower beds and vegetable garden and walking right up on the sidewalk next to the house, leaving a nasty mess. I still have a few that can fly over the fence, so I'm going to have to add some height to it this year before they get a chance to eat my veggies this year.

I do love adding the bedding from the coop to my compost pile, too.